History of Science and Engineering Annotation << Back THE COOPERATIVE MOVEMENT IN THE CONCEPT OF CIVIL SOCIETY G.M. Zaporozhchenko Consumer cooperation in Siberia at the beginning of XX century is characterized as an important institution for the regulation of social relations in late Imperial Russia. A comprehensive study of cooperation as an element and factor of civil society formation on the materials on the functioning of more than one hundred and urban consumer cooperatives working in pre-revolutionary Siberia. Theoretical and methodological aspects of the use of the concept «civil society» in historical discourse are presented to refl ect the economic nature of the cooperative organizations and discussions about the level of development of civil society in the Russian Empire. Revealed the specifi city and contradictions of cooperatives and their contribution to economic development and socio-cultural spheres, cooperative principles and democratic norms of self-government. Keywords: consumer society; consumer cooperation; the First World War; food crisis; public self-government; civil society; Siberia. Contacts: Е-mail: galinakoop@yandex.ru Pp. 23-35.