The procedure of banking reform development and the process of formation of the banking system in the Russian Empire in the second half of the nineteenth century is considered in assessments by historians and fi nanciers. The purpose of the study is historiographic analysis of the coverage of banking reform in the Russian Empire in the second half of the nineteenth century. Basic methods of scientifi c knowledge: historically comparative, retrospection, and scientifi c induction. It has been

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... ablished that the European banking system arose naturally on the basis of private capital, while the Russian arose in the way of working out normative acts and the hard policy of the state. The stimulus for the banking reform in 1860 was the development of railways. Progressive ideas on the creation of a European banking system were countered by Russian bureaucratic circles; instead, there were introduced mutual-lending societies in the status of subsidiary institutions of the State Bank, which also acted under its control. Private joint-stock banks also subordinated their interests to the state. In general, the achievements of the banking reform of the foreseeable period have been approved by contemporary Russian and Ukrainian historiography, while eyewitnesses of the events in published works have critically evaluated the success of the banking reform.