In the midst of the 16th century a folk denomination call the Old Believers rose in Russia, which was regarded as “separatists” by the official church. Owing to the restriction of natural surroundings of their dwelling places and political status, the Old Believers had to engage in industry and business. Up till the 19th and the early 20th century, the two groups of the Old Believers, the prochurch group and the antichurch group, both exerted leading effects on the growth of Rissian capitalism, some known business families of whom even maintained close contact with the 1917 Revolution. For the Old Believers’ effects on the growth of Russian capitalism, the subjective reason lay in their common old worship and social organizations but the objective reason in different policies Czar governments took to the Old Believers.

Russian economy; Old Believers; capitalist economy