Abstract. The article is devoted to a new subject for Russian research: comparing the performance of enterprises which trace their history back to the Soviet period with companies that were established after the beginning of market reforms. The comparison is made on a wide range of indicators – input and output prices, output, employment, wages, stocks of finished goods, order-book level, profitability, financial state, relations with banks – and covers the period from 2006 to the first half of 2019. Special attention is paid to the level of understanding and approval of economic policy by companies of the two groups.