Ivan Sytin biography. For everyone and everything

Publishers can be divided into only two types: some work for existing demand, others create new readers. The former are many, the latter rare. Ivan Dmitrievich Sytin belongs to the breadth of scope and cultural significance - an exceptional phenomenon.

A. Igelstrom

In the history of Russian book business there was no figure more popular and more famous than Ivan Dmitrievich Sytin. Every fourth of the books published in Russia before the October Revolution was associated with his name, just like the most widespread magazines and newspapers in the country, Bcerol, over the years of his publishing activity, he published at least 500 million books, a huge figure even by modern standards. Therefore, without exaggeration) it can be said that all literate and illiterate Russia knew him. Millions) children learned to read from his ABCs and primers, millions of adults in the most remote corners of Russia for the first time got acquainted with the works of Tolstoy, Pushkin, Gogol and many other Russian classics from his cheap editions.

The future publisher was born in January 1851 in the village of Gnezdnikovo, Kostroma province, in the family of a volost clerk who came from economic peasants. Later he wrote in his notes: “My parents, constantly in need of the most necessary things, paid little attention to us. I studied at a rural school here under the government. The textbooks were: the Slavic alphabet, the chapel, the psalter and the initial arithmetic. The school was one-class, teaching was complete carelessness ... I left the school lazy and got disgusted with science and books. This was the end of his education - until the very end of his days, Sytin remained a semi-literate person and wrote, neglecting all the rules of grammar. But he had an inexhaustible supply of energy, common sense and remarkable business acumen. These qualities helped him, overcoming all obstacles, to achieve great fame and amass a huge fortune.

The family constantly needed the bare necessities and 12-year-old Vanyusha had to go to work. His working life began at the Nizhny Novgorod fair, where a tall, smart and diligent boy helped a furrier peddle fur products. He also tried himself as an apprentice painter. Everything changed when, on September 13, 1866, 15-year-old Ivan Sytin arrived in Moscow with a letter of recommendation to the merchant Sharapov, who kept two trades at the Ilyinsky Gate - furs and books. By a happy coincidence, Sharapov did not have a place in the fur shop, where well-wishers predicted Ivan, and from September 14, 1866, Ivan Dmitrievich Sytin began his countdown of serving the Book.

The patriarchal merchant-Old Believer Pyotr Nikolaevich Sharapov, a well-known publisher of popular prints, song books and dream books at that time, became the first teacher, and then the patron of the executive, who did not shy away from any menial work, a teenager who neatly and diligently fulfilled any order of the owner. Only four years later Vanya began to receive a salary - five rubles a month. Perseverance, perseverance, diligence, the desire to replenish knowledge impressed the elderly owner who did not have children. His inquisitive and sociable student gradually became Sharapov's confidant, helped sell books and pictures, picked up simple literature for numerous offen - village book-carriers, sometimes illiterate and judging the merits of books by their covers. Then the owner began to instruct Ivan to conduct trade at the Nizhny Novgorod Fair, to accompany carts with popular prints to Ukraine and to some cities and villages in Russia.

1876 ​​was a turning point in the life of the future book publisher. Twenty-five years old, Sytin married the daughter of a Moscow confectioner, Evdokia Sokolova, receiving 4,000 rubles as a dowry for her. With this money, as well as 3 thousand rubles borrowed from Sharapov, in December 1876 he opened his lithography near the Dorogomilovsky Bridge. At first, the enterprise was located in three small rooms and had only one lithographic machine on which popular prints were printed. The apartment was nearby. Every morning, Sytin himself cut the paintings, put them in packs and took them to Sharapov's shop, where he continued to work. This lithograph did not differ in anything special from many others located in the capital.

The opening of a small lithographic workshop is considered the moment of birth of the largest printing enterprise MPO “First Model Printing House”.

The Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878 helped Sytin to rise above the level of owners of popular print houses like him. “On the day war was declared,” he later recalled, “I ran to the Kuznetsky Bridge, bought a map of Bessarabia and Romania, and ordered the master to copy a part of the map during the night indicating the place where our troops crossed the Prut. At 5 o'clock in the morning the card was ready and put into the car with the inscription “For Newspaper Readers. Benefit". The map was instantly sold out. In the future, as the troops moved, the map changed. For three months I traded alone.

No one thought to disturb me." Thanks to this successful invention, Sytin's enterprise began to flourish - already in 1878 he paid off all his debts and became the absolute owner of the lithograph.

Ivan Dmitrievich from the first steps fought for the quality of the goods. In addition, he had an entrepreneurial savvy and quickly responded to customer demand. He knew how to use any occasion. Lithographic pictures were in great demand. Merchants bargained not in price, but in quantity. There wasn't enough stuff for everyone.

After six years of hard work and research, Sytin's products were noticed at the All-Russian Industrial Exhibition in Moscow. Luboks were exhibited here. Seeing them, the famous academician of painting Mikhail Botkin began to strongly advise Sytin to print copies of paintings by famous artists, to start replicating good reproductions. The case was new. Whether it will be beneficial or not is hard to say. Ivan Dmitrievich took a chance. He felt that such "high production would find its wide
buyer".

Ivan Dmitrievich received a silver medal for his popular prints. He was proud of this award all his life and revered it above the rest, probably because it was the very first.

