Recent Trends in the Business History of Russia: The Blurry Borders of the Discipline.

The article analyzes recent trends in the business history of Russia and its interrelations with mainstream business history. The authors explore the extent to which the business history of Russia can contribute to the development of the discipline. To do so, they use an “alternative business history” framework. They argue that Russian business history is a disciplinary hybrid. As such, it can reasonably be considered as an interesting testing ground for business history, which seems to be searching for a new identity among history, economics, and organizational and managerial studies. In addition, Russian business history still has considerable potential for providing new voices and stories and for contributing to international debates and a more nuanced understanding of the relationship between enterprise, state, and society. In this article, we suggest that Russian business history is a disciplinary hybrid rather than a “field in its infancy,” as Martin Kragh defined it. As such, it may usefully be analyzed as a testing ground for business history, which seems to be searching for a new identity among history, economics, and organizational and managerial studies. The peculiarities of Russian capitalist development and the institutionalization of social science in contemporary Russia have forced scholars to adopt an interdisciplinary approach and a certain heterodoxy of methods when researching the history of Russian business. This has led to a huge variety of questions and a certain disciplinary fragmentation.