111
Russia - France
T
heRussian institutionof the cham-
bers of commerce and industry
has just celebrated its hundredth
anniversary.
Yes, a hundred years ago, on
19 October 1917, the Regulation
‘About chambers of commerce and
industry’ was approved in Russia,
laying the institutional foundations of
the autonomy of Russian companies
in the management of business: it
fixed the main goals, tasks and
competences of the chambers of
commerce and industry.
Ahundred years is not really verymuch.
The history of the Russian CCI is rela-
tively recent compared to similar foreign
institutions, to those of France, for
example.
This depends on your point of view.
Indeed, we are considerably younger
than the first institution of the type
that was founded in France in August
1599, where the term of
chamber
of commerce
was legalized in 1650.
However, Russian merchants set up
trading associations on their own
initiative well before the institution of
the CCI, in order to draw up trading
rules and defend their interests. In
the early 18
th
century, Peter the Great
set up an official organization in
charge of fostering trade, protecting
merchants from being harassed by
the customs authorities and guaran-
teeing freedom of trade without
constraints.
The Russian Empress Catherine
1
st
made a first attempt to set up a
formal association of Russian mer-
chants and industrialists in 1727. The
initiative only partially succeeded,
because it led to the formation of a
commission in charge of looking into
the complaints of industrialists and
studying their proposals in order to
improve the business climate, if one
can use modern terminology.
Other structures in charge of the
interests of business people were
subsequently set up, but they were
all part of the public sector and none
of them were independent. As I alrea-
dy said, it was not until 1917 that the
decision was made in Russia to insti-
tute of the chambers of commerce
and industry that we are familiar with
today.
In the same year the October revolu-
tion took place and we existed in the
framework of the USSR until the 90s,
i.e. in the framework of a totally
state-run economy. The CCI was part
of the public sector.
The congress to institute the Russian
CCI in its current form took place
during the break-up of the USSR in
1991. The beginnings were not easy.
The Chamber Of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation (CCIRF) occupies
a historic building with the style of classical architecture with a 20
th
century gate,
which is located in the heart of Moscow on Ilyinka street, right next to Red Square
and the Kremlin.
Sergey KATYRIN,
the President of the Chamber Of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation (CCIRF)
©DR
‘Companies are created
and develop’
©DR