The following year, Sytin bought his own house on Pyatnitskaya Street, moved his business there, and bought another lithographic machine. Since then, his business has grown rapidly.

For four years, he fulfilled Sharapov's orders in his lithography under the contract and delivered printed editions to his bookstore. And on January 1, 1883, Sytin had his own bookstore of a very modest size on Staraya Square. Trade went briskly. From here, Sytin's popular prints and books, packed in boxes, began their journey to remote corners of Russia. Often, authors of publications appeared in the shop, L. N. Tolstoy repeatedly visited, who talked with the officers, got accustomed to the young owner. In February of the same year, the book publishing company “I. D. Sytin and Co.” Books in the beginning were not distinguished by high taste. Their authors, for the sake of the consumers of the Nikolsky market, did not neglect plagiarism, they subjected some works of the classics to “turning over”.

“By instinct and conjecture, I understood how far we were from real literature,” Sytin wrote. “But the traditions of the popular book trade were very tenacious and they had to be broken with patience.”

But in the autumn of 1884, a handsome young man came into the shop on the Old Square. “My surname is Chertkov,” he introduced himself and took out three thin books and one manuscript from his pocket. These were the stories of N. Leskov, I. Turgenev and Tolstoy's "What makes people alive." Chertkov represented the interests of Leo Tolstoy and offered more meaningful books to the people. They were supposed to replace the vulgar editions that were being produced and be extremely cheap, at the same price as the previous ones - 80 kopecks per hundred. This is how the new publishing house of a cultural and educational character “Posrednik” began its activity, since Sytin willingly accepted the offer. In the first four years alone, the Posrednik firm produced 12 million copies of elegant books with works by famous Russian writers, the drawings on the covers of which were made by artists Repin, Kivshenko, Savitsky and others.

Sytin understood that the people needed not only these publications, but also others that directly contributed to the enlightenment of the people. In the same 1884, the first Sytin's "General Calendar for 1885" appeared at the Nizhny Novgorod Fair.

“I looked at the calendar as a universal reference book, as an encyclopedia for all occasions,” wrote Ivan Dmitrievich. He placed appeals to readers in calendars, consulted with them about the improvement of these publications.

In 1885, Sytin bought the printing house of the publisher Orlov with five printing machines, font and inventory for publishing calendars, and selected qualified editors. He entrusted the design to first-class artists, and consulted with L. N. Tolstoy about the content of the calendars. Sytin's "General Calendar" reached an unprecedented circulation - six million copies. He also published tear-off "diaries". The extraordinary popularity of calendars required a gradual increase in the number of their titles: by 1916 their number had reached 21 with a multi-million circulation of each of them. The business expanded, incomes grew ... In 1884, Sytin opened a second bookstore in Moscow on Nikolskaya Street. In 1885, with the acquisition of his own printing house and the expansion of lithography on Pyatnitskaya Street, the subject of Sytin's publications was replenished with new directions. In 1889, a book publishing partnership was established under the firm of I. D. Sytin with a capital of 110 thousand rubles.

Energetic and sociable, Sytin became close to the progressive figures of Russian culture, learned a lot from them, making up for the lack of education. Since 1889, he attended meetings of the Moscow Literacy Committee, which paid much attention to publishing books for the people. Together with the figures of public education D. Tikhomirov, L. Polivanov, V. Bekhterev, N. Tulupov and others, Sytin publishes brochures and paintings recommended by the Literacy Committee, publishes a series of folk books under the motto “Pravda”, conducts preparations, and then begins to publish with 1895 series “Library for self-education”. Having become a member of the Russian Bibliographic Society at Moscow University in 1890, Ivan Dmitrievich took on the costs of publishing the journal Knigovedenie in his printing house. The Society elected I. D. Sytin as its life member.

The great merit of I. D. Sytin consisted not only in the fact that he produced mass editions of cheap editions of Russian and foreign literary classics, but also in the fact that he produced numerous visual aids, educational literature for educational institutions and extracurricular reading, many scientific and popular series designed for a variety of tastes and interests. With great love, Sytin published colorful books and fairy tales for children, children's magazines. In 1891, together with the printing house, he acquired his first periodical, the magazine Vokrug Sveta.

The annual release of wholesale and retail catalogs, including thematic ones, often illustrated, made it possible for the Partnership to widely advertise its publications, ensure their timely and qualified sale through wholesale warehouses and bookstores. Acquaintance in 1893 with A.P. Chekhov had a beneficial effect on the activities of the publisher. It was Anton Pavlovich who insisted that Sytin start publishing the newspaper. In 1897, the Partnership acquired the previously unpopular newspaper Russkoye Slovo, changed its direction, and in a short time turned this publication into a large enterprise, inviting talented progressive journalists - Blagov, Amfiteatrov, Doroshevich, Gilyarovsky, G. Petrov, Vas. I. Nemirovich-Danchenko and others. The circulation of the newspaper at the beginning of the 20th century was approaching a million copies.

