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The Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation has a long history.

The guilds founded in the time of Peter the Great can be considered the first prototypes of business-related groups in Russia. Their members negotiated over different aspects of trade and industry with the city authorities.

The second important event was the decree issued by Catherine I that obliged all merchants and manufacturers to come to Moscow for an annual meeting.

The actual foundation of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry took place in the middle of the nineteenth century with the emergence of manufacturing and commerce councils, special organisations that supported trade, and industry and exchange committees. The first official document legitimising such organisations (the Russian equivalent of European chambers) was the Russian export chamber regulation signed by Emperor Nicholas II in December 1910. During Soviet times there was an All-unio Chamber of Commerce, a state agency responsible for the relationships with foreign commercial organisations.

The drastic transformation of the political, social and economic structure of Russian society in the beginning of the ‘90s led to the foundation of the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry based on principles universally accepted in all civilised countries. In 1993 the Russian government passed the law on "Chambers of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation", which defined chambers as non-governmental, non-profit organisations. This law is still in force today.

Stanislav Alexeyevich Smirnov was the first President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation; he headed the Chamber from 1991 to 2001 and played a major role in the drafting and approval of the document, which legalized the status and place of the system of chambers of commerce and industry in the socioeconomic life of Russia.

In 2001 Evgeny Maximovich Primakov, an acclaimed economist and world-renowned politician, was elected as the Chamber President.

Further activity of the CCI of Russia opened a new page in the development of the system of chambers of commerce and industry in the Russian Federation, assisted in the CCI of Russia transformation into a genuine leader of the national business community.

In 2011 the Sixth Congress of the CCI of Russia elected Sergey Nikolayevich Katyrin as the President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation.

Analysis of the hisstory of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation helps to find optimal solutions arising in everyday business life and economic situations of Russia. The application of this priceless heritage is a guarantee of success of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation in the present and the future.