Russian museum of accounting history

              THE RUSSIAN MUSEUM
OF ACCOUNTING HISTORY
Sergey Krivoruchko, Director of the
Representation, Center of the Information
Technology (Parus) in Ukraine, reports that
inauguration of the new Accounting History
Museum is scheduled for October, 1997.
This will coincide with the Fall festivities in
Moscow to celebrate the city's 850th
anniversary. Preparation of the exposition is
well under way.
The museum will have three exposi­t
i o n halls and be housed at one of the
Moscow universities. One of the halls will
be equipped for educational audio/video
demonstrations. The first hall of the exhibi­tion
will cover the period from 4,000 BC to
the middle 19th Century and trace the ori­gins
and earlier stages of accounting his­tory.
The exhibits will include photos of
accounting records for Egyptian papyri,
Babylonian clay tablets, ancient accounting
tools such as the abacus and knotted cords,
and copies of accounting registries and title
pages of first publications on accounting.
Special attention will be paid to the origin
of the double-entry system in accounting
and national traditions (Italian, French,
German, American).
A second hall will exhibit materials
from mid 19th to mid 20th Centuries and is
dedicated to the history of the development
of accounting theory. Portraits and bio­graphic
data of individuals who helped to
develop theoretical foundations of account­ing
will be displayed. More modern forms of
accounting registries and arithmetic
machines, such as mechanical and punch-card
computing machines will be displayed.
The origins of auditing and its goals and
evolution and jurisdictions regarding
accounting and auditing will be included.
Also, the trade-unionist movement, accoun­tants'
labor conditions, and the origination
and development of professional press and
publications will be featured.
A special section will be dedicated to
development of accounting science in Russia
by identifying Russian scholars, contribu­tions,
and cover pages of published works.
Management accounting will be displayed in
a section to include accounting methods
such as standard costs, direct costing, and
others. The balance sheet section will show
the evolution of the balance sheet. The
socialist period will be reflected in the evo­lution
of regulation through documents and
scientific papers and periodicals.
The third hall will demonstrate the
accounting state-of-the-art. This will exhibit
current computer technologies, contempo­rary
scholars and their works in accounting
and auditing and major professional bodies
and publishing houses.
The museum is designed for accoun­tants,
those interested in accounting, and the
general public to present accounting
methodology and its evolution.
WANTED
MANUSCRIPTS AND ITEMS OF INTEREST
Anyone wishing to submit short article manuscripts, notes, cartoons,
shaggy dog stories, letters to the editor, or other items to THE ACCOUNTING
HISTORIANS NOTEBOOK should send the material for consideration to the
editor, Kumar N. Sivakumar, School of Accountancy, Georgia State University,
P.O. Box 4050, Atlanta, GA 30302.
28 The Accounting Historians Notebook, October, 1997