Capitalism Starts with a Balance Sheet

The balance sheet was a familiar tool even in the Soviet planned economy, but its role changed dramatically with the shift to capitalism. No longer only a formal document for state reporting, it became a framework for measuring value, profit, and risk — essential elements of a market economy. Even so, the accountants were still the same people as before, shaped by old habits and ways of thinking. Through this quiet transformation of accounting standards and practices, a new capitalist reality was built — not by grand declarations, but line by line in the ledgers.