The Interhelpo was an industrial cooperative

Cooperative

A cooperative is a business organization owned and operated by a group of individuals for their mutual benefit...

 of workers and farmers (esperantist

Esperantist

An Esperantist is a person who speaks or uses Esperanto. Etymologically, an Esperantist is someone who hopes...

s and idist

Ido

Ido is a constructed language created with the goal of becoming a universal second language for speakers of different linguistic backgrounds as a language easier to learn than ethnic languages...

s) between 1923 and 1943, established for the special purpose of helping to build up socialism

Socialism

Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...

 in Soviet

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

 Kyrgyzstan

Kyrgyzstan

Kyrgyzstan , officially the Kyrgyz Republic is one of the world's six independent Turkic states . Located in Central Asia, landlocked and mountainous, Kyrgyzstan is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the southwest and China to the east...

.

It was founded in 1923 in Žilina

Žilina

Žilina is a city in north-western Slovakia, around from the capital Bratislava, close to both the Czech and Polish borders. It is the fourth largest city of Slovakia with a population of approximately 85,000, an important industrial center, the largest city on the Váh river, and the seat of a...

, Czechoslovakia

Czechoslovakia

Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...

 (now Slovakia). Trains from railway stations Žilina and Brno

Brno

Brno by population and area is the second largest city in the Czech Republic, the largest Moravian city, and the historical capital city of the Margraviate of Moravia. Brno is the administrative centre of the South Moravian Region where it forms a separate district Brno-City District...

 transported 1078 persons (including mainly Czechs and Slovaks, but also Hungarians, Ruthenians and other nationalities, and including both direct members and their families) to Kyrgizia.

Its members made many products on the ‘green meadow’. The famous Slovak politician Alexander Dubček

Alexander Dubcek

Alexander Dubček , also known as Dikita, was a Slovak politician and briefly leader of Czechoslovakia , famous for his attempt to reform the communist regime during the Prague Spring...

 also participated in this cooperative as a boy.

The cooperative constructed among other objects:

• in 1925: an electric power station
• in 1927: a textile factory
• in 1928: a melting-house
• a furniture factory
• railroads, hospitals, main government building in the capital of Kirgizia

In 1925, the Interhelpo was declared the best cooperative in the Soviet Union. In 1934 it made 20 percent of Kyrgizia's industrial product.

Interhelpo was liquidated in 1943. Its members were persecuted by Stalinism

Stalinism

Stalinism refers to the ideology that Joseph Stalin conceived and implemented in the Soviet Union, and is generally considered a branch of Marxist–Leninist ideology but considered by some historians to be a significant deviation from this philosophy...

and many executed as enemies of the Soviet Union.