At the same time, I. D. Sytin improved and expanded his business: he bought paper, new machines, built new buildings for his factory (as he called the printing houses on Pyatnitskaya and Valovaya streets). By 1905, three buildings had already been erected. Sytin constantly, with the help of associates and members of the Association, conceived and implemented new publications. For the first time, the publication of multi-volume encyclopedias was undertaken - People's, Children's, Military. In 1911, a magnificent edition of The Great Reform was published, dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the abolition of serfdom. In 1912, a multi-volume anniversary edition “The Patriotic War of 1612 and Russian Society. 1812-1912″. In 1913 - a historical study on the tercentenary of the Romanov dynasty - "Three centuries". At the same time, the Partnership also published such books: “What does a peasant need?”, “Modern socio-political dictionary” (which explained the concepts of “social democratic party”, “dictatorship of the proletariat”, “capitalism”), as well as “Fantastic truths ” Amfiteatrov - about the pacification of the “rebels” of 1905.

Sytin's active publishing activity often caused dissatisfaction with the authorities. Increasingly, censorship slingshots arose in the way of many publications, the circulation of some books was confiscated, and the distribution of free textbooks and readers in schools through the efforts of the publisher was seen as undermining the foundations of the state. In the police department, a “case” was opened against Sytin. And no wonder: one of the richest people in Russia did not favor those in power. Coming from the people, he warmly sympathized with the working people, his workers, and believed that the level of their talent and resourcefulness was extremely high, but technical training, due to the lack of a school, was insufficient and weak. “…Ah, if these workers were given a real school!” he wrote. And he created such a school at the printing house. So in 1903, the Partnership established a school of technical drawing and engineering, the first graduation of which took place in 1908. In admission to the school, preference was given to the children of employees and workers of the Partnership, as well as residents of villages and villages with primary education. General education was replenished in the evening classes. Education and full maintenance of students was carried out at the expense of the Partnership.

The authorities called the Sytin printing house a “hornet's nest”. This is due to the fact that the Sytin workers were active participants in the revolutionary movement. They stood in the front ranks of the rebels in 1905 and published an issue of Izvestia of the Moscow Soviet of Workers' Deputies announcing the announcement of a general political strike in Moscow on December 7th. And on December 12, retribution followed at night: by order of the authorities, the Sytin printing house was set on fire. The walls and ceilings of the newly built main building of the factory collapsed, printing equipment, finished circulations of publications, stocks of paper, artistic blanks for printing died under the rubble ... This was a huge loss for an established business. Sytin received sympathetic telegrams, but did not succumb to despondency. Within six months, the five-story building of the printing house was restored. Art school students restored drawings and clichés, made originals of new covers, illustrations, headpieces. New machines were purchased… The work continued.

The network of Sytin's bookselling enterprises also expanded. By 1917, Sytin had four stores in Moscow, two in Petrograd, as well as stores in Kiev, Odessa, Kharkov, Yekaterinburg, Voronezh, Rostov-on-Don, Irkutsk, Saratov, Samara, Nizhny Novgorod, Warsaw and Sofia (jointly with Suvorin). Each store except retail trade was engaged in wholesale operations. Sytin came up with the idea of ​​delivering books and magazines to plants and factories. Orders for the delivery of publications based on the published catalogs were fulfilled within two to ten days, since the system for sending literature by cash on delivery was established perfectly. 1916 marked the 50th anniversary of I. D. Sytin's publishing activity. The Russian public widely celebrated this anniversary on February 19, 1917. The Russian Empire was living out its last days. A solemn honoring of Ivan Dmitrievich took place at the Polytechnic Museum in Moscow. This event was also marked by the release of a beautifully illustrated literary and artistic collection "Half a century for a book (1866 - 1916)", in the creation of which about 200 authors took part - representatives of science, literature, art, industry, public figures, who highly appreciated the outstanding personality of the hero of the day and his publishing and educational activities. M. Gorky, A. Kuprin, N. Rubakin, N. Roerich, P. Biryukov and many other remarkable people can be named among those who left their autographs along with articles. The hero of the day received dozens of colorful artistic addresses in luxurious folders, hundreds of greetings and telegrams. They emphasized that the work of I. D. Sytin is driven by a lofty and bright goal - to give the people the cheapest and most necessary book. Of course, Sytin was not a revolutionary. He was a very rich man, an enterprising businessman who knew how to weigh everything, calculate everything and stay with a profit. But his peasant origin, his stubborn desire to introduce ordinary people to knowledge, to culture, contributed to the awakening of people's self-consciousness. He took the Revolution as inevitable, for granted, and offered his services to the Soviet government. “I considered the transition to a faithful owner, to the people of the entire factory industry, a good thing and I entered the factory as an unpaid worker,” he wrote in his memoirs. under the new government, it has reliably gone to the people.”

First, a free consultant of the State Publishing House, then fulfilling various instructions from the Soviet government: he negotiated in Germany a concession for the paper industry for the needs of Soviet book publishing, on the instructions of the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs, he traveled with a group of cultural figures to the United States to organize an exhibition of paintings by Russian artists, led small printing houses. Under the brand of Sytin's publishing house, books continued to be published until 1924. In 1918, the first short biography of V. I. Lenin was printed under this brand. A number of documents and memoirs testify that Lenin knew Sytin, highly valued his activities and trusted him. It is known that at the beginning of 1918 I. D. Sytin was at the reception of Vladimir Ilyich. Apparently it was then - in Smolny - that the publisher presented the leader of the revolution with a copy of the anniversary edition of Half a Century for the Book with the inscription: “To my dear Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. Iv. Sytin”, which is now kept in Lenin’s personal library in the Kremlin.

