Culture and economic development: Education, ideology (institutions) and science in the context of Russian modernization in the late 17th – early 18th centuries

Introduction. Interaction, interpenetration, synthesis of economics and culture have become an urgent field of research in modern humanitarian scientific concepts and practical developments. The awarding of the Nobel Prizes in Economics in the last decade confirms the importance of this area for a common understanding of the evolution and modernization of society. Theoretical analysis. Theories of economic development began to include culture as an indispensable attribute of qualitative change. Three possible assumptions are put forward. Culture and economy coexist, the impact is minimal. Economics as a culture, which implies the complete absorption of non-market actions, their total rationality and the insignificance of mental deviations and anti-incentives in economic practices. Culture as an economy is seen as an anthropological explanation of all individual, family, group and common interests, the dominance of intangible (social, ideological, political, etc.) preferences. Empirical analysis. In Russian research, it is original to address the philosophical foundations of cultural change, raising questions whether culture contains a civilizational code. A new understanding of socio-economic development is to rethink the evolution of economic activity coordination mechanisms, in which institutions (formal and informal rules and norms) are evolutionarily “built” into a certain social order. A significant addition to the understanding of development can be a cyclical process of structural coercion, in most cases done by the state. Results. The modernization of society and Russian economy in the late 17th – early 18th centuries is the result of a mutually conditioned change in culture, institutions, technological progress and well-being in the context of the interaction of power with different social classes. Book culture, mental attitudes, educational practices led to sustainable economic growth and entrepreneurial activity.