SOCIAL CHALLENGES OF RUSSIAN MERCHANTS AND PROBLEMS OF RELATIONSHIP WITH THE STATE (XVII)

This article analyzes the changes that lay the real foundations for social changes of the economically active part of the Russian population, i.e. merchants. An example of a shape-changer is the expansion of his participation in the political and public life of the country. The process is extremely contradictory and eventually turned out to be incomplete by the end of the XVII century, which was predetermined by the changed vector of Russia's historical development.