ABSTRACT
In the last third of the nineteenth century, Russia had become part of the European banking community. In this period there were already close ties between Russian banks and the Western economy; merchant bankers and private bankers –many of them coming from Western Europe –were dominant in Russian finance. Then, from the end of the nineteenth century, the largest Russian commercial banks evolved from the status of speculative banks to that of universal banks. This was partly reflected in the growth of the number of branches. By January 1890, 34 banks had 47 branches, while by the same date 20 years later, 31 Russian banks had 492 branches (Epstein, 1925, Appendix 1). In the 1890s, overseas branches were also established; on the eve of the First World War these branches were most numerous in Paris, where France had been the main creditor of the Russian Empire. The First World War then dealt a heavy blow to banking – essentially a cosmopolitan business – all over the world. This paper focuses on several problems of the period of war, revolution,
nationalization and the early years of the Soviet regime in Russia. These issues include the relationships between Russian bankers and Russian authorities, the debts of Russian banks to foreign banks, Russian government deposits abroad, and the development of Russian banks after 1917.
