This article examines how employee self-reported entrepreneurial contributions evolved in firms operating in Russia in the period 1995-2004 and whether changes can be explained by Akerlof’s (1982) theory of labour contracts as partial gift exchange. Data from the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey are used to show that these contributions were indeed influenced by wage premia and shifting work norms, declining by about a half during the period. There was a particularly marked fall among contributions by manual workers. The trend was found among foreign-owned firms as well as private Russian-owned companies. The sharp decline in contributions from ‘cadres’ is particularly significant in view of these workers’ historic importance in Russian enterprises. Akerlof’s model therefore helps explain Russian workers’ changing behaviour.