Milestones of Entrepreneurship: The Pre-Revolutionary Experience of Merchants
Authors:   Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, Moscow, Russia, Kotilko Valery V 
Published: January 2025

Introduction. The article presents the Russian experience of entrepreneurship, which has been developing for centuries — from the 5th century, when merchants and artisans arrived from Russia to Byzantium with their own goods, to the first decades of the 19th century, when trusts and syndicates were created, which included plants, factories, banks and trading houses. The formation of entrepreneurship and commercial production in Russia is shown in development, the factors that have a positive and negative impact on this process are revealed, the trends that emerge depending on the position of the authorities in relation to the non-state sector of production, on socio-political conditions are analyzed, the usefulness of entrepreneurship for the evolution of the state is shown. Methods. The article uses the factor-chronological method of research taking into account historical periodization. The content of the article and its conclusions are based on documentary (archival) and biographical sources (on the lives of prominent merchants, industrialists and financiers of Russia) — numerous books, travelers' notes, articles, agreements concluded by Russia with other states, as well as Russian entrepreneurs with domestic and foreign industrialists, bankers, traders, as well as on tsarist decrees, decrees of the VTsIK and SNK of Russia, scientific dissertations. Results and Discussion. It describes the process of transformation of artisans and merchants into large industrialists, bankers, owners of manufactories, factories and banks, monopoly associations with a network of representative offices throughout the country. It traces how and at the expense of what it happened, how it affected the economic development of the country. Real examples show both destructive and positive influence of the authorities on business. For example, the subordination of entrepreneurs to the prince reduced their activity and contribution to the economy in Kievan Rus'. However, the fact that the central government granted special status and freedoms to the Novgorod principality, autonomy to merchants and artisans, provoked a rapid development of commerce and trade in this principality, made it a “window to Europe” for all of Russia. It is noted that the support of Peter the Great and Catherine the Great for the spirit of entrepreneurship, assistance to businessmen in the creation of factories and plants led to the intensification of industrialization and economic growth in the country, the development of commercial industry. This trend continued later, during the reigns of Nicholas I, Alexander I, and in pre-revolutionary Russia. It is said that during the NEP period, the development of private trade was again given an impetus, an attempt was made to move away from excessive bureaucratization and administrative control, to build planning based on economic realities. But soon all the positive trends came to naught, mired in excessive administration and state control. Conclusion. The pre-revolutionary experience of entrepreneurship is very instructive and can be useful today. Knowing about it, we can overcome the pejorative attitude to the Russian experience of economic
management, stop blindly copying Western approaches and technologies in building capitalist relations, take into account our own rich history of entrepreneurship development, including international trade, and use the best practices of the past. Of particular interest for modern market relations is the period of the late XIX - early XX centuries, preceding the October Revolution, when various subjects of economic activity in all their diversity worked quite coherently.