Organizational structure of producers’ cooperation of Kurgan Oblast (1946-1960)

On the basis of archival materials, the changes of organizational structure of producers’ cooperation of Kurgan Oblast in 1946-1960 are studied. The statistical data about the allocation of producers’ artels on the branches of industry and the quantity of their members are given. The resolutions of the government of the RSFSR and the USSR, fixing the main steps of the state on the way to the liquidation of producers cooperation are noted. The logic and content of these actions are traced. The authors of the article note the role of cooperative unions in the structure of the Russian productive union and the reasons for their abolition. The role of reorganizations in the liquidation of producers’ cooperations of the Kurgan Oblast is shown. It is noted that the cooperative unions were administrative superstructures and did not carry any important economic or administrative functions. One of the steps of the reorganization of producers’ cooperations was the enlargement of the artels and the amalgamation of part of them with state enterprises. The legal side of the liquidation of producers’ cooperations was elucidated in the decisions of the Council of Ministers of the USSR and the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR. In addition, various views of contemporaries on the studied issue are considered, which were given in the periodical press, letters of the regional leadership of the producers’ cooperation. The mechanism for transferring cooperative enterprises of state and local industry is considered on the materials of the state archive of the Kurgan Oblast. There were two ways of transferring: joining an existing enterprise or creating a new factory/plant on the basis of artel. Many artels have turned into public service enterprises. The authors of the article emphasize that these processes were initiated by higher-level governing state and cooperative bodies. It is concluded that some of these decisions were made without taking the interests of ordinary members of artels into account.