For the Biography of Russian Accountant Yaroslav Sokolov

Year 2014, Issue: 6 - Issue: 6, 70 - 88, 01.01.2014

Viatcheslav Sokolov

Abstract

In the field of Accounting theory, Yaroslav Sokolov created an original
school based on his research on Facts of Economic Life based on the epistemology
of Immanuel Kant. Accounting is viewed as a sequential reconstruction of Facts of
Economic Life through sequential description of a variety of information (for example
statistical, financial, actuarial or accounting) which these Facts include, and which are
called stratums. Each description is built on a synthesis of experiences (observation
of facts) and a priori observation (theoretical construction) and thereforeit consists
of a combination of a priori judgements which, according to Kant, only can be true
in science. Can be considered facts of economic life the following: states (assets,
liabilities and equity), movements (state changes resulted from management’s action)
and events (state changes which occurred without management influence).
Professor Sokolov’s research activity is History of Accounting is another side
of Professor Sokolov’s research activity. He can lawfully be called the initiator of this
trend in Russian science. Before him there were individual researches, but he wrote
the first world history of accounting in Russian. His first research became the first
publication of Luca Pacioli’s biography. After came the history of the development
of accounting, an encyclopedical work on accounting from sources to our days, and
last a text book which is being used in all Russia. Professor Sokolov was the person
who got the world acquainted with Russian accounting and its history. He was the
first Russian to become member of the Academy of Accounting Historians. He wrote
a book on Russian accounting, published in the USA, he constantly published the
Chapter on Russian Accounting in the European Accounting Guide. His History of
Accounting was published in Beijing in 1990, in Chinese language. Transcripts of his
presentations are published on a permanent basis in Turkey, Slavic countries, France
and Italy. He corresponded with leading contemporary Accountants. Particularly
interesting is his correspondence with Ernest Stevelink, famous historian of accounting
of the 20th century on Russian Accounting questions, which still awaits its publication.
Writing on Accounting should never be boring: those were the words
of Yaroslav Sokolov until his last day. And after his death was released the book
“Accounting as a merry science”. His books “The image of accountants in literature
and cinema” and “On Accountants, that I knew and loved” gained particular popularity
in Russia, as well as his autobiographical and literary short stories “Tales of an old
accountant” released under a pseudonym.
He published more than 700 scientific researches, 60 scientists from different
countries became doctors of science under his tutorship.

Keywords

Russian Accountants, Yaroslav Sokolov, XX Century