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The paper is devoted to industrialization, which was the turning point of Russia's economic history, and to the resulting formation of the modern type national community of companies. From the perspective of the economic theory, the role of banks in the formation of a community of firms in the Russian Empire is considered in the article. The synthesis of two classical concepts is proposed: the decisive role of banks in public approval of innovation (Joseph Alois Schumpeter) and «the mission of banks» in the industrialization of backward states (Alexander Gerschenkron). It is concluded that not only German (as Gerschenkron believed), but also Russian banks fulfilled the historical mission of creating the large industry. On the other hand, under the direct influence of banks in Tsarist Russia a disharmonious community of firms was formed. It was characterized by hypertrophied large industry, underdeveloped small and medium-sized businesses as well as by the lack of an innovative sector. The responsibility of the banks is also enormous for syndicating Russian industry, which prevented the transformation of large Russian enterprises into efficient mass producers. In general, it is obvious that there is a strong and, at the same time, ambivalent (both positive and negative) influence of banks on the formation of the national community of firms. It seems that the past experience points to the need for state regulation of institutional bank-industry relations in our time.

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