he Law of the Jungle, in Russian business.

Many Russian citizens firmly associate the activities of the booming private sector with cheating, crookedness and all sorts of shady machinations. They often see the reason for that behaviour in the very nature of market relations.

However, while condemning the ways of the current Russian market, it is worth recollecting that the degradation of spiritual and moral values in the Russian society had started long before the market reform and even before perestroika. For a long time the Russians' have been putting up with (and some even admired) those who achieved success ''by crook''--those who knew the ropes. Such mass deviation from the moral norms has had a distorting impact on the development of the new economic relations as well.

At the same time, the market economy per se does not at all contradict universal moral principles, but rather requires a strict observance of them for its harmonious development. It is symbolic that Adam Smith, the founding father of classic political economy, taught a course in moral philosophy at Glasgow University, and both of his most famous books--The Theory of Moral Sentiments and The Wealth of Nations--are so interconnected and united in spirit that they really seem like the two parts of a single whole.

Max Weber, too, pointed out the interrelation between ethics and economics in the early 20th century in his well-known work The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. According to him, unrestrained greed in gaining profit is in no way identical to capitalism, let alone to its spirit. Admitting the existence of money-grubbers and adventurers, he still saw the essence of the new capitalism as a rational economic structure, in which an entrepreneur's activity and the commodity market are not oriented toward political campaigning or irrational speculation.

As the age-long history of market relations shows, dishonest business can only be an exception--even if not a rare one--and certainly not a rule. The essence of a market is equivalent exchange. A market is simply a way to structure the complicated system called "the economy" once it stops being natural. However, a normal functioning of that system is impossible unless all of the participants therein abide by rather stringent legal and ethical norms. And, in a situation in which a reliable legal base is not yet outlined, the significance of ethical restrictions doubles.

Admittedly, isolated cases of violation cannot be entirely ruled out. However, a mass breach of moral norms entails a malfunction in the market itself: it either destroys itself or just does not emerge at all. The process of formation of market relations in Russia and the near abroad is a flagrant example thereof. The problem is not the emergence of a free market, but the burden of ''blurred'' morals inherited from the previous stage of society's development.

As a result, today's Russian entrepreneurs, for fear of being cheated, tend to strike deals only with partners they know personally, and whose honesty and reliability they do not doubt. Given the enormous gaps in legislation and the lack of a well-tuned judicial system, they are virtually helpless when faced with possible crooks. Another solution--appealing to ''private justice,'' i.e. gangs--makes the businessman himself become involved in mafia conflicts.

This situation has resulted in an essential distortion: vast and rich Russia sees tiny markets develop which emerge out of personal relations rather than economic expedience. This makes transitional society suffer even more such distortions, and businessmen suffer losses, renouncing profitable deals for fear of unchecked partners.

Today, when vividly portraying moral and spiritual degradation in the economy, greed and corruption has become trendy, these considerations of the ethics of economic activity may seem rather naive. However, life itself, along with gradual economic stabilization, brings this issue into the limelight. Stabilization involves long-term business relations replacing isolated deals and inflationary speculation. In this case reputation becomes the most significant characteristic of an entrepreneur. Thus, on the threshold of the 21st century we have once again discovered the purely utilitarian link between moral rules and business principles, which Benjamin Franklin mentioned as early as the 18th century: honesty is useful, for it brings credit. In short, it is rewarding to be honest.

Sure enough, nothing will change if we just proclaim such an attitude--or if we continue condemning the morals of the modern business world. The concept will start working only when businesspeople themselves start monitoring the observance of business ethics.

The entrepreneurs have already started streamlining their ranks. Suffice it to recall the summer of 1994, which saw the scandal connected with the infamous MMM pyramid structure and the arrest of its head, Sergei Mavrodi. The different statements of that time included one by Ivan Kivilidi, who disapproved of Mavrodi's actions. Although it was technically not illegal, in spirit it violated ethical norms, which an honest businessman cannot disregard. In addition, Kivilidi stressed that such cases hort all businessmen, as they cast aspersions not only on crooks. Tens of thousands of cheated people create an atmosphere of hostility and distrust in business and businessmen in society.

It is not accidental that the Second Congress of Russian Entrepreneurs proposed that its participants sign a Charter of Russian Business and voluntarily assume obligations to refrain from violence and threats of violence as a way to achieve their business goals, and from dishonest business practices--deceit or conscious infliction of damage on a contractor, falsification of the quality of goods or services, or the spreading of false information about themselves or their companies or partners.

Thus the entrepreneurs themselves join in an organized campaign for honest business, and that means Russia's business world is gradually improving, renouncing the ''law of the jungle.'' (RIA Novosti)