The problem of periodization of the Russian cooperative movement of the late XIX – early XX centuries in the works of historians of the 2000s.

Based on the historiographical analysis of the studies of the 2000s devoted to the history of various aspects of the Russian cooperative movement of the pre-revolutionary period, the authors' approaches to determining the stages in the development of the movement and their key characteristics are considered. In the 2000s, more than 500 researches were published, revealing both all-Russian trends and regional peculiarities in the development of cooperation in the late XIX – early XX centuries. Based on the achievements of Russian historiography of previous periods and the accumulated broad factual basis, modern authors expand the thematic field of research based on the modernization approach also in the discourse of civil society, introducing documentary material of predominantly regional nature into scientific circulation. On the basis of the study of modern publications, the authors’ approaches to the periodization of cooperation are determined. It is established that in most regional works the problems of periodization are not considered as a scientific task, however, the author's approaches are obvious from the structure of the works and the explanation of the factors of development of cooperation. Using the example of regional documentary material, the authors specify the periodization, based on the specifics of the socio-economic and socio-political development of the region under study. Modern authors propose different criteria for periodization and, when analyzing the process of cooperative construction on the example of certain types of cooperation and the activities of cooperative organizations as well as in the framework of regional studies, they also focus on the time of the origin of the movement, on the starting points of quantitative growth of cooperative organizations and strengthening their legal and organizational foundations.