Participation of agricultural cooperatives in Russia in organizing supplies for the army during the First World War (on the example of the Middle Volga region)

The article deals with the participation of agricultural cooperative organizations in the supply of food and handicrafts for the army during the World War I. The author analyzes the reasons for the failures of the first grain supply campaigns of cooperatives, as well as measures to overcome them and concludes that the participation of credit associations in the supply of grain and bread for the army contributed to the development of industrial cooperation, the emergence of labor artels that also worked for the Military Department. The author pays special attention to the complex relations of cooperatives with the purchasing commissioners and the Zemstvo.