Cooperative thought in Bulgaria in the first half of the 20th century. The place and role of M.I. Tugan-Baranovsky

Cooperative ideas and institutions started their rapid development and dissemination in the Balkans, and in particular in Bulgaria in the early 20th century. They evolved as a result of favorable political, economic, and cultural conditions and specificities, as well as the transfer of ideas and practices from Western Europe and the Russian Empire. Cooperatives played an important role in the socioeconomic advance, and cooperative ideas became an integral part of the Bulgarian and Balkan economic thought. Today, more than three decades after the fall of communism (1989), the cooperative sector continues to be underdeveloped and has a minor role in the Bulgarian economy. This could be explained primarily by the communist legacy, as well as the lack of sufficient knowledge and contemporary research on the history, ideas, and principles of cooperatives and the cooperative movement. At the same time, there has been a growing interest in cooperatives in many countries in Europe and worldwide. Cooperatives have been regarded as an alternative to the state and the market mechanisms in the economy. Meanwhile, the Bulgarian cooperative tradition and literature remain unknown in Europe. In this regard, this paper aims to reveal to the Ukrainian audience the major cooperative ideas in the country during the first half of the 20th century and to discuss the influence of one of the greatest cooperative theorists – Mykhailo Tugan-Baranovsky on the Bulgarian scholars of that time. I also make a brief bibliographical review of Tugan-Baranovsky's works translated into Bulgarian. In the first part of the paper, I focus on the emergence and evolution of cooperative ideas in Bulgaria in the first half of the 20th century. The second part is dedicated to the place and role of Tugan-Baranovsky in the development of the Bulgarian cooperative thought and literature.