science

On Cooperation

On Cooperation is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand On Cooperation rather than just read about it. In short: "On Cooperation" is an article by Vladimir Lenin. It was written on 6 January 1923 and published in Pravda in issues 115 and 116 on 26 and 27 May 1923.

Key takeaways

On Cooperation belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect On Cooperation to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of On Cooperation from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

"On Cooperation" is an article by Vladimir Lenin. It was written on 6 January 1923 and published in Pravda in issues 115 and 116 on 26 and 27 May 1923. It is one of Lenin's last works. He consulted a number of books on cooperation while writing the article.

Contents In this article, Lenin emphasizes the great importance of cooperation in a multistructure economy in a country with a predominantly peasant population. He claims that cooperation allows for the achievement of:

the degree of combination of private interest, private commercial interest, the verification and control of it by the state, the degree of subordination to its common interests, which used to be a stumbling block for many, many socialists. Lenin believes that cooperation would allow the peasantry to transition to socialism in a simpler and easier way. Lenin emphasizes that in a mixed economy under the dictatorship of the proletariat, cooperative enterprises constitute an important step in the transition from private capitalist enterprises to socialist ones. To develop cooperation, Lenin proposes providing cooperative enterprises with various benefits, as well as raising the cultural level of the peasantry in every way. The Leninist concept of a mixed economy is formulated as follows:

And the system of civilized cooperators with public ownership of the means of production, with the class victory of the proletariat over the bourgeoisie – this is the system of socialism. Lenin's ideas about the cooperation of the peasantry formed the basis of the resolution of the 13th Congress of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) "On Cooperation" and "On Work in the Village".

Analysis Alexander Yakovlev notes the views Lenin expresses in the article differ from those of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels on the subject of combining personal interest with the public interest, as Marx and Engels were opposed to the ideas of the old cooperators, namely Charles Fourier, Victor Prosper Considerant, Henri de Saint-Simon. Roy Medvedev notes that the Leninist principles of voluntariness and gradualism in the cooperation of the peasantry were grossly violated by Joseph Stalin during collectivization, which caused enormous economic and moral damage.

References

Sources Chayanov, Alexander (1919). The Main Ideas and Forms of Organization of Peasant Cooperation. Moscow.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) Lenin, Vladimir (1977). Recent Letters and Articles. Moscow: Political Publishing House. p. 71. Medvedev, Roy (1990). About Stalin and Stalinism. Moscow: Progress Publishers. p. 488. ISBN 5-01-002546-9. Meshcheryakov, Nikolai (1920). Cooperation and Socialism. Moscow.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) Prokopovich, Sergei (1913). Cooperative Movement in Russia, its Theory and Practice. Moscow.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) Sassen (1919). The Development of the Theory of Cooperation in the Era of Capitalism. Moscow.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) Staudinger, Franz (1919a). Marxism and Consumer Cooperation. Moscow.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) Staudinger, Franz (1919b). From Schulze-Delitzsch to Kreuznach. Moscow.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) Tugan-Baranovsky, Mikhail (1916). Social Foundations of Cooperation. Moscow.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) Yakovlev, Alexander (1991). The Torment of Reading Being. Moscow: News. p. 368. ISBN 5-7020-0382-9.

Further reading The Cooperative Plan of Vladimir Lenin / Antonov // Konda – Kun – Moscow: Soviet Encyclopedia, 1973 – (Great Soviet Encyclopedia: [in 30 volumes] / editor-in-chief Alexander Prokhorov; 1969–1978, volume 13). Boris Vvedensky, ed. (1954). "Lenin". Encyclopedic Dictionary: In 3 Volumes. Vol. 2: K-Prasha. pp. 238–245. Vladimir Lenin. On Cooperation // Complete Works, Volume 45, Pages 370–371 Victor Afanasyev; Kaltakhchyan, eds. (1989). "About Cooperation". A Brief Dictionary of Scientific Communism. Moscow: Political Publishing House. pp. 255–256. ISBN 5-250-00599-3.

External links Transcription at the Marxists Internet Archive

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with On Cooperation

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what On Cooperation claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to On Cooperation before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about On Cooperation ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of On Cooperation

In research: On Cooperation appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses On Cooperation in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: On Cooperation is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1923 works, Cooperatives, Newspaper articles, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for On Cooperation outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study On Cooperation in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what On Cooperation means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain On Cooperation out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is On Cooperation in simple terms?

"On Cooperation" is an article by Vladimir Lenin. It was written on 6 January 1923 and published in Pravda in issues 115 and 116 on 26 and 27 May 1923.

Why does On Cooperation matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study On Cooperation?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on On Cooperation.