very readily to the work of co-operation and
that the only reason for the antagonism which
arose at the time of the revolution was due to
ignorance of the aims and objects of the Bolsheviks.
People did not realise that fundamentally
all those who wished to organise industry
as a social service were the natural allies
of those who wished to establish voluntary co-operation.
Leshava, when asked what he claimed was the object of the system of State co-operation of which he is chief, replied that the whole conception was based on that of the Rochdale Pioneers. Co-operation as understood in Russia is the “ spontaneous effort of the nation to supply its own needs and become a series of municipal and communal households.” The peasants who at one time bitterly opposed what they considered State interference, acknowledge the new law which takes from them a certain proportion of foodstuffs and other products of their farms, and are slowly realising that co-operation is a much bigger thing than the mere collection or distribution of goods. All the old district and provincial societies with limited aims and objects have been absorbed or abolished : there cannot be any sectional jealousies because there are no sections. The productive and distributive are parts of one organisation.
Working peasants, who for the first time
