The accumulation of symbolic capital by Prokopiy Bаtolin in the environment of the western business elite in 1917 – 1919

Kashapova Ekaterina A.

The article reflects the business dealings and commercial plans of the financier, entrepreneur and co-owner of the trade and industrial partnership «Stakheev & Co» Prokopiy Batolin (1878–1939) during his trip to the United States of America in 1918–1919 and the previous negotiations. Using the biographical method of research and the volume of aggregate information about Batolin's economic, political and social connections, the author attempts to reconstruct historical events that influenced the economic and political plans of the Russian and Western financial elite. In the reconstruction of personal biography the author used documents and materials from Russian and foreign archives and libraries: State Archive of the Russian Federation, Foreign Policy Archive of the Russian Federation, Central State Historical Archive of St. Petersburg, State Archive of Khabarovsk Region, the archives of the Michigan and California universities' libraries. The meetings and negotiations reflected in the article for the most part did not affect the formation of Batolin's economic capital, but the environment presented: Edward M. House, Louis Dembitz Brandeis, Robert Rutherford «Colonel» McCormick, Alexander Legge became the basis for the conditional and symbolic capital of Prokopiy Batolin.

Keywords:financial elite, USA, economy, Stakheev, Batolin, symbolic capital, personal biography.