ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on a case study of the biggest Russian oil corporation – the Lukoil company. Its economic and political activity, as well as the system of social relationships within its enterprises, is in certain ways characteristic of other big Russian corporations, especially of those acquiring global dimensions. The well-known limitations of such studies have stimulated the author to place this particular piece of research into a wider context of observations so as to examine the major tendencies in the development of the corporate sector as a whole. Most important are the first and the second levels, and both of them are developing in the context of strong Soviet paternalistic traditions and the growing pressures of the international or global market. One of the most important political problems arising from the case study of the Lukoil company is the problem of corporate-state relations.