Ivan Dmitrievich Sytin worked until the age of 75. The Soviet government recognized Sytin's services to Russian culture and enlightenment of the people. In 1928, a personal pension was established for him, and an apartment was assigned to him and his family.

It was in the middle of 1928 that I. D. Sytin settled in his last (out of four) Moscow apartment at No. 274 on Tverskaya Street in house No. 38 (now Tverskaya St., 12) on the second floor. Widowed in 1924, he occupied one small room in which he lived for seven years, and died here on November 23, 1934. After him, his children and grandchildren continued to live in this apartment. I. D. Sytin was buried at the Vvedensky (German) cemetery.

The memory of Sytin is also imprinted on a memorial plaque on the house number 18 on Tverskaya Street in Moscow, which was installed in 1973 and indicates that the famous book publisher and educator Ivan Dmitrievich Sytin lived here from 1904 to 1928. In 1974, a monument with a bas-relief of the publisher was erected on the grave of I. D. Sytin at the Vvedensky cemetery (sculptor Yu. S. Dines, architect M. M. Volkov).

It is not known with accuracy how many publications I. D. Sytin published in his entire life. However, many Sytin's books, albums, calendars, textbooks are kept in libraries, collected by book lovers, found in second-hand bookshops.

Sytin Ivan Dmitrievich(05.02.1851-28.11.1934). Born in the family of a volost clerk in the village of Gnezdnikovo, Soligalichsky district, Kostroma province, where he graduated from three classes of a rural school. " I left school lazy and got disgusted with the sciences and books - I got sick of cramming all the sciences by heart for three years", Sytin recalled. From the age of twelve he began to work: a seller from a tray with fur products at the Nizhny Novgorod fair, a painter's apprentice, etc. there were no vacancies in trade) at the Nikolsky market in Moscow - he became a "student of all needs" in a small book and picture and furrier's shop, where they sold popular prints, mostly of a religious content. The first year, Vanya ran in the "boys", doing all the menial work in the owner's house - Sharapov looked closely at the boy.

By the age of majority, Ivan Sytin rose to the rank of assistant store manager in Nizhny Novgorod. Here he showed his talent as a businessman: the idea came up to create a network of peddlers-ofen peddlers. There was a risk - after all, the goods were given on credit and for all losses, suddenly disappeared, the young manager answered. He recruited honest, practical people from local waterways - the poor, but who wanted to earn money. In the very first year, the experiment brought profit, the next year, many new people came who wanted to trade in “holy” pictures. Books were not thought of then: buyers - peasants from the surrounding villages, for the most part were illiterate. The success of trade largely depended on the selection of paintings in the ofeni box: one had to know the tastes well and understand the psychology of the people. The owner of the shop liked the idea, he often said: “Work, take care, everything will be yours” - the old man had no children of his own, and he became very attached to the smart guy.

In 1876, Sytin married the merchant's daughter Evdokia Ivanovna Sokolova. Having received 4,000 rubles as a dowry and borrowed 3,000 rubles from P.N. Sharapov, he acquired a lithograph for printing popular prints. On December 7, 1876, Sytin opened a lithographic workshop on Voronukhina Gora in Dorogomilov, but also continued to work in the owner's shop. It was then, with one lithographic machine, that the first book publishing business of I.D. Sytin began. Only folk pictures “worked” in a small room, the young owner immediately realized that a lot depends on quality and tried to make even simple products better than others, sparing no money, hired artists. Ivan Dmitrievich, possessing an entrepreneurial mindset, instantly responded to consumer demand, skillfully using any occasion: “ On the day the Russian-Turkish war of 1877 was declared, I ran to the Kuznetsk bridge, he recalled, bought a map of Bessarabia and Romania there and ordered the master to copy a part of the map during the night where our troops crossed the Prut. At five o'clock the card was ready and put into the machine with the signature: “For newspaper readers. Benefit". Lithographic pictures were in great demand. Merchants bargained not in price, but in quantity. Not enough goods for everyone».

After six years of hard work and search, Sytin received a silver medal for his products - popular prints exhibited at the All-Russian Industrial Exhibition in Moscow. He was very proud of this first award and esteemed it above the rest. And there were a lot of them: by 1916 - 26 medals and diplomas. Among them are gold medals received at the World Exhibitions in Paris in 1889 and 1900; a diploma confirming the right to depict the State Emblem, awarded at the All-Russian Exhibition in Nizhny Novgorod in 1896; gold medal awarded in Belgium in 1905, and many, many others...

By 1879, Sytin fully repays the loan to Sharapov, becomes the absolute owner of his lithograph, and also buys his own house on Pyatnitskaya and equips the lithograph in a new place. In early January 1883, Sytin opened his first bookstore on Staraya Ploshchad, and in February, after merging with other enterprises based on lithography, he founded the I.D. Sytin and Co. in a small shop five arshins wide and ten yards long. The fixed capital of the Partnership was 75 thousand rubles, half of which was contributed by Sytin. In 1884, Sytin opened a second bookstore on Nikolskaya Street in Moscow.

