The contribution of V. V. Kovalev in the development of theory and practice of accounting, financial management and statistics in Russia

Abstract

The article describes the main stages of the creative path of the professor of St. Petersburg State University Valery Viktorovich Kovalev (1948–2020), who made a significant contribution to the revival in the 1990s of the Russian school of balance sheet science and financial analysis, considering the balance sheet as the most optimal financial model of a company. The features of the traditional Soviet school of analysis of the economic activity of enterprises, formed by the beginning of perestroika in the USSR and, to a certain extent, unable to satisfy the information needs of interested persons in the new economic conditions, are characterized. Demonstrates and reveals the range of methodological tasks posed to accountants — theorists by new conditions of management during the formation and further development of the post-Soviet economy in Russia. The content of the basis proposed by V. V. Kovalev methods of analysis of accounting (financial) statements of a legally independent business entity in modern conditions of a market economy as a synthesis of the developments of domestic balance sheets of the early 20th century and the conceptual foundations of the Anglo-American school of corporate finance at the end of the 20th century. The article characterizes the connection between the content of Professor Kovalev’s works and the provisions of the works of the famous Russian theorist in the field of accounting A. P. Rudanovsky (1863–1931). The development of the works of V. V. Kovalev from a set of indicators for the dynamic analysis of accounting (financial) statements to a new national school of financial management, which for the first time combined the concepts of continental European and Anglo-American accounting traditions and practices. The educational activities of V. V. Kovalev in the 1990s, the content of his works in the field of the history of financial science in Russia, including those created at the St. Petersburg State University, is revealed.