This article is devoted to the analysis of the relation among the serfdom, the autocracy and the cotton industry as the characteristic structural relationship of pre-modern Russian society. The author intends to criticize the contemporary Soviet interpretation, according to which the rise of the cotton industry in the serfdom Russia was the most important process of the genesis of industrial capitalism in Russia. Russian cotton industry took its birth in the villages of central gubernias in the very beginning of 19th century. We see in the case of Ivanovo village, estate of Count Sheremetiev the growth and predominance of big calico-printing manufactures which was owned by serfs under special protection of their master, landlord. These manufactures served to landlord as a new source of money rent. From the introduction of the tariff of 1822, the cotton industry developed under the protection of the autocratic government. The spinning and printing enterprises owned by merchants in town and village employed serf labourers who left the native village for earning under the pressure of their masters. In the second half of 1840-s, Russian cotton spinning mills increased rapidly and achieved basically the self-sustenance of yarns. In the finishing process roller printing machines were introduced. The mechanization of work in big enterprises reduced the wage of serf labourers to the minimum and made it impossible for them to pay the money rent from their earning. This was one of conditions which determined the crisis of pre-modern Russian society.
