ABSTRACT
Co-operatives were relegated, in K. Marx and F. Engels’s schema, to the function of ‘preparing’ the material and ideological ground for the growth of socialism within the womb of capitalism. While reflecting upon the problems of economic management Lenin discovered the benefits of the co-operative system: it was anti-bureaucratic and encouraged individual effort and initiative. The higher levels of remuneration received by co-operative workers, because of their higher productivity, would, it was believed, act as an incentive to the development of economic competition between cooperatives themselves and between co-operatives and state enterprises. Producer co-operatives could be set up for: the production, procurement, processing and sale of agricultural produce; the processing of by-products and recycled material and the extraction of minerals; the repair and servicing of equipment; and road and housing construction. Any future analysis of social policy in Russia should take into account the fact that the Government of Mikhail Gorbachev may be credited with introducing legislation on charities.
