“The Soviet House” in Britain: Structure and Personnel Policy of ARCOS Limited in London in 1920–1927

The article provides an overview of operations of the London office of the All-Russian Cooperative Society Limited (ARСOS Ltd.) in 1920–27. The author has analyzed the activities of the trade organization in the period from the beginning of its existence in June 1920 to the restriction of its operations because of the police raid on Arcos in May 1927. Special attention is paid to the years 1921–22, since ARСOS Ltd. had greater independence and represented the most unified structure at that time. The author has prepared diagrams showing the organizational structure of Arcos according to the data from the State Archive of the Russian Federation and the Archive of Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation. The article analyzes changes in the structure of the organization during that period, the processes of accepting orders for importing goods to Soviet Russia, and personnel policy, and also briefly describes the trading activities of the company, and enumerates some subsidiaries of Arcos. The author has come to the conclusion that the frequent change of the company’s structure is associated with a number of reasons, the simplest, most direct and working mechanism of records management in the first place. Within the framework of the organization’s personnel policy, priority was given to Soviet citizens or people ideologically loyal to Soviet Russia. From the very beginning of Arcos existence, and especially in 1923 and later, some departments that were engaged in narrowly focused work became more independent and left the company. The aspirations of the Trade Delegation to subjugate ARCOS Ltd. also played a role in the process of regular transformations in the organization’s structure. The author has concluded that despite all the differences in organizational, clerical, and personnel policy, the company achieved a significant increase in working capital and became the largest foreign trading association in the UK.

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