Calendars became an "epic" in Sytin's publishing business - at the end of 1884, the first Sytin's "General Calendar for 1885" was printed, which became an indispensable reference book for all occasions for many Russian families. The following year, the circulation of the Universal Calendar was 6 million copies, and by 1916 it had exceeded 21 million. For the first time, Sytin folk calendars appeared at the Nizhny Novgorod fair, they were publicly available both in price and in content - “Universal Russian”, “Small Universal”, “Generally Useful”, “Kiev”, “Folk Agricultural”, “Tsar Bell”, "Old Believer" and others. " in our calendars- wrote Sytin, - for the first time articles on different branches of knowledge appeared. They compare favorably with their bright appearance and an abundance of drawings in the text...».

In 1884, Sytin met V. G. Chertkov, a friend and attorney of L. N. Tolstoy. He suggested that the publisher publish a series of books for the people, which would include the best works of Russian writers. Chertkov admitted that he appealed to many, but no one was interested in the idea - how much can you earn on cheap books? Publishing house " Mediator”was created shortly before that on the initiative of L.N. Tolstoy and Sytin took over all the work of printing and distributing his books. Ivan Dmitrievich just got excited about this idea: “It was not a job, but a priestly service, Sytin recalled, - L.N. Tolstoy took the most intimate part in the printing, editing and sale of books.". The partnership lasted 15 years.

Interesting, informative and accessible books published by " mediator' were a resounding success. Contemporaries testified: His books are cheap, portable, and therefore they could easily penetrate where there are no lectures, no laboratories, no museums, no universities...". Sytin himself explained the success of his plan by the fact that he published books not “alone”, but in groups, series, libraries, believing that a separate book, even the most interesting one, can get lost among the mass of others - when released in groups, the reader will soon notice it. " The more extensively my publishing work developed, the more the idea matured in me that publishing in Russia is limitless and that there is no such corner in the life of the people where the Russian publisher would have absolutely nothing to do!", - said Sytin. His great merit lies in the fact that he was the first to release the cheapest editions of the collected works of A.S. Pushkin, N.V. Gogol, L.N. Tolstoy, A.P. Chekhov and other great writers; the first editions of the People's, Children's, Military Encyclopedias, the largest works on history and geography. These books were affordable to the general reader and reached him through a wide network of numerous publishing departments. Through them, Sytin expanded the network of small bookselling, providing significant discounts and permanent loans, which other publishers had never done.

In 1889, a book publishing partnership was established under the firm of I.D. Sytin with a capital of 110,000 rubles. Publishing activities expanded: the works of Pushkin, Krylov, folk epics, Koltsov's poems, literature for children - "Uncle Tom's Cabin", "Robinson Crusoe", Afanasiev's fairy tales were printed ... In 1891, the brothers M.A. and E.A. The Werner firm acquired the rights to publish the magazine "Around the world. Journal of travel and adventure on land and sea . To work in it, Sytin invited the color of Russian writers (among them - K. M. Stanyukovich, D. N. Mamin-Sibiryak and others), famous artists. The initial circulation of the magazine was less than five thousand, a year later it tripled. As supplements to the journal, a monthly illustrated collection "On land and at sea" (1911-1914) was published, collected works of Russian and foreign writers were published (J. Verne, V. Hugo, M.N. Zagoskin, I.S. Nikitin, M. Reid, G. Senkevich, V. Scott, L.N. Tolstoy).

In 1893, the turnover of the Partnership reached almost a million rubles, Sytin became a merchant of the Second Guild. A new printing house building was built on Valovaya Street, shops were opened in Moscow in the house of the Slavyansky Bazaar, in Kiev - in the Gostiny Dvor on Podol, in 1895 - in Warsaw, in 1899 - in Yekaterinburg and Odessa. Instead of the former, a new one was formed - “The Highest Approved Partnership for Printing, Publishing and Book Trade I.D. Sytin" with a fixed capital of 350 thousand rubles. There were 896 book titles registered in his catalog and the number grew rapidly. Orders by mail from anywhere in the Russian Empire were completed within 2-10 days. Sytin came up with the idea of ​​direct delivery of books and magazines to plants and factories.

The case brought Sytin to A.P. Chekhov, who asked to publish a small collection of his stories. This meeting turned into a friendship. It was Chekhov who gave Sytin the idea of ​​publishing a newspaper. In 1902, Russkoye Slovo began to appear, a newspaper that became one of the most popular in Russia. At various times, A.A. Block, P.D. Boborykin, V.Ya. Bryusov, I.A. Bunin, M. Gorky, A.I. Kuprin, L.N. Tolstoy. The editors of Russkiy Slovo were the first to keep their own correspondents in various cities of the country, and had an agreement with the largest Western European newspapers on the exchange of information. Contemporaries called it the "news factory" and the "Leviathan of the Russian press." The editorial office and printing house were located on Tverskoy Boulevard. A portrait of Chekhov adorned the editorial meeting room as a token of gratitude for the idea and help in its implementation. According to the newspaper's employees, only incidents happened in Moscow, and the events took place in St. Petersburg, so a large editorial office with a staff of one hundred people was organized in the capital. The efficiency of the "Russian Word" at that time was amazing. " Even the government does not have such a speed of collecting information”- the Minister of Finance, Count S.Yu. Witte, was amazed. The initial circulation of the newspaper - 13 thousand - in 1916 exceeded 700 thousand.

