Co-operative press

Co-operative press [кооперативна преса; kooperatyvna presa]. Periodical publications devoted to questions of the co-operative movement. These questions were always discussed in the general press and to some extent in agronomic journals. Special co-operative periodicals appeared only when the co-operative movement had greatly expanded.

In Russian-ruled Ukraine the first information about co-operatives appeared in an article by Mykola Ziber in Kievskii telegraf in 1868. As the co-operative movement grew rapidly in the 1890s, its problems were frequently discussed in the publications of provincial economic associations, particularly in Khutorianin, which was published by the Poltava Agricultural Society in 1895–1917. After the Revolution of 1905 the Ukrainian press published articles on co-operatives; for example Slovo (Kyiv) had a special section on co-operatives entitled ‘Hurtom’ (Together). The agricultural press (Rillia, Khliborob (Lubny), Svitova zirnytsia) and the zemstvo press (Kievskaia zemskaia gazeta) devoted much space to the movement. The first specialized co-operative periodicals appeared at this time in Russian: Splotshchina and Nashe delo in Kyiv and Iuzhnyi kooperator in Odesa. The newspapers of the Kyiv association of credit unions (Muraveinyk-Komashnia), of the Kuban association (Soiuz), and of the Kharkiv association (Potrebitel’) were bilingual. Only in 1913 did a Ukrainian co-operative journal appear; this was Nasha kooperatsiia, which was published by an association Nasha Kooperatsiia in 1913–14.

With the outbreak of the Revolution of 1917 and the rapid growth of Ukrainian co-operatives, the prewar Muraveinyk-Komashnia was Ukrainianized, and a number of new periodicals appeared. The central associations of various types of co-operatives published their own magazines: the Dniprosoiuz consumer association published Kooperatyvna zoria (1918–20); the Tsentral union of agricultural co-operatives published Sil’s’kyi hospodar (Kyiv) (1918); the publishing association Knyhospilka published Hromada; the Ukrainian Central Co-operative Committee published Ukraïns’ka kooperatsiia (1918) and Biuleten’ (1918). In addition, co-operative newspapers appeared in several gubernial and county towns. Altogether over 20 Ukrainian co-operative newspapers were published in Ukraine in 1918–20, including several bilingual ones.

Under the Soviet regime the co-operative press was revived in the period of the New Economic Policy. There were about 15 periodical publications, issued mostly by the central agencies of the various branches. The All-Ukrainian Association of Consumer Co-operative Organizations published the biweekly Kooperatyvne budivnystvo (1923–35); Silskyi Hospodar (Ukrainian SSR) published Sil’s’kyi hospodar (Kharkiv) (1923–7), which later became Kooperovane selo (1927–8), which, together with the journal Radians’kyi kredyt, gave rise to the biweekly Kooperovana hromada (1928–30); Knyhospilka published the journal Nova hromada (1923–31); and the industrial association published Visnyk promyslovoï ta promyslovo-kredytovoï kooperatsiï Ukraïny (1927–30), later renamed Kooperatyvna fabryka (1930). Regional and raion associations published their own magazines and bulletins. When the Soviets liquidated the co-operatives, the co-operative press in Soviet Ukraine ceased to exist.

In Western Ukraine, in Galicia and Bukovyna, for a long time information about co-operatives appeared only in the general economic press. It was only in 1904 that the Provincial Audit Union in Lviv began to publish the monthly Ekonomist, which contained much material on co-operatives. In 1909–14 it also published a popular monthly for members of co-operatives, Samopomich. The department for agricultural co-operatives of the Provincial Executive in Lviv published Chasopys dlia spilok ril’nychykh (1904–21) for the Ukrainian units of the so-called Stefczyk banks. The dairy co-operatives published Hospodar i promyslovets’ (1909–11).

After the First World War, by 1921, the co-operative press of Galicia revived. The monthly Hospodars’ko-kooperatyvnyi chasopys (1921–44) was published by the Audit Union of Ukrainian Co-operatives. The union also published Kooperatyvna respublyka (1928–39), which was dedicated to the theoretical problems of the co-operative movement and to general economic problems, and the popular journal Kooperatyvna rodyna (1934–9). Journals dealing with particular branches of the movement were Kooperatyvne molocharstvo (1926–39), published by the Maslosoiuz Provincial Dairy Union, and Kredytova kooperatsiia (1928–39), published by Tsentrobank. The Audit Union of Ruthenian Co-operatives published Kooperatyvnyi visnyk in Lviv. Visnyk Povitovoho soiuzu kooperatyv (1930) was published in Stanyslaviv, and the monthly Torhivlia i promysl (1929) came out in Kolomyia. The Polish authorities suppressed attempts to publish co-operative periodicals in Volhynia: Zoria krashchoho (Kremianets 1922) and Supruha (Zdolbuniv 1924).

In Germany the émigré Alliance of Ukrainian Co-operators published Hospodars’ko-kooperatyvne zhyttia (Augsburg 1947–8). In Canada the paper Novyi shliakh, published in Winnipeg, had a page devoted to co-operatives. Nash kontakt (Detroit 1954–9) was the periodical of the Ukrainian credit union movement in North America. In 1959 the magazine merged with Nash svit (New York); since 1978 this publication has been published by the head office of the Self-Reliance Association of American Ukrainians. The Ukrainian Co-operative Council of Canada publishes the journal Koordynator in Toronto, and the Council of Ukrainian Co-operatives in Australia published Kooperatyvne slovo in Melbourne. The Ukrainian Credit Union in Rochester, New York State, published briefly the trimonthly Kooperatyvna dumka, and the Credit Union of northern Winnipeg has its own bulletin. From 1950 to 1959 the New York journal Novyi svit published materials on the co-operative movement.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Kraievyi, Ia. ‘Periodychna kooperatyvna presa na Ukraïni,’ LNV, 1913, no. 11
Ihnatiienko, Varfolomii. ‘Rozvytok ukraïns'koï kooperatyvnoï presy,’ Kooperatyvna zoria, nos 9–12 (Kyiv 1918)
Zhuk, Andrii. ‘Ukraïns’ka hospodars'ko-kooperatyvna presa,’ Hospodars’ko-kooperatyvnyi chasopys (Lviv), 1931, no. 1
Periodicheskaia pechat' SSSR 1917–1949: Zhurnaly, trudy i biulleteni po obshchestvenno-politicheskim i sotsial'no-ekonomicheskim voprosam, part 2 (Moscow 1958)

Andrii Zhuk

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 1 (1984).]