Thе article deals with the process of creating financial-industrial groups (FIGs) in the Russian Federation at the turn of the 20th - 21stcenturies. It analyzes the historical specificity of the formation of large industrial and financial associations in the post-Soviet period. The structure and mechanism of FIGs functioningare considered there. The author shows in detail the main stages of FIGs development, which were caused by the objective economic and political processes in the country. Despite the fact that all modern Russian industrial and financial associations appeared in the post-Soviet period, under the conditions of the USSR planned economy there was amassed some experience of construction and operation of large associations within the Soviet ministries of gas, aviation, automotive and other industries. In their scope and forms they resembled Western corporate structures. It was suchan industrial base which formed the basis of Russian FIGs. There are bright examples of creating Russian fi nancial-industrial groups on the basis of the former Soviet sectoral ministries -“Lukoil” and “Gazprom”. Among other things, FIGs were based on large commercial banks,that is public and private associations. Besides, the article describes the regional and interstate financial and industrial groups, as well as public corporations, which appeared in the 2000s. Within a relatively short period of time, Russian FIGs managed to pass a difficult path from the simplest corporate structures to diversified financial-industrial associations. At the turn of the 2010s, it was the state policy in the field of FIGs which largely influenced the future of the Russian economy, its opportunity to “fit” in the world balance of forces in the conditions of the sanctions declared by the West, and, to some extent, Russia’s formation of the direction and essence of perspective macroeconomic processes of globalization. In the difficult economic conditions, FIGs became a donor of funds for the Russian economy.