Contemporaries called Ivan Dmitrievich Sytin, the largest book publisher and educator who gave Russia hundreds of millions of cheap textbooks, general education and school allowances, popular books for public reading, libraries and libraries on self-education, the development of crafts and arts, the development of agriculture and industry, - “Russian Ford ”, “actual minister of education”, “book publishing artist”, “Russian nugget” ... V.I. Nemirovich-Danchenko, in a jubilee greeting on the 50th anniversary of Sytin, called him "his own ancestor", since he had neither influential relatives nor hereditary property - he achieved everything in his life thanks to his lively, inquisitive mind, practical acumen, flair for everything new, useful.

In 1903, Sytin created an art school at the printing house. All five years of study, her pupils were fully supported by the Partnership, the fixed capital of which by that time had reached a million rubles. In 1904, according to the project of A.E. Erikson, a large 4-storey building of a printing house with modern equipment was built on Pyatnitskaya. Trade departments were opened in Irkutsk, Rostov-on-Don. Sytin received permission to publish the children's magazine "Friend of Children", with which D.N. Mamin-Sibiryak, A.I. Kuprin, Professor A.M. Nikolsky and others. Trade also expanded: in 1909 the company acquired a controlling stake in the Counter-Agency A.S. Suvorina”, Becoming the owner of a large network of kiosks at the country's railway stations, Sytin bought the best places for selling newspapers from the Moscow City Council, and in 1911 new stores opened in Sofia and Saratov. The trade turnover reached 12 million rubles.

He attached great importance to the publication of textbooks, the demand for which was constantly growing. The public school and teaching were the subject of his special attention; in 1911, he built a Teacher's House on Malaya Ordynka, 31, with a pedagogical museum, classrooms, a library, and a large auditorium.

In 1914, the publishing house produced over a quarter of all book production in Russia. In 1916, Sytin acquired a controlling stake in the St. Petersburg Association of publishing and printing "A.F. Marks", incl. the popular Russian magazine Niva; in the same year, the Moscow Association of Publishing and Printing N.L. Kazetsky. The Sytin partnership owned a controlling stake in the St. Petersburg Industrial and Trade Association " M.O. Wolf". Ivan Dmitrievich was considering new plans: he was going to build his own stationery factory near Moscow with a town for printers, schools, hospitals, a theater, a church, a telegraph office ... The plans were not destined to come true - 1917 was approaching.

In October 1918, the "Partnership of I. D. Sytin" was nationalized, the printing house on Valovaya Street was suspended, in 1919 the printing house was transferred to Gosizdat. The Sytin printing house was called the First Exemplary. In 1921, Sytin tried to reopen the case and registered with Mosgubizdat "Partnership of I.D. Sytin", in 1922 approved the charter "Book Association of 1922", which lasted only until 1924.

But Ivan Dmitrievich continued to work in the publishing business: he was authorized by his former printing house - using personal connections and authority, he got paper abroad. Organized an art exhibition in the USA. He was even offered to lead Gosizdat RSFSR, but he refused, citing "illiteracy". True, he agreed to be a consultant to V.V. Vorovsky, who took this position.

In 1928, the government appointed I.D. Sytin's personal pension. Until his death in 1934, he lived on Tverskaya, 38 and wrote "Memoirs". They saw the light thanks to the efforts of his son only in the 1960s under the title "Life for the Book", which perfectly reflects the meaning of Ivan Dmitrievich Sytin's whole life. I.D. Sytin was buried at the Vvedensky cemetery.

© (according to the network)

Sytin Ivan Dmitrievich

(b. 1851 - d. 1934)

Newspaper and book magnate, educator, creator of the largest publishing company in pre-revolutionary Russia. He achieved in the publishing business the same success as his contemporaries J. Pulitzer and William R. Hearst in America and Lord Northcliffe in England.

Among the loudest names of Russian entrepreneurs who glorified Russia, the name of Sytin rightfully occupies one of the most honorable places. And not only because he amassed a huge fortune through his work or possessed inexhaustible energy, foresight, scope and readiness to help those in need. But first of all, because this native of poor Kostroma peasants, a merchant in the first generation, became one of the leading enlighteners of Russia at the beginning of the 20th century, the creator and head of the largest publishing and printing enterprise in the country.

Ivan Dmitrievich Sytin lived a long, eventful life and remained in the memory of several generations of compatriots as a man who fought for the enlightenment of ordinary people. He said: “During my life I have believed and believe in one force that helps me overcome all the hardships of life. I believe in the future of Russian education, in the Russian people, in the power of light and knowledge.” Setting the enlightenment of the people as his life goal, Sytin achieved that by the beginning of the 20th century, his enterprises produced a quarter of all printed publications produced in the country.

The future publisher was born under serfdom on January 25, 1851 in the small village of Gnezdnikovo, Soligalichsky district, Kostroma province. He was the eldest of four children of the volost clerk Dmitry Gerasimovich Sytin and his wife Olga Alexandrovna. Since the family lived very poorly, at the age of 12 Vanyusha left school and went to work in Nizhny Novgorod, where his uncle was a fur trader. Things were not going well for the relative, so the boy, who, although he helped drag the skins and sweep in the shop, was an extra mouth in the family. In this regard, two years later, his uncle sent him to Moscow, to the familiar merchant-Old Believer Pyotr Sharapov, who held two trades at the Ilyinsky Gate - furs and books. By a lucky chance, the new owner did not have a place in the fur shop where the relatives sent the boy, and in September 1866 Sytin began to serve "in the book business."

