Wiejska spółdzielczość spożywców 1900−1939. Zapomniana karta z dziejów samoorganizacji wsi polskiej
Rural Consumer Cooperatives 1900–1939: The Forgotten Chapter of Self-organisation in the Polish Countryside

Summary/Abstract: The aim of the article is an attempt to outline the social history of the developmentof consumer cooperatives in rural Poland in the years 1900−1939 and to show the role theyplayed in the development self-organisation of the Polish countryside as well as shapingthe social and political consciousness of Polish peasants in the interwar period. The authorargues that consumer cooperatives were relatively economically weak in comparison withother branches of the rural cooperative movement, but played a very important role inconstructing the rural public sphere, and thus contributed to the development of thepeasant political movement. However, the significance of the rural consumer cooperativeswas forgotten, mainly due to the post-war restructuring, which led to liquidation of ruralconsumer cooperatives together with the whole social movement that made their existencepossible.

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