Samara merchants and commercial education in the early XX century

The paper examines a process of commercial education development in Samara on the basis of archival materials and published sources of educational institutions and public institutions. The study revealed the motives that determined the main directions and results of Samara commercial and industrial circles activities aimed at providing staff to urban enterprises at the beginning of XX century. The author highlights a special role of Samara entrepreneur organizations, and first of all, the society of clerks and the Exchange society in the creation of a commercial school and a trading school. The author emphasizes that the established lower and secondary commercial educational institutions met the needs of the local business community. It is noted that the commercial school was focused mainly on the training of students for admission to universities (mostly technical), while trade schools and commercial courses provided the city with the necessary specialists majoring in Economics. As a result, the author comes to the conclusion that the local institutional conditions for higher economic school establishment in Samara in the early XX century was not developed, the rate of commercial education development depended on the economic development of the region.