The role of local industry and producers’ and disabled people's cooperatives in increasing the goods turnover in Bashkiria in 1944 to 1945

The article is dedicated to the work of local industries, and producers’ and disabled people’s cooperatives manufacturing consumer goods in Bashkiria in 1944 to 1945. The archive materials first introduced into the scientific scrutiny in this article show important contribution of producers’ and disabled people’s cooperation to the growth of the goods turnover in Bashkiria. During the Great Patriotic War, the centralized funds were reduced significantly. The turnover of the state-owned trading organizations and consumer cooperation dropped. Considerable resources were withdrawn to meet the urgent needs of the Army. These economic hardships necessitated the producers’ and disabled people’s cooperative societies to step in and by using local resources and industrial waste to make up for the shortage of consumer goods in the trading system of Bashkiria. Those goods were needed for satisfying the demand for consumer goods by local and evacuated people. The study showed different infringements of contractual arrangements between cooperatives and trading organizations. It disclosed the causes of the failure of production plans. There were cases of embezzling scarce goods, cases of self-supplying. Often the distribution of goods was performed outside the legal trading network. Inspections regularly found embezzlement and theft of significant amounts of produce. The conclusion is that the aforementioned set of infringements was one of the causes of the failure of the turnover plan in the state trading system in Bashkiria.