«Grandfathers Received Money – Children Were to Repay»: Liquidation of Russia's Largest Grebenin Loan-saving Partnership, 1897–1917
| 22 August 2024
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Anniversaries
Kuzmin V.G.,
Pskov, Russian Federation
«Grandfathers Received Money – Children Were to Repay»: Liquidation of Russia's Largest Grebenin Loan-saving Partnership, 1897–1917
Abstract
The article analyzes the preconditions for the emergence, activities and causes of poor performance of the Liquidation Commission (LC) of the largest in the Russian Empire loan-saving partnership (LSP), the Grebeni LSP of the Pskov region. The author investigates both Russian and Estonian archival documents. There are materials on the history of development of small loan and, in particular, activities of the Liquidation commission of the Grebeni LSP in the State Archive of the Pskov Region, the Russian State Historical Archive and the Estonian Historical Archives. The article addresses little studied aspects of the co-operative movement history. It draws on archival sources and comes to interesting conclusions. In the late 19th and early 20th century Russian state policy turned started supporting farmers, and credit cooperative movement became one of the most important policy tools. The Grebeni LSP was established in the settlement of Opochka in 1872. Over the course of the next 25 years the number of cooperatives members increased up to 9 thousands, and yet the thoughtless policy of the management caused its collapse. Following the government’s revision of the partnership, a Liquidation commission was ordered by the Minister of Finance Sergei Y. Witte in 1897. Over the next 20 years the creditors managed to collect less than a half of the total amount of 750 thousand rubles owed to them. After the end of World War I debt collection was virtually put on hold, although the commission was still to collect more than 450 thousand rubles. Over the next two decades the activities of the LC as good as put an end to the development of credit cooperatives in the settlement. The beginning of the 20th century saw the emergence of over 130 credit cooperatives, and only the settlement of Opochka kept back. The LC activities resulted in impoverishment of peasants, a few creditors and their heirs failed to collect their money as well. The commission would have carried on its activities, had there not been a revolutionary regime change in 1917, followed by the political and economic changes, in the wake of which all outstanding debts were written off.
Keywords
Archive, source, cooperative, peasant cooperation, loan-saving partnership, small loan establishments.
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About the authors
Kuzmin Valery Gennadievich, director of the State Archive of the Pskov Region, Pskov, Russian Federation, +7-953-233-01-99, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it