Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 May 2010
This article examines the evolution of the Russian government's policies between 1861 and 1917 in the sphere of rural credit, especially the extent to which social and cultural factors and ministerial politics impinged on the choice of banks and their development. Discussions concerned measures for economic change that could take place within the traditional and legal framework of the village community. The Ministry of Interior supported a classbased estate bank. The Ministry of Finance opted for the cooperative credit association which was to foster rural pacification and agricultural development by mobilizing peasant collective habits and private initiative that favored cooperative organizations.
1 Information on the problems of rural banking is based on “Istoricheskii obzor i sovremennoe polozhenie uchrezhdenii melkogo kredita v rossii,” Central State Historical Archives (TsGIA), Leningrad, f. 1233, op. 1 (1902), d. 45, pp. 1–6–; “Kratkaia zapiska o sel'skoi kredite v rossii,” f. 583, op. 19 (1892), d. 61, pp. 282–96; “Sravnitel'nye dannye o razvitii melkogo kredita na 1 ianvaria 1910 i 1912 gg., i material'nogo sodeistvii pravitel'stva etomu kreditu,” f. 582, op. 6, d. 486. The reports of 49 provinces on small credit presented to Witte's Special Conference were published in Borodaevskii, S. V., ed., Kredit: Svod trudov komitetov po 49 guberniiakh evropeiskoi rossii (St. Petersburg, 1904), pp. 183–219, 1–26Google Scholar. An excellent source on the yearly developments in rural banking are the accounts (Otchety) of the Komiteta o sel'skikh, ssudosberegatel'nykh i promyshlennykh tovarishchestvakh of the Imperial Moscow Agricultural Society, St. Petersburg, 29 accounts, 1873–1914, and the Ministry of Finance's Otchety o sostoianii kreditnykh tovarishchestv, ssudo-sberegatel'nykh i zemskikh kass melkogo kredita, St. Petersburg, 1907–1914.
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26 Witte explained his policy in “Ob ustroistve melkogo narodnogo kredita,” f. 1152, op. 12 (1895), d. 168, pp. 1–57 and “Ob'iasneniia ministra finansov po povodu zamechanii na proekt polozheniia ob uchrezhdeniiakh melkogo kredita,” ibid., pp. 171–88.
27 Quoted in “Dokladnaia zapiska. O merakh k razvitiiu uchrezhdenii melkogo kredita,” f. 582, op. 6 (1917), d. 457, p. 17.
28 “Otchet po deloproizvodstvu gosudarstvennogo soveta,” f. 1152, op. 12 (1895), d. 168, p. 729 and “Ob ustroistve melkogo kredita,” f. 1291, op. 3 (1895), pp. 24, 78.
29 “Stenograficheskie protokoly zasedanii vysochaiische uchrezhdennoi osobogo soveshchaniia o nuzhdakh sel'sko-khoziaistvennoi promyshlennosti,” f. 1233, op. 1 (1902), d. 9, p. 377.
30 “Protokoly zasedanii osobogo soveshchaniia. Delo ob organizatsii melkogo narodnogo kredita,” f. 1233, op. 1 (1903), d. 26, pp. 159–64.
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32 “Spravka po proektu. Ob ustroistve melkogo kredita,” f. 1152, op. 13 (1903), d. 446, pp. 109–10.
33 “Zhurnaly vysochaiische uchrezhdennoi kommissii po peresmotru ustava gosudarstvennogo banka,” f. 583, op. 19 (1895), d. 61, 363, and Witte, S. Iu., Zapiska po krestianskomu delu (St. Petersburg, 1904), pp. 108–09Google Scholar.
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35 “Po proektu o sel'skikh kreditnykh uchrezhdeniiakh,” p. 52.
36 “Stenograficheskie protokoly zasedanii,” 1903, p. 187.
37 “O raznoglasii mezhdu ministerstvami finansov i vnutrennykh del po nekotorym voprosam, otnosiashchimsia k delam melkogo kredita,” f. 1276, op. 2 (1906–07), d. 284.
38 “Materialy po osobennomu soveshchaniiu po zemledel'cheskomu kreditu,” f. 1291, op. 121 (1908), d. 141, p. 116; “Osoboe soveshchanie po melkomu kreditu,” f. 1291, op. 54 (1908–09), d. 14, p. 1.
39 “Zhurnal osobogo soveshchanii po melkomu kreditu,” f. 1291, op. 54, d. 4, pp. 20–21, 71; and “Materialy po osobennomu soveshchaniiu,” pp. 117–18.
40 “Dokladnaia zapiska. O merakh k razvitiiu,” pp. 1, 12, 45.
41 “Zhurnal zasedaniia komiteta po delam melkogo kredita 11 oktiabria 1904,” f. 582, op. 6, d. 476, p. 3.
42 “Osoboe soveshchanie po melkomu kreditu,” f. 1291, op. 54, d. 14, pp. 74–75.
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49 Vestnik melkogo kredita, 24 (June 20, 1914), p. 979, 982; and 10 (Mar. 7, 1914), p. 384. An example of the effect of credit banks in a central, industrial province is Kolobov, M., Sel'skii kredit v moskovskoi gubernii (Moscow, 1914), pp. 163–74Google Scholar. See also Petersen, Anita B., “The Development of Cooperative Credit in Rural Russia, 1871–1914,” unpub. diss., Cornell Univ., 1973, pp. 233–332.Google Scholar