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"On Cooperation" is an article by Vladimir Lenin. It was written on 6 January 1923 and published in Pravda in issues 115 and 116 on 26 and 27 May 1923. It is one of Lenin's last works. He consulted a number of books on cooperation while writing the article.[1]
Contents
[edit]In this article, Lenin emphasizes the great importance of cooperation in a multistructure economy[clarification needed] in a country with a predominantly peasant population. He claims that cooperation allows for the achievement of:[2]
the degree of combination of private interest, private commercial interest, the verification and control of it by the state, the degree of subordination to its common interests, which used to be a stumbling block for many, many socialists.
Lenin believes that cooperation would allow the peasantry to transition to socialism in a simpler and easier way.
Lenin emphasizes that in a mixed economy under the dictatorship of the proletariat, cooperative enterprises constitute an important step in the transition from private capitalist enterprises to socialist ones. To develop cooperation, Lenin proposes providing cooperative enterprises with various benefits, as well as raising the cultural level of the peasantry in every way. The Leninist concept of a mixed economy is formulated as follows:[3]
And the system of civilized cooperators with public ownership of the means of production, with the class victory of the proletariat over the bourgeoisie – this is the system of socialism.
Lenin's ideas about the cooperation of the peasantry formed the basis of the resolution of the 13th Congress of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) "On Cooperation" and "On Work in the Village".[4]
Analysis
[edit]Alexander Yakovlev notes the views Lenin expresses in the article differ from those of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels on the subject of combining personal interest with the public interest, as Marx and Engels were opposed to the ideas of the old cooperators, namely Charles Fourier, Victor Prosper Considerant, Henri de Saint-Simon.[5]
Roy Medvedev notes that the Leninist principles of voluntariness and gradualism in the cooperation of the peasantry were grossly violated by Joseph Stalin during collectivization, which caused enormous economic and moral damage.[6]
References
[edit]- ↑ Meshcheryakov 1920; Staudinger 1919a; Sassen 1919; Staudinger 1919b; Chayanov 1919; Tugan-Baranovsky 1916; Prokopovich 1913.
- ↑ Lenin 1977, p. 29.
- ↑ Lenin 1977, p. 32.
- ↑ The Communist Party of the Soviet Union in Resolutions and Decisions of Congresses, Conferences and Plenums of the Central Committee. Volume 3 – Moscow, 1970 – Pages 76–77
- ↑ Yakovlev 1991, p. 91.
- ↑ Medvedev 1990, p. 197.
Sources
[edit]- Chayanov, Alexander (1919). The Main Ideas and Forms of Organization of Peasant Cooperation. Moscow.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - Lenin, Vladimir (1977). Recent Letters and Articles. Moscow: Political Publishing House. p. 71.
- Medvedev, Roy (1990). About Stalin and Stalinism. Moscow: Progress Publishers. p. 488. ISBN 5-01-002546-9.
- Meshcheryakov, Nikolai (1920). Cooperation and Socialism. Moscow.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - Prokopovich, Sergei (1913). Cooperative Movement in Russia, its Theory and Practice. Moscow.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - Sassen (1919). The Development of the Theory of Cooperation in the Era of Capitalism. Moscow.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - Staudinger, Franz (1919a). Marxism and Consumer Cooperation. Moscow.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - Staudinger, Franz (1919b). From Schulze-Delitzsch to Kreuznach. Moscow.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - Tugan-Baranovsky, Mikhail (1916). Social Foundations of Cooperation. Moscow.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - Yakovlev, Alexander (1991). The Torment of Reading Being. Moscow: News. p. 368. ISBN 5-7020-0382-9.
Further reading
[edit]- The Cooperative Plan of Vladimir Lenin / Antonov // Konda – Kun – Moscow: Soviet Encyclopedia, 1973 – (Great Soviet Encyclopedia: [in 30 volumes] / editor-in-chief Alexander Prokhorov; 1969–1978, volume 13).
- Boris Vvedensky, ed. (1954). "Lenin". Encyclopedic Dictionary: In 3 Volumes. Vol. 2: K-Prasha. pp. 238–245.[dead link]
- Vladimir Lenin. On Cooperation // Complete Works, Volume 45, Pages 370–371
- Victor Afanasyev; Kaltakhchyan, eds. (1989). "About Cooperation". A Brief Dictionary of Scientific Communism. Moscow: Political Publishing House. pp. 255–256. ISBN 5-250-00599-3.