300 years of the same thing over again: how the Russian state "helps" business

Dmitry Prokofiyev, economist

Now on the road I heard government advertisements on the radio - I don’t reproduce it verbatim, but it sounded something like this: “We help small and medium-sized businesses. A moratorium has been introduced on scheduled and unscheduled inspections of small businesses. If they come to you with a check, leave a request on the public services portal and get an answer within 24 hours . Then something about the "national project of small business". Well, you get the idea.

What is remarkable here?

Firstly, the next 100500th statement of the authorities that "business checks" that are arranged by authorized representatives of this very government is a serious problem for "business". The abolition of these checks, according to the authorities, is a real help.

Secondly, by purchasing such advertising, the authorities admit that they cannot actually stop the “checks”. Otherwise, why announce it, and even in such a form? They banned it - and that's it, then people will see for themselves. But they can’t, so they offer to “leave statements” and “wait for an answer.” Although the "strong hand of power" should have worked like this - the boss came with a check that was "forbidden" - it's the same as he wrote a letter of resignation. Don't wait for an answer. A Russian service official knows that he almost never does what is forbidden to him “for real”, and if he does, it means that it is not forbidden “for real”.

And thirdly, they have been trying to “prohibit” these “checks” in our country for three hundred years already. (I even wrote about it once)

In 1725, members of the Supreme Privy Council submitted a "note" to Empress Catherine the First, which stated the following:

“Now there are ten or more commanders over the peasant instead of what previously was one ... from civilians - from fiscals, commissars, waldmeisters and others to governors, of which some are not shepherds, but wolves who burst into the herd, they can be called; many clerks are similar to this, who, during the absence of their landowners, repair poor peasants as they please.

Therefore, it is necessary for all the generals, officers and privates who are at the census, revision and execution, to order to go immediately to their teams, because the poor peasants are afraid of one entry and passage ... of commissars and other commanders, the more terrible is the right and execution; there is not enough peasant belongings to pay taxes, and the peasants not only sell their livestock and belongings, but also pawn their children, while others flee separately ...

Moreover, commanders who are often changed do not feel such ruin, none of them thinks of anything else, as soon as taking the last thing from the peasant in tribute and thereby curry favor, not taking into account the fact that after that the peasant will be left without anything or run away somewhere ."

By the way, practice shows that if the authorities “really need” something, the authorities do it very quickly, without looking at anyone, and even more so, without announcing it on the radio.

And the money for what the authorities "really want" is in five minutes.

But if the authorities begin to say something like “it would be nice, but there is no money yet”, “leave a statement - you will receive an answer” - it means that the authorities do not really want all this, and they are not going to do this.

The government speaks very correct words. But something is going wrong.