ON THE RESULTS OF TSENTROSOYUZ DELEGATION’S TRIP TO GERMANY IN 1928
The article contains some excerpts from a Tsentrosoyuz (Central Union of Consumer Cooperatives) board member K. G. Petunin’s reporting notice published for the first time. The notice deals with German co-operation experience that could be applied for the development of the Soviet trade system and for improvement of the cooperative system management. The notice was prepared regarding the results of Tsentrosoyuz delegation’s trip to Germany in 1928. The original document is dated April, 4l and retained in Russian State Archive of the Economy in the fund 484 of Tsentrosoyuz. As a delegation head K.G. Petunin was a talented organizer of cooperative trade and began his management career in the Siberian Union of Cooperative Unions (Zakupsbyt) as early as before the revolution. After the Civil war he saved his managerial status as a collegium member of administrators of Tsentrosoyuz Siberian Branch. He was promoted for a managerial position in Moscow in 1922, and until 1930 served as a member of Tsentrosoyuz board taking charge of financial department. As an employee with pre-revolutionary experience he possessed market instruments of economy management and tried to restore the role of consumer cooperation in the commodity circulation system to the full extent under the NEP conditions. He suggested methods of trade improvement focused on meeting the consumer needs, using German principles and methods of cooperative management, modernization of staff training and retraining system aimed at practical skills’ acquisition. Special emphasis was placed upon resource base strengthening and confining it to solving aims and tasks of consumer cooperation, task sharing in the governance bodies, rigorous scheduling of decision-making and execution procedures, combination of principles of independence and responsibility of staff within their functions.