Socio-economic prerequisites for creating a specialized system of agricultural cooperation

Abstract

Introduction. In the proposed article, the author deeply examines the state of agriculture in Ukraine, which developed in the mid-20s of the twentieth century. Effective support by universal agricultural cooperation of the energetic efforts of the Ukrainian peasantry to restore the productivity of agriculture, livestock and other sectors of agriculture has yielded positive results. In general, the sown areas and livestock in the village almost reached the pre-war level (1913). Then came the question of increasing the productivity and marketability of agricultural production in Ukraine, which was based on individual farms. The emergence of a significant number of new peasant farms as a result of agrarian transformations during the Ukrainian National Democratic Revolution of 1917-1921 and significant demographic losses of the male population during the war of 1914-1921, led to the fact that a large part of peasant farms, especially on the right bank from the lack of sown areas and male labor, on which most of the production processes of the peasant economy were based, especially in agriculture.Under these conditions, the Ukrainian Agricultural Cooperative has identified the transition from universalism to specialization as its priority.

The purpose of the research is, based on the analysis of historical sources, historiographical base, as well as modern methodology, to determine the socio-economic prerequisites for the creation of a specialized system of agricultural cooperation.

The research methodology includes the principles of scientific objectivity, historicism, systematics, as well as methods of analysis and synthesis, generalization, historical-comparative, historical-typological.

Results. The socio-economic preconditions for the creation of a specialized system of agricultural cooperation were quite good, as it was constantly expanding and improving, involving more and more peasant farms in market relations and finding new ways to intensify agriculture. There was a stable process not only economic but also social and production development of small farms, which contributed to the emergence of specialized professional societies, which in early 1924 had a small contingent of farms, but further practice has shown that special cooperation contributed to significant intensification of agricultural production.

The originality of this study is an attempt to analyze objectively the socio-economic preconditions for the creation of a specialized system of agricultural cooperation.

Conclusion. It is obvious that for the further organizational design and raising the efficiency of various networks of specialized cooperation it became necessary not only to form their All-Ukrainian centers, which by themselves would significantly expand the economic capabilities of specialized societies, because based on their purpose, such centers concentrated efforts on the intensification of complex production processes in the peasant economy, but also on the rapid establishment of their practical work. We should also emphasize the following: the positive moment in the formation of the structure and directions of the network of specialized cooperative systems (“Dobrobut”, “Kooptakh”, “Buryakospilka”) was that it took into account not only those agricultural sectors that have traditionally brought the main income (for example, grain production and meat and dairy industry), but the emphasis was also on those industries that until recently were considered secondary (poultry, horticulture, viticulture and winemaking, etc.). Quite often such areas of agriculture as poultry farming were even somewhat ironically called “women’s money”. Similarly, poultry farming has traditionally been considered “an appendage of the peasant’s yard, not a commercial sphere”.

However, the practice of the following years clearly demonstrated the potential of these “secondary” branches of agricultural production, as the activities of specialized systems of agricultural cooperation, which in the mid-20s took off, gave a powerful impetus to the development of commodity farms of Ukrainian peasants.