This book contains essays on the history and culture of Russian merchantry, a short genealogy of twenty-five of the best known merchant families of Moscow from the 17th century to 1917, their social and professional life, their political orientation and input, their position by 1917, the year of the Russian revolution. Pavel Afanas"evich Buryshkin, secretary to his father, a famous Moscow merchant, collected documents on Russian merchantry and the history of Moscow in 1904-1917, which later became a core collection of the Moscow English Club.