Within the precincts of Smolny and Jusupov Palace the conference devoted to the most significant part of modern life, entrepreneurialism, was held. After the collapse of the socialist camp Russia began developing in the capitalist way. So the entrepreneurship became one of the main constituent parts of Russian society.

First non-governmental educational institutions appeared in the 1990s in Russia, and state universities began rendering paid services. Owing to these tendencies the following question arose: can the scientist combine investigations, teaching and entrepreneurial activities? This problem gave course for the meeting of representatives of academic circles from Western Europe, Moldova and Russia.

But, except professional servants of science, students of European Studies Department of Nevsky Institute of Language and Culture also took active part in this event. Conference organizers Mrs. Aljona Sandgren, Mrs. Görel Strömqvist and Mrs. Elena Kalinina received us favourably as equitable colleagues. And now some information about the conference itself:

In many western universities the courses of entrepreneurialism are wide-spread. For example, 70% of Swedish universities have them. It is said that only 4-5% of population have the propensity for entrepreneurship. Nevertheless, we think that the chance must be given to everyone, so the number of such courses must be increased in Russian institutions.

We found out that the modern man plays three roles simultaneously: he is a citizen, an employee and a customer. Professor Daniel Hjorth from Copenhagen Business School told us about it in his presentation "Entrepreneurialism and Managerialism". Hjorth’s colleague Dr. Christian Maravelias from Stockholm University (School of Business) mentioned that work penetrates into all spheres of human being activities. By the way, he noticed that the worker must fight against any form of subordination. Nevertheless, we are absolutely sure that Russian system of relationships between boss and his subordinate can not take this statement for granted. It is also interesting that human behavior depends on two aspects: desire and fear. And that is really true: there are people that, owing to their big ambitions, achieve success in their lives. But it seems that fear is a special sort of incentive for some groups of people too: with its help they reach their goals.

Now more and more attention is paid to gender matters in the field of entrepreneurship. Why did woman decide to deal with business? Economic, political and social crisis of the 1990s was the cause of this phenomenon. Exactly at that time a woman was forced to undertake responsibilities of supporting a family and had to get down to business. Then running a business became a part of woman mission. According to the words of Elena Kalinina (Rector of St. Petersburg Social and Economic Institute), the discrimination of women in Russia is obvious. That is why women create different organizations to develop their enterprises. The example of such an organization is "WERAN Baltic Sea" project, resource centres for women in Sweden were the basis of this idea. This organization rests on cooperation without boundaries; interests, profession and age do not matter at all.
It should be mentioned that our Institute was founded by women, who made it famous not only in Russia, but also abroad despite numerous difficulties.
It goes without saying that organizations for women are really positive for Russian society, but we should not concentrate on female matters exceptionally, because it may lead to further development of feminism.
Right up to last Saturday we have never thought about possible rivalry among students and professors. This particular topic was raised by Professor Bruce Lambert from Royal Institute of Technology (Stockholm, Sweden). We use to think in a different way. The knowledge should be developed and improved, that is why it is essential to share information and cultivate new ideas. Naturally in this respect students are undoubted followers of academicians.
The result of this conference was the conclusion that entrepreneurship plays a key role in educational sphere due to total capitalization of society. That is why this phenomenon is worth studying.
We would like to express our gratitude to Marina Igorevna Dibrova and Natalia Nikolaevna Chekmareva for giving us such a great opportunity to participate in this event.

3-and 4-year students of European Studies Department