The cooperative movement in Azerbaijan began with the organization of workers’ consumer cooperatives in the oil-field areas (Balakhany, Bibiheybat). The first consumer society was established in Baku in 1887, and later in Khankendi in 1899. In May 1915, 12 consumer societies (10 of the industrial-factory type and 2 of the urban type), having united, created a Union of Consumer Societies under the name “Society-Cooperation for Wholesale Sales Operations.” By mid-December of the same year, the number of consumer societies in the union increased to 18. In December 1916, the union already included 48 of the above-mentioned societies. In July 1917, in connection with the accession to the union of the Tiflis and Erivan governorates, at the next meeting of representatives of the societies the name of the union was changed to the “Union of Consumer Societies of the Caspian” (with its administrative center in Baku). By the beginning of 1918, 287 consumer societies were already operating in Baku. More than half of them (about 56%) were rural consumer societies, 32% were urban, and 10% were of the industrial-factory type. The revolution in the Russian Empire led to a food crisis, which became the reason for the dissolution of these societies.
1 Kopeck 1918.
Self-Help Consumers’ Society, Baku.
