Page:Emile Vandervelde - Three Aspects of the Russian Revolution - tr. Jean Elmslie Henderson Findlay (1918).djvu/102

 and the "Maison du Peuple" of Brussels, positive proofs of the influence exercised by our own movement on the co-operative movement in Russia.

As far as we could learn from what we heard, Moscow seems to be essentially the capital of co-operation. The social influence that it exerts there is considerable. The co-operators sit side by side with delegates of the Soviet, of the municipality, and the other organizations in the assembly, which since the Revolution has taken over the direction of affairs.

There exists, moreover, in Russia a large number of co-operative groceries, which have sprung up under Muscovite influence, and which are developing rapidly even in the most distant parts. In the agricultural districts they are often in close touch with the co-operative dairies, the peasants exchanging their milk for the various goods of which they stand in need.

Co-operative butter-making has produced in Russia a veritable agricultural revolution, like that which in Denmark, for instance, has resulted from its great development. According to the founders of the co-oper-