The German entrepreneurs of Saint-Petersburg: family and confessional structure in 1815-1914; ethnic and religious environment
The article deals with the characteristic features of German merchant minority in St. Petersburg. These 20-30 families controlled over 50% of the export trade up to the middle of the 19th century, and later at least about 25%. They kept about 25%-50% of key positions at the Stock Exchange and the Commercial Councils. The German Diaspora had an ethnocultural and confessional (protestant) identity which helped them to defend their economic interests. The main factor was the trust between the members of Diaspora and their family solidarity. There are statistical data about 25 merchant families from 1750-1914. Firstly, they married inside Diaspora only, and then the behavior started slowly changing. By 1850 the marriages inside Diaspora were 50%, and 25% by 1914. Since the middle of the 19th century the German merchants slowly integrated into Russian society of St. Petersburg. They were influenced by their international business profession and they became a more multicultural, cosmopolitan group, but open to the Russian culture. A citizenship and a passport had never been playing an important role until 1914 when nationalism started growing.