The Graduate School of International Business (GSIB) is a structural division of the Russian Federation Academy of National Economy under the Government of Russian Federation (ANE). It was established in 1978 by a government decree to train high-level personnel to be appointed at top administrator/manager posts in USSR ministries and corporations.

ANE students (initially some 200 people) were carefully selected and tightly controlled by government bodies. ANE was a closed institution and performed functions similar to those of the Diplomatic Academy (which was training diplomats for the Foreign Ministry), the Academy of Foreign Trade (engaged in training top personnel for Soviet foreign trade) and the General Staff Academy (responsible for training high-ranking army officers).

In 1988, ANE changed its strategy – now its new task was gradually to start training managers for a market economy. To this end, on September 1988 the USSR Council of Ministers adopted a resolution providing for setting up, within ANE, a Higher Commercial School to train managers capable of doing business in an international environment. It was Russia’s first formally established school of business. But initially (1988-1990) it was a small undertaking delivering short-time programs (Executive Development) designed to train top Soviet ministry and company personnel to perform various foreign trade functions (its study programs lasted from 20 to 120 hours).

The advent of radical economic reforms in Russia in 1992 set new tasks and the Graduate School of International Business (GSIB - the name which substituted the prior name Higher Commercial School in 1991) developed Russia’s first large-scale MBA Program initiated in September 1992. In 1994, the program was substantially revised to conform to international standards and actually took a new, modern form that has been sustained to this day. Currently, the program is being continuously updated to keep up with new standards and demands.

Today, GSIB is a national School, Russia’s largest in MBA student numbers (343 graduates in 2006) and it tops national MBA program rating lists.

The GSIB has the largest MBA students body in the Russian Federation, its program accounting for 12 percent of the total of Russia’s MBA students (2005-2006 academic year).