Only four years later the boy began to receive a salary - 5 rubles a month. Perseverance, perseverance, diligence pleased the elderly master, and the sociable student gradually became his confidant. He helped to sell books and pictures, selected literature for numerous "ofen" - village book-carriers, sometimes illiterate and judging the merits of books by their covers. Then Sharapov began to instruct Ivan to conduct trade at the Nizhny Novgorod fair, to accompany carts with popular prints to Ukraine and to some cities and villages in Russia.

In 1876, Ivan Sytin married Evdokia Ivanovna Sokolova, the daughter of a Moscow confectioner, and received 4,000 rubles as a dowry for his wife. This allowed him, borrowing another 3,000 from Sharapov, to buy his first lithographic machine. At the end of the same year, he opened a printing workshop on Voronukhina Gora near the Dorogomilovsky Bridge, which gave life to a huge publishing business. It is this event that is considered the moment of birth of the largest printing company MPO “First Model Printing House”.

Sytin's lithography was more than modest, it occupied only three rooms, and its printed editions at first did not differ much from the mass production of the Nikolsky market. But Ivan Dmitrievich was very inventive: so with the beginning of the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878. he began to issue maps with the designation of hostilities and the inscription: “For newspaper readers. Manual and battle pictures. These were the first such mass publications in Russia. They had no competitors, the product sold out instantly and brought fame and profit to the publisher.

In 1878, lithography became the property of Sytin, and the very next year he had the opportunity to buy his own house on Pyatnitskaya Street, equip a printing press in a new location and purchase additional printing equipment. Five years later, the book publishing company I. D. Sytin and Co. ”, whose trading shop was located on Staraya Square. At first, the books were not distinguished by high taste. Their authors, for the sake of consumers, did not disdain plagiarism, they subjected some works of the classics to “rewriting”. Sytin said at that time: “I understood by instinct and conjecture how far we were from real literature, but the traditions of the popular book trade were very tenacious, and they had to be broken with patience.”

Very soon, Ivan Dmitrievich was able to organize not only the preparation and production of printed materials at his own printing facilities, but also the successful sale of popular prints. He created a unique sales network of itinerant traveling salesmen that spanned the entire country. Further, according to the same scheme, publications of a different type began to spread. Sytin's merit was that he correctly determined which publications the future belongs to, and gradually, according to his marketing system, began to replace the popular print with new literature. Many educational publishing houses (Moscow Literacy Committee, Russian Wealth, etc.) entrusted Sytin with the production and marketing of their publications for the people.

In the autumn of 1884, Chertkov, representing the interests of L. N. Tolstoy, came into the shop on Staraya Square and offered for publication the stories of N. Leskov, I. Turgenev and Tolstoy's "What makes people alive." These more meaningful books were supposed to replace the primitive editions that were produced and be extremely cheap, at the same price as the previous ones - 80 kopecks per hundred. Sytin readily accepted the offer. This is how the new publishing house of a cultural and educational nature, Posrednik, began its activity, only in the first four years it published 12 million copies of elegant books with works by famous Russian writers.

Ivan Dmitrievich was looking for the possibility of issuing other publications that would help educate the people. In the same 1884, the first Sytin's "General Calendar for 1885" appeared at the Nizhny Novgorod Fair: "I looked at the calendar as a universal reference book, as an encyclopedia for all occasions." Things were going well, and soon a second bookstore was opened in Moscow on Nikolskaya Street.

The following year, Sytin bought Orlov's press with five printing presses and selected qualified editors. He entrusted the design of calendars to first-class artists, and consulted with L. N. Tolstoy about the content. As a result, the "General Calendar" reached a huge circulation - 6 million copies, and tear-off "diaries" were also issued. The extraordinary popularity of the new products required a gradual increase in the number of calendar titles: gradually their number reached 21, each with a multi-million print run.

In 1887, 50 years have passed since the death of Pushkin, and independent publishers were able to publish his works free of charge. Sytin's firm immediately reacted to this event with the release of a chic ten-volume collection of works by the famous author. In the process of work, Ivan Dmitrievich became close to the progressive figures of Russian culture and learned a lot from them, making up for the lack of education. Together with the figures of public education D. Tikhomirov, L. Polivanov, V. Bekhterev, N. Tulupov and others. Sytin published brochures and paintings recommended by the Literacy Committee, published a series of folk books under the motto "Truth". Having become a member of the Russian Bibliographic Society at Moscow University in 1890, Ivan Dmitrievich took upon himself the labor and expenses of publishing the journal Knigovedenie. By that time, his company was producing mass editions of cheap editions of the classics, numerous visual aids, literature for educational institutions and extracurricular reading, popular science series designed for a variety of tastes and interests, colorful books and fairy tales for children, and children's magazines.

In 1889, the book publishing "Partnership of Sytin" was established with a capital of 110 thousand rubles. Ivan Dmitrievich quickly turned into a monopolist - the owner of the country's largest publishing and printing complex. He controlled prices in the market, having his own share of at least 20% in the release of the folk book. The monopoly position in the market made it possible to create the necessary reserves for the technical re-equipment and modernization of production, and thanks to control over the distribution network, Sytin was able to calmly and systematically concentrate printing capacities in his hands.

