In Transbaikalia, on March 2, 1831, the "Large Artel" of the Decembrists began operating. Regulatory documents for a consumer artel were developed, and economic activity was launched. In April 1864, one of the first consumer societies in Russia opened at the Petrovsk-Zabaikalsky plant. Its organizers were the Decembrist I. I. Gorbachevsky and the plant blacksmith A. A. Pershin. In 1898, a consumer society of postal and telegraph employees was opened in Chita. The first rural credit partnership was established in 1908 in Aginsk. In 1913, the "Transbaikalian Trade and Industrial Partnership of Cooperatives" was formed, in 1916 renamed the Transbaikalian Union of Cooperatives, which became a member of Centrosoyuz, and from 1920 to 1922—of Daltsentrosoyuz.
After the administrative districting, the Transbaikalian Union was divided into two district consumer unions—Chita and Sretensk—with subordination to the Khabarovsk Regional Consumer Union. In 1934, within the East Siberian Krai, the Chita Regional Consumer Union was established; soon it was abolished and restored in September 1937.