The initiative to create a special economic educational institution in Kharkov was raised in 1888 by merchant and commerce-adviser Nikolay Orlov. It was promoted as a patriotic act timed in honor of the miraculous salvation of the Royal family in the train accident at the Borky station near Kharkov. The Kharkov merchant society established and inaugurated in 1893 the School of Commerce named after Alexander III. The school had eight years special secondary training curriculum. Next public initiative conceived by university professor N. Paliyenko resulted with opening of the Evening Higher Courses of Commerce in October (24) 10, 1912. The Higher Courses provided four years training in fields of enterprise and economy, local government, bank and finance, industrial management. After the Courses had received the special building and had increased its student body up to 1226 with the nearest planned quantity of 4000, in 1916 State Duma granted it with the status and rights of a governmental higher educational institution – Kharkiv Institute of Commerce. Within 1918-1921 Simon Kuznets was a student of the Institute and had studied basic economics there.