Alexander Galagan: Russian titan of the Enlightenment in the history of accounting

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to analyze the characteristic features of the Enlightenment in Russian accounting in relation to the activity of its outstanding representative Alexander Galagan, who followed the motto, proclaimed in the essay “An Answer to the Question: What is Enlightenment?” by Immanuel Kant, “Sapere aude!” (Dare to know!). For the first time in the English language literature, Galagan is spoken about not only as a theorist but as an accounting historian and a teacher. A detailed description of his works and views is presented. The article’s attention is focused on Galagan’s main aim: improving the status of accounting as a science. Following the results of the research, the following hypothesis has been advanced: which period of time should be regarded in Russian accounting as the Enlightenment? It has also been explained why Alexander Galagan can be considered as a model of Enlightenment.

The schoty (abacus) as the phenomenon of Russian accounting

“…Apostolou and Crumbley (2008) reviewed the history of tally sticks in England. Mattessich (1994) substantiated the need to study the history of the accounting development for archaeological artefacts of the preliterate period. Antonelli et al (2019), describing agricultural accounting in the eighteenth century in Italy, considered additional archival materials – wooden rods as a supplement to the accounting documents.…”

“…Accounting history in Russia represents a gap in this knowledge. Certain issues of theoretical research (Kuter et al, 2019;Kuter and Sokolov, 2012;Lvova and Lvova, 2018) and the development of the profession (Sidorova et al, 2019;Sokolov, 2015) are covered in the literature. Nonetheless, knowledge around the use of accounting records in business history in Russian firms remains terra incognita.…”

Russian Accounting Society of Mutual Assistance. History of the Academic Society of Accountants

“…This lack of knowledge has been compensated in recent years by publications that examined the development of the profession in continental Europe and found significant differences between European and Anglo-American traditions, due to the different approaches to accounting regulation in these regions (Poullaos, 2009: 264-265;Coronella, Sargiacomo, Walker 2015: 167-168). Russian accounting traditions developed under conditions quite different from those considered in the above-mentioned works; this is evident from publications of recent years dealing with the peculiarities of teaching accounting in Russian educational institutions of the 18th and 19th centuries (Kuznetsov, Kuter, Gurskaya, 2016;Sidorova, Nazarov, 2021), describing the influence of ideology on the institutionalization of distance education in accounting in Soviet Russia (Sidorova, Nazarov, Listopad, 2022), the life and work of the outstanding accountant Alexander Galagan (1879Galagan ( -1938 (Kuter, Gurskaya, Kuznetsov, 2019) and highlighting aspects of the career of accounting professor Nikolai Blatov (1875-1942) (Lvova, Lvova, 2018), who is discussed in this article. This suggests that the study of these traditions is of particular interest.…”

origins of the teaching accounting in russian universities

“…Some researchers analyse the contribution of prominent teachers and university lecturers in the development of accounting theory and practice (Bloom, 2009;Sangster & Scataglinibelghitar, 2010;Sangster et al, 2014). For biographical studies of Russian accounting scholars, the number of such publications is insignificant (Dmitriev, 2003;In Memoriam, 2011;Kuter et al, 2019;Lvova & Lvova, 2018;Sokolov, 2015Sokolov, , 2018. Until now, researchers have not paid due attention to the life and professional activities of the prominent Russian scientist and statesman Stepan Usov.…”