The Last Russian Balance Scientist of the 20th Century

Abstract

The main stages of creative career of professor of Saint Petersburg State University Valery Viktorovich Kovalev (1948–2020), who restored the national school of accounting study which treated the balance sheet as a financial model of the company, are shown. The paper characterizes the specifics of the Soviet school of analysis of economic activities of enterprises formed by the start of Perestroika in the USSR. The scope of the methodological tasks placed before accountant theorists by new business environment in the conditions of the development of post-Soviet economy in Russia is shown. The paper reveals the methodological basis of the methods, suggested by V.V. Kovalev, of analysis of accounting reporting of legally independent business entity in the conditions of market economy, as synthesis of the developments of national accountants of the early 20th century and conceptual framework of English-American school of corporate finance of the late 20th century. The relation of the content of the works by Kovalev to the provisions made by A.P. Rudanovsky (1863–1931) is characterized. The paper presents the influence of several personal qualities of professor Kovalev as a researcher on the development of his ideas ranging from the set of indicators of dynamic analysis of accounting reporting to a new national school of financial management which united the concepts of the Continental European and English-American accounting traditions for the first time. The paper characterizes educational activities of V.V. Kovalev in the 1990s and reveals the content of his works regarding the history of financial science. The success of Kovalev as a propagandist of accounting as science is explained.