Pattern description

An artel was any of various cooperative associations that existed in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union. They began centuries ago but were especially prevalent from the time of the emancipation of the Russian serfs (1861) through the 1950s. In the later Soviet period (1960s–1980s), the term was mostly phased out with the complete monopolization of the Soviet economy by the state.

Artels were semiformal associations for craft, artisan, and light industrial enterprises. Often artel members worked far from home and lived as a commune. Payment for a completed job was distributed according to verbal agreements, quite often in equal shares. Often artels were seasonal.

Inventive problems

References

Wikipedia. Artel.