Cooperators:
There was a meeting at
1918.2
Cooperators:
21. III. 1918
[(Das Cooperativus)].
Milyut[inU3: 10.20
Khinchuk.4 10.47
Lenin. [10.47] 10.53 11.07 (Yegorov) 5? (from working cooperation)
Lunacharsky.6 11.17
Davydov.7 11.22 supplies with the assistance and under their control,] and on behalf of the
Governmental bodies of supply and the Supreme Council of National Economy
with their assistance and under their control." Ed.
At this place Lenin left a gap, marking with appropriate
underlines the inclusion here from the point of A. I. Svidersky the
following phrase: "to the extent of the development of their technical-economic apparatus." Ed.

Khinchuk.
11.30
Lenin.
Zemit.8
11.45
Rykov *
11.52
[Zemit]
Shlyapnikov10 12.05
Davydov.
12.09
Khinchuk.
12.17
Yegorov.
12.23
[Lenin]
Zemit:
[Popov]
[Rykov]
Davydov.
Sereda...11
Lenin.
Rykov.
12.30
12.28 Trotsky
DRAFT PLAN OF SPEECH. ls
1. "(Class] cooperation]". V
2. Without a contribution.
3. Boards.
4. Guarantees of expansion.
j| Working population in bod-
| ies of supply has about 2/; !!
FROM THE SPEECHES OF SPEAKERS.
Central] Working Cooperative:
/ 4 4.0 0 0 members.......
Commissariat of Provisions...
(ask him)
working cooperative so zealously and sincerely (like no one) conducts
NOTES on the question of COOPERATION registration of consumption
and cardbased system (accounting of consumption of population)
(with this the working cooperation educates the population)....
1 This refers to a meeting of representatives of cooperation and the Supreme Council of National Economy, at which an agreement was reached on the participation of cooperation in the regulation of the economic life of the country (see p. 260).
At this meeting on the issue of cooperation, the following were present from
the working cooperation—M. M. Khinchuk, I. I. Yegorov, K. P. Davydov, Kochetov and V. Ya. Belousov, from Centrosoyuz—D. S. Korobov.
8 V. P. Milyutin—member of the Presidium of the Supreme Council of National Economy, in charge of the cooperative department of the Supreme Council of National Economy.
4 L. M. Khinchuk—in 1918 a Menshevik, chairman of the Central
Working Cooperative. Since 1920 a member of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks). Currently Ambassador to Berlin.
5 I. I. Yegorov—chairman of the Moscow Union of Workers' Consumer Societies.
6 A. V. Lunacharsky—in 1918, People's Commissar of Education.
7 K. P. Davydov (b. 1885)—participated in the revolutionary
movement, adhering to the Bolsheviks. In 1917 he participated in the organization of the Moscow Central Workers' Cooperative. Actively participated in the cooperative workers' movement, as a member of the All-Russian Council of Workers' Cooperation of all convocations and as a member of the presidium of the Congress of Workers' Cooperation, held a Bolshevik position.
Currently outside the party, works in the society "Proletarian Tourism."
8 Zemit—member of the board of the People's Commissariat of Finance.
9 A. I. Rykov—in 1918—chairman of the Supreme Council of National Economy.
10 A. G. Shlyapnikov—at this time was the People's Commissar of Labor.
11 S. I. Sereda—in 1918, People's Commissar of Agriculture. Currently Deputy Chairman of the State Planning Committee of the RSFSR.
12 Lenin's speech is presented in an extremely incomplete and biased note in the journal "Union of Consumers," which held a position hostile to Soviet power, as follows:
"In his speech, Lenin tried to justify the need to implement the decree and implement it in the edition that was completely unacceptable to representatives of cooperatives. Lenin argued
that Russia is experiencing a moment when the national economy is shedding
its capitalist shell and replacing it with a new, different, socialist one.
Various sectors of the national economy are being socialized one after another.
It is impossible to leave aside the economies of public organizations.
Methods of revolutionary influence must be applied to them as well.
Cooperative organizations represent a force. It is impossible not to use
it, not to take it into the service of the state, especially now, when the protracted war has caused a complete depletion of consumer products not only in Russia, a country lagging behind in industrial terms, but also
in all the states of Western Europe.
this shortage of products will be felt for more than another year.
The question of the correct distribution of products on a national scale
therefore takes on particular importance.
v"* At this time we have three economic apparatuses working
in the field of product distribution: the state—food commissariats and committees, —cooperative and private-trade.
The first conducts work in the spirit of government undertakings and measures, the third must be completely liquidated, as for
the cooperative distribution apparatus, it can be temporarily
preserved, but in the future it must merge into work with the common
state one.
Cooperative organizations, performing along with the government
distribution apparatus the work of the correct distribution of products
among the population, will help strengthen the existing power. This
will shorten the transitional moment from capitalism to socialism, when
both the production and distribution of products and, in general, the entire economy of the country
will be built on other, more correct foundations.
Objections to cooperatives serving the entire population seem strange to Lenin.
The destruction of private trade should please cooperators, as it saves them from an unnecessary
competitor, strengthens cooperation, increasing the number of its members.
The requirement that working cooperation, as a class organization, should continue its independent existence is also incomprehensible.
what classes can we talk about when the dictatorship of the proletariat
has been implemented? (This place in Lenin's speech is clearly recorded incorrectly. Ed.)
The dictatorship of the proletariat must be asserted not only in matters
of state administration, but also in all economic public
organizations. And therefore, it is necessary in the management of cooperatives to leave the
predominant influence to the working elements and workers who earn their living."