The paper aims to justify the necessity to apply adequate Corporate Governance principles and effective corporate control in state-run corporations. The present article is dedicated to the analysis of state’s participation in corporate governance and effectiveness of this participation. The author researches the forms of the state participation, such as unitary enterprises, federal state enterprises, state corporations, joint-stock companies, compares their effectiveness with the effectiveness of similar state corporations in the USA and south-eastern countries. These are specific regions to show the upsurge of economy after nationalization of some industries. As the state corporations enter the area normally occupied by private business, state corporations have to apply corporate governance instruments used by private corporations. Federal Government Unitary Enterprise «Pochta Rossii» (Russian Post) and Open Joint-Stock Company «Rossiyskie Zheleznie Dorogi» (Russian Railways) are the examples of corporations with state participation under analysis. The author analyses the necessity of such wide variety of legal forms of corporations with the state participation, studies the trend in reduction of the quantity of the forms. Innovation activity of corporations with the state participation is also an object of the research. General, specific and particular research methods are used in the article, including systemic, comparative, historical and juridical research methods. The practical value of the article is in the author’s justification of the necessity to strictly execute the 2014 Corporate Governance Code in all corporations with the state participation, to reduce the overall number and forms of such corporations.