Page:The Russian Review Volume 1.djvu/191

Rh his purchasing power, that determine the economic potentialities of any country.

From this point of view, there is not another body of facts that would give a more interesting and important representation of Russia's economic side than the data concerning the cooperative movement in the country. A short time ago, Russia celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of her cooperative movement, and the results of the movement, brought together during the celebration, afford us an opportunity to look into the very face of economic Russia. The stages of the movement, the character and the tempo of its development, speak of the progress made by the whole country. After fifty years of her cooperative movement, Russia found within the country over thirty-five thousand cooperative organizations, with a membership of almost twelve millions. If we recall the fact that cooperation is most prevalent among peasants, and that, therefore, every member of a cooperative organization represents a whole family, we cannot but accept the estimate offered by one of the most competent students of the Russian cooperative movement, who places the total actual membership of the Russian cooperative organizations at sixty millions. Modern armies, which are numerically much smaller than the above figure, are often, and quite justly, spoken of as an "armed people." What shall we say then about the army of the Russian cooperative movement, which numbers in its ranks one-third of the great country's total population!

The Russian cooperative movement was born on October 22, 1865. Its birth was really almost contemporaneous with the birth of modern Russia. The shackles of serfdom fell off the limbs of Russia on February 19, 1861. This was the greatest reform in Russia's history, prior to October 17, 1905, and it was accompanied by a whole series of great reforms. Every great reform was followed by a record of brilliant achievements on the part of the liberated country. To the reformed statutes of 1864, which introduced in Russia "just, rapid, merciful and equitable dispensation of justice," Russia responded with a galaxy of brilliant jurists and lawyers. Russia's response to the liberation of millions of peasantry from the bonds of serfdom, was her cooperative movement. And this response is one of the brightest pages in the history of Russia's culture.

The abolition of serfdom brought Russia to a new economic