ABSTRACT
This chapter is the third of three ethnographic case studies on how entrepreneurs deal with the challenges facing businesses in Russia’s real economy. It focuses on Aleksandr, who established a successful construction business in the 1990s but lost it to reiderstvo and was imprisoned but later released. As result of his experience, Aleksandr became deeply mistrustful of officialdom and the state but decided to start another business even so. His approach to business, examined in detail, is now shaped primarily by a determination to maintain distance from the state. In the second part of the chapter, attention moves to Aleksandr’s son, Yurii, whose views are affected by Aleksandr’s experience and the obstacles he faces developing his own company. The ways the men balance their determination to live autonomously with their aspiration to improve their commercial prospects is set out. As in the earlier case study chapters, Aleksandr and Yurii’s resolve to continue as entrepreneurs, even when they lost everything, highlights the need to re-examine predominant ideas about how business–state relations work in Russia. This is the purpose of Chapter 6.
