The Pellervo Story
MARKKU KU1SMA ANNASTllNA HENTT1NEN SAMl KARHU MAR1TTA POHLS THE PELLERVO STORY A CENTURY OF F1NN1SH COOPERAT10N, 1899-1999 TRANSLATED BY MICHAEL WYNNE-ELLIS PELLERVO CONFEDERATION OF FINNISH COOPERATlVES KIRJAYHTYMÄ OY HELSINKI • Text and illustration editors: Maritta Pohls and Michael Wynne-Ellis Illustrations: Unless otherwise stated, the illustrations are from the Pellervo Photo Archives. Typography and layout: Liisa Holm Paper: Metsä-Serla, Galerie Art Silk 115 g Copyright © 1999 Pellervo Confederation of Finnish Cooperatives ISBN 951-26-4520-3 Printed by Tammer-Paino Oy, Tampere 1999 FOREWORD In a country like Finland, sparsely populated with a short summer and a long hard winter, the idea of people working together in their common interest comes naturally. So when cooperation in its organised fo rm arrived on Finnish soil, the idea readily took root. The birth of cooperation is generally considered to have occurred on Monday, October 2nd, 1899, when the Pellervo Society was fo unded at the Helsinki University Student House in Helsinki. The year 1899 was a critical time fo r Finland and the fo unding of the Pellervo Society was one response to the emergency. Over the century since then, Finland has been transformed from a relatively backward agrarian state into one of the leading industrial countries in the world. In this cooperation has played a significant role. The overall significance of cooperative history has, however, been neglected, even though numerous studies of aspects of the cooperative movement and individual cooperative organisations have been written. The most comprehensive study of the Pellervo movement is already fifty years old, as it was published in 1949 in celebration of the Society's first half century.
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