V. I. Lenin

Source: ru:LS/v18
Translated: machine translation (DeepSeek) from the Russian; AI-translated.

FROM A CONVERSATION WITH CO-OPERATORS

Co-operatives:
In T a m b o v Gubernia they have taken the entire food supply organisation into their own hands... eggs, smoked goods.
(Not a single private)
shop in the uyezds; in each
Kozlov, Tambov Gubernia (no private trade)
co-operatives
Vologda Gubernia
Arkhangelsk Gubernia
Saratov Gubernia
“luxuriously” (>1,000 co-operatives)
8,500 in the former 34 zemstvo gubernias
25,000 volost co-operatives
There is not a volost with fewer than 2 co-operatives.
In Saratov, a Regional Union of Co-operatives, 308 unions.
A large mill.
In the union
Commissars were appointed.
The administrative bodies were removed.
Belsky, Smolensk, nationalised all the union associations of co-operatives.
Okhansky, Perm.
Kineshma, Kostroma.

6.
One of the co-operators present at Lenin’s, V. A. Lavrukhin, who was questioned by the Institute, reported the following:
“On the eve, the Central Union of Consumer Societies (Tsentrosoyuz) was informed by telephone from the SNK Administrative Department that V. I. Lenin wished to hear an information report on the organisational state of consumer co-operation, on its trading and procurement activities, and to discuss the question of maximally attracting co-operation to the work of grain procurement.
The Board of Tsentrosoyuz delegated the Chairman of the Board, D. S. Korobov, and myself, who was in charge of trading and procurement work within the Board.
We were received by V. I. in the Kremlin, in his study. The conversation lasted about an hour.
D. S. Korobov, in a brief report, stated that on the territory of Soviet Russia there are now 25–27 thousand consumer co-operatives. In a number of places they have completely ousted private traders. Co-operation serves 70–75% of the population. The best served are 15 gubernias of the central region—80% of the population; then 14 gubernias of the northern region—75% of the population. Co-operative construction is weaker in the 2 western gubernias—less than 70% of the population; and still weaker in the 6 gubernias of the procurement eastern region, where about 50% of the population is served.
All consumer co-operation in Soviet Russia is united in unions, numbering more than two hundred.
D. S. Korobov drew V. I.’s attention to the fact that in a number of regions the attitude of the local soviets towards co-operation does not correspond to the directives from the centre. Despite the telegram sent in April to all soviets by the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the National Economy (VSNKh) concerning the agreement reached with the co-operative centres on joint work and with an instruction in the name of the SNK to stop the persecution of co-operatives—in a number of regions these persecutions continue. Some assistance, but insufficient, is rendered by the special co-operative departments set up under the SNKh and VSNKh to examine conflicts.
As of July 1 of this year, Tsentrosoyuz had about 3,000 organisations as its members—all unions and some of the largest societies.
Among the circumstances that greatly hampered the development of co-operation, the conversation noted the high level of taxation, reaching 90% of all trading accumulation, which does not allow co-operation to accumulate indivisible capitals formed from profits. In particular, under the special 5% tax on turnover, co-operation pays in full, while private trade, which keeps no accounts and, due to the weakness of the tax apparatus, is as a rule under-taxed.
V. I. suggested giving more detailed information on the procurement work of Tsentrosoyuz.
After reporting on the measures undertaken in the field of procurement, we moved on to the question of the prospects for commodity exchange with the Ukraine.
V. I. remarked that he had sufficiently detailed information on commodity exchange with the Ukraine. V. I. suggested paying attention to the procurement of sugar and other products that penetrate in small lots, but in large quantities, into Soviet territory, where they are bought up by bagmen and transported to the centres.

Subsequently, the conversation turned to the question of grain procurement by co-operation. V. I. devoted the greatest attention and time to this question.
We informed V. I. that the grain procurement apparatus of Tsentrosoyuz and the system is weak. The Gubernia Food Committees and the incipient practice of requisition detachments in this field have left co-operation a small field. But from the experience of individual regions (Tambov, partly Voronezh and Saratov gubernias) it can be established that co-operative grain procurement can, under certain conditions, be quickly forced. The food detachments over the last month and a half have obtained 2 million poods of grain for Moscow and Petrograd. But, according to Tsentrosoyuz’s estimates, the expenses with this method of procurement are about ten times higher than the fixed procurement price of grain.
V. I. stated that the government is considering the question of closely involving co-operation in grain procurement and it is proposed to set this task as the main task of the co-operative apparatus, using the largest part of the commodity fund for grain procurement.
— Under what conditions, in the opinion of the co-operators, will the realisation of the harvest be most successful?
On this question we expressed ourselves to the effect that for grain procurement it is expedient to create a united apparatus from the bodies of the People’s Commissariat for Food and co-operation.
It is necessary to raise the fixed prices for grain. They have lagged far behind prices for other goods. Fixed prices must remain for the distribution of grain. For procurement, it is expedient to apply a system of maximum, unpublished prices, with the possibility of varying prices by individual regions. The commodity-exchange equivalent goes to the grain deliverers.
V. I. remarked that an increase in fixed prices for grain, and a significant increase, could be agreed to. But the fixed price must be fixed both in distribution and in procurement. The principle of a free sliding price by regions, even within the limits of a maximum, unpublished price, is not acceptable.
The conversation concluded with a discussion of the question of grain procurement.”

2 Telephone of the Tsentrosoyuz board in 1918.
3 D. S. Korobov—a prominent co-operator, a Menshevik, a malicious opponent of Soviet power. One of the founders of Tsentrosoyuz. In 1918—Chairman of Tsentrosoyuz. In recent years worked in the All-Russian Co-operative Bank (Vsekobank). In 1928–1930 an active opponent of Soviet power.
4 A. N. Lavrukhin (apparently mistakenly written by Lenin as Lavrushin)—one of the active figures of bourgeois co-operation; in 1918 was in charge of trading and procurement work of Tsentrosoyuz. Recently worked in the State Planning Commission of the RSFSR (section of exchange and distribution).
5 Address of the Moscow Union of Consumer Societies in 1918, which was at that time reorganised into Tsentrosoyuz.
6 The decree on imposing a 5% tax on trading enterprises supplying the population with articles of personal consumption and household use was approved by the SNK on August 26, 1918, and published in *Izvestia of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee* No. 185, August 28, 1918.