ABSTRACT
This chapter shows the potential for developing corporate social responsibility (CSR) in businesses in the Russian Federation. It illustrates how a couple can provide profitable, productive employment in a dying Russian countryside and revive interest in ancient Russian crafts without public or governmental support. The total annual income of the small family workshop presented here is RUR 1 million with 20 employees involved in production. In accordance with Russian state official numbers, socially responsible businesses provide regular tax payments. Private business mostly has to develop under the terms of a permanent struggle for survival and resistance to inefficient government regulation in the field of entrepreneurship. A key feature of Russian entrepreneurial activity is the extensive application of personal qualities and potential of the entrepreneurs themselves. Russian business culture is focused on understanding business as a communication process, as the most efficient way of building personal relationship with the local authorities, as they concentrate both administrative and financial resources.
