The article is devoted to examining the results of research on the Russian military industry in the first two decades of the twentieth century, as presented in the works of V.V. Polikarpov. For half a century, Polikarpov studied this multifaceted phenomenon. The author reveals the state of various branches of the military industry and demonstrates the extent of state policy’s influence on the development of enterprises in both the state-owned and private sectors. An in-depth analysis of historical literature, archival sources, and a corpus of statistical reports allowed the author to reach a fundamentally new level of conclusions and provide a fresh scientific assessment of many well-established provisions in the historical literature. Beginning with the evaluation of the state of different branches of the military industry, Polikarpov proceeds to assess the quality of public policy, highlighting a key link: the government’s ability to find a common language with capital.
army; navy; military industry; government; enterprises; banks; history; competition; private and public sector.