Role of Entrepreneurship in the Development of Russia

Abstract

With the collapse of the USSR, the total fertility rate per woman in Russia fell below the critical value of 2.1 children. Under these conditions, the increase in mortality threatens the country with accelerated extinction. The conclusions of the article are based on an analysis of the dynamics of birth and death rates for 1950–2021. When analyzing data for Russia, its indicators are compared with the arithmetic averages for the leading countries: Israel, the Netherlands and Switzerland. The greatest differences between Russia and the leading countries are observed in terms of mortality. In 2021, in Russia, it was twice the level of leading countries, while in 1959–1962 it was, on the contrary, lower. The sharp decline in mortality in Russia in 1950–1960 was achieved thanks to a combination of the suppression of infections with antibiotics (as in the leading countries) with the passionate breakthrough of front-line soldiers who seized on civilian life. The outpacing growth in mortality in Russia compared to the leading countries since the early 1960s is caused by social stress that destroys work motivation – ​the opportunity to provide for oneself and one's family by honest work (B. T. Velichkovsky's definition) or an unknown X-factor (Gundarov's definition) Maximum violations labor motivation fell on 2003. Since 2004, the restoration of work motivation began and the resulting decrease in mortality, which continued until 2019. In 2020–2021, a new increase in mortality began. To stop the increase in mortality, it is necessary to strengthen labor motivation. The development of entrepreneurship will solve this problem by developing a work ethic, the violation of which causes social stress. A comparison of Russia with the leading countries shows that for this it is necessary to double the number of entrepreneurs and, in connection with this, the proportion of the electorate living on income from business and property. The necessary conditions are: the institutional exclusion of the possibility for the security forces to ruin businesses and a significant reduction in the share of state-owned banks in the capital.