The merchant estate in political life of Russia in the XVIII - early XX century

The article is devoted to the analysis of merchants of the 18th - the early 20th centuries as potential actors in the political arena of pre-revolutionary Russia. Designed as a multi-level, coherent, unified system, the merchant estate was not initially homogeneous. It had not got any common worldview and ideology. Such a situation persisted until the early twentieth century, when the merchants joined the emerging bourgeoisie and formed its backbone. The remaining heterogeneity and diversity of the Russian merchantry had not allowed them to act at the political arena as the united front defending their common interests, which existence was not realized by the majority of Russian merchants.