The Soviet Accounting Bulletin was published at a rate of four ‘numbers’ per year for eleven ‘volumes’, from 1973 to 1983, jointly by the Department of Accounting and the Centre for Russian and East European Studies, at the University of Birmingham, England. It was the brainchild of, and largely the work of, Derek Bailey, who provided translation of, and commentary on, original material from Soviet publications, notably the journal Bukhgalterskii Uchet.

Interest in, and informed knowledge of, the accounting function behind the “Iron Curtain” were in short supply for many decades. Derek, whilst apparently not unsympathetic to the ethos of the Soviet environment, was a true academic – independent, critical, historically-based and interested in the esoteric as well as the mainstream. Inevitably, over forty four editions plus a couple of independent essays from 1973, the material ranges widely and sometimes unpredictably. Coverage became broader towards the end, the title changing in 1981 to “Soviet and East European accounting Bulletin”. Odd articles on, for example, accounting in Syria, and on accounting in USA as seen through Soviet eyes, come and go.

This paper sets out to investigate, largely as seen through Derek’s eyes, the concept and role of accounting in general, and the “state book-keeper” in particular, under the Soviet system. The major content of the Bulletin consists of editorial, unsigned but clearly by Derek Bailey, and translations of original material, often with a separate commentary, again clearly written by Derek. This paper, as a matter of deliberate policy, seeks to minimize the extent to which the present authors interpose themselves between the 1970s original and the 21st century reader. Source material in translation, Derek Bailey material, and 21st century comments, are all firmly distinguished from each other. The objective is to communicate an understanding of the environment and attitudes prevalent in that place at that time, as far as we are able. Internal debates on the role and (un)importance of the book-keeping function abound, and provide fascinating study. There is at least implicit evidence of a change in the balance of opinion over these eleven years of what this role should be.

All of the present authors knew Derek in various ways. In particular, Professor Sokolov appears in the Bulletin a number of times, both as author of Russian language original material, and as President of the Leningrad Book-keeper’s Club. As Prorector of the F.Engels Institute of Soviet Trade Leningrad, he was directly involved in “Soviet Accounting” over a long period. He is thus in a unique position to provide some ex post comments on the original material. A brief biography of Derek Bailey is attached as Appendix I, together with a photo of Derek, David Alexander and Marek Schroeder as Appendix II.

A major thrust of this paper is to present the original Soviet-sourced material, and Derek’s contemporaneous appraisal thereof, as being of importance in their own right, though concluding with discussion of the implications of this important historical material for current and up-coming international accounting developments. Nevertheless some kind of theoretical framework, providing a peg on which to hang some intertemporal comparisons, is likely to be helpful. Since a key theme to emerge in this paper concerns the status of “the Soviet Accountant” and its development (whether upwards or downwards), a brief exposition of sociological principles of professionalisation will be helpful.

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