Conclusion: Varieties of Russian Capitalism

Abstract

Abstract Before examining the institutional patterns that seem likely to determine the evolution of Russian capitalism in the future, it is appropriate to review the four main patterns in the development of corporations in Russia under the tsarist regime and in the late Soviet period. First, despite the familiar Leninist formulas of “finance capitalism,” “monopoly capitalism,” “state-monopoly capitalism,” and the like, capitalism remained weakly developed in Russia. The small numbers of corporations, especially on a per capita basis in comparison to the major European countries before 1914, reflected the ambivalence of the imperial government toward the intrinsic dynamism of capitalism. Although the tsarist government granted favorable treatment to large companies in the form of high import tariffs, massive financial subsidies to railroads, and lax enforcement of laws against cartels, it refused to allow incorporation by registration and maintained bureaucratic tutelage over all the key capitalist institutions: corporations, exchanges, and business organizations.