RUSCORP: A Database of Corporations in the Russian Empire, 1700-1914

The RUSCORP database is a body of machine-readable information illuminating the rise of capitalist institutions in tsarist Russia. Specifically, it presents profiles of all for-profit corporations founded in the Russian Empire (except in the Grand Duchy of Finland) from the time of Peter the Great to the eve of World War I. RUSCORP describes the initial state of these companies at the time of their incorporation as well as their condition in 1847, 1869, 1874, 1892, 1905, and 1914. Major items covered by the data include the amount of basic capital, the number and price of shares, the location of headquarters and main operations, industrial classifications of major economic functions, the citizenship, ethnicity, sex, and social status of founders and managers, and tsarist restrictions regarding the ethnicity or citizenship of stockholders, management, and other key employees. The database also contains profiles of all foreign corporations operating in the Russian Empire in 1914.