The relevance of the study is determined by the role of competitive relations in the development of the Russian economy. The search for approaches to the antitrust policy promoting healthy competition should be based on the analysis of the accumulated experience in the field of antitrust regulation. The formation of the antitrust regulation institute in pre-revolution Russia is of interest both considering the study of its formation stages and in comparison with the advanced foreign experience in the antitrust regulation. The common result of the paper is the description of economic development factors of Russia influenced the formation of monopolies. The authors considered the historical events promoted the transition from the informal (pre-legal) regulation of monopolies to the regulation through the system of legal acts. The paper analyzes the stages of economic development from the 11^th century to the events of 1917. The authors identified five key stages: the period of early feudalism of the 9^th-11^th centuries, the period of feudal disunity of the 12^th-15^th centuries, the period of the Russian state centralization of the 16^th-17^th centuries, the period of economic reforms of the 18^th century, and the industrialization period in the 19^th- early 20^th centuries. The main result of the study is the definition of the transition process in the formation of the antitrust regulation institute started in the middle of the 19^th century when the legislation of the Russian empire began to distinguish two types of monopolistic behavior - collective and individual. At that time, the formation of the system of countermeasures against the cartel agreements, the abuse of a dominant position, and the concentration of capital started as well.