Bio
Mansur Iumagulov is a philosopher, entrepreneur, and cooperative organizer based in Ufa, the capital of Bashkortostan in Russia’s southern Urals. He chairs the board of the “Good for Good” Cooperative Academy, which teaches people to start and run cooperatives through team-based, peer-to-peer learning and mentoring.
He took part in the Shaimuratovo experiment, in which a struggling state farm in Bashkortostan issued its own local currency after the 2008 financial crisis to keep money circulating in the village. He founded English Camp, a network of English-language children’s camps in Ufa that he has run for 17 years. He also co-founded the Collective Entrepreneurship movement and leads its education work.
He trained in philosophy, studying ontology and epistemology at the Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia (RUDN) in Moscow, which was founded in 1960 to educate students from the Global South. His work builds cooperative and solidarity-based economic practices rooted in shared ownership and decentralized governance. At artelonline.ru, he explores how cooperation, transparency, and mutual aid can shape how AI is developed and governed. His aim is solidarity AI as a commons governed by communities, not a tool for extracting profit.