From the Wold of Business to the World of Planned Distribution: Czech Consumer Cooperatives between 1945 and 1956 (Northern Bohemia Region)
Abstract
The study deals with changes in the content, forms and roles of the Czech consumer co-operatives in the years 1945 - 1956. This issue is a theme in four surveyed areas (territorially - organizational structure, the role of co-operatives in the Czechoslovak economy, relations with the Communist Party, economic activity of co-operatives).
These are prerequisites of the transformation of consumer cooperatives from autonomous business entities in the subordinate sections of the state-organized distribution. The dissertation analyzes this transformation in its various stages and puts it into a broader context of Sovietisation, creation of a system of centrally planned economy and the economic, social and political development of Czechoslovakia during the researched period.