Rotary printing presses, which appeared by this time in Europe, cost an order of magnitude more expensive than flat-bed printing presses, but at the same time they sharply reduced the cost, subject to sufficient loading and large print runs. Price reduction, in turn, meant a transition to a fundamentally different market - the mass market. First of all, Sytin became convinced of the potential capacity of this market. In the conditions of the crisis of 1891-1892, which led to a drop in demand for book products, tear-off calendars remained the most popular among the people's publications, for the release of which Sytin purchased the first two-color rotary machine in Russia.

Folk calendars - public home encyclopedias, from which a Russian person could learn everything he needed - brought their publisher both all-Russian fame and super profits. Further work in this direction meant not just monopolization, but the merging of private capital with the state. Over time, Sytin began to simply buy publishing and printing projects that were interesting to him. In 1893, he met A.P. Chekhov, who insisted that Sytin start publishing a newspaper. Ivan Dmitrievich acquired the popular magazines "Niva" and "Around the World", the newspaper "Russian Word", which was the first to open its own bureaus in various cities of the country, collaborated with talented journalists and at the beginning of the 20th century. had a circulation of about a million copies. The Sytin corporation absorbed the printing houses of Vasiliev, Solovyov, Orlov, and placed under its control the largest publishing houses of Suvorin and Marx.

Much attention was paid in the Partnership to advertising. Wholesale and retail catalogs were issued annually, which made it possible to widely advertise their publications, ensure the timely sale of literature through wholesale warehouses and bookstores. For ten years, from 1893 to 1903, the turnover of Sytin's firm increased by 4 times, despite the consequences of the crisis of 1900-1902, which sharpened competition to the limit. The inclusion of bankers on the Board of the Partnership and the widespread use of bank loans at preferential interest allowed the monopolist to continue its offensive on the market. The company's dividends were the highest in the industry, and its shares (unlike those of other publishing houses) were listed on the stock exchange.

New projects required the expansion of the business, and by 1905 three buildings of the next printing house had already been erected on Pyatnitskaya and Valovaya streets. By this time, under the guidance of the architect Erichson, a four-story house on Tverskaya was built on and acquired a modern look. At the same time, the so-called "Sytinskaya Tower" appeared - a five-story production building, which now houses a small newspaper rotation of the Izvestia publishing house. Strong reinforced concrete floors were arranged in the buildings, which to this day can withstand any printing technique.

Sytin, a native of the people, always wanted to help his workers learn and teach children, so he created a school of technical drawing and technical affairs at the printing house, the first graduation of which took place in 1908. When recruiting, preference was given to the children of employees of the Partnership, as well as those residents of villages and villages with primary education. General education was replenished in the evening classes. Training and full maintenance of students was carried out at the expense of the company.

Educated Sytin workers became active participants in the revolutionary movement. They stood in the front ranks of the rebels in 1905 and published the first issue of Izvestia of the Moscow Soviet of Workers' Deputies, which announced a general political strike. The printing house simultaneously printed classics and contemporaries, monarchists and Bolsheviks, liberals and conservatives. Panegyrics to Nicholas II and the “Manifesto of the Communist Party” were printed on neighboring presses, which only in two years of the revolution of 1905-1907. about 3 million copies were produced - Sytin printed what was in demand.

And one night retribution followed: one of the printing houses was set on fire. The walls and ceilings of the newly built main building of the factory collapsed, printing equipment, finished circulations of publications, stocks of paper, artistic blanks for printing died under the rubble. It was a huge loss for an established business. Ivan Dmitrievich received sympathetic telegrams, but did not succumb to despondency. Half a year later, the building was rebuilt, the students of the art school restored the drawings and clichés, made the originals of new covers, illustrations, screensavers. New machines were purchased and work continued. By 1911, the company's turnover exceeded 11 million rubles. At the same time, Vasily Petrovich Frolov, who began his career in Sytin lithography as a compositor, was appointed to the post of general director.

Sytin constantly conceived and implemented new editions: for the first time in Russia, the publication of multi-volume encyclopedias was undertaken - People's, Children's and Military. In 1911, a magnificent edition of The Great Reform was published, dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the abolition of serfdom, the following year, a multi-volume anniversary edition of The Patriotic War of 1812 and Russian Society. 1812-1912", in 1913 - a historical study on the tercentenary of the Romanov dynasty - "Three centuries".

The network of bookselling enterprises of the Partnership has also expanded. By 1917, Ivan Dmitrievich had 4 stores in Moscow and 2 in Petrograd, as well as bookstores in Kleve, Odessa, Kharkov, Yekaterinburg, Voronezh, Rostov-on-Don, Irkutsk, Saratov, Samara, Nizhny Novgorod, Warsaw and Sofia (together with Suvorin). Each store except retail trade was engaged in wholesale operations. Sytin came up with the idea of ​​delivering books and magazines to plants and factories. Orders for the delivery of publications through catalogs were completed within 2-10 days, since the system for sending literature by cash on delivery was well established.

Systematically seeking to reduce the cost of their products, Ivan Dmitrievich from the 1910s. became interested in industries that supplied the printing industry with raw materials and fuel. In 1913, he created a stationery syndicate and thus ensured control over the prices of paper supplied. Three years later, he formed a partnership in the oil industry, insuring himself against fuel price spikes. Finally, the final touch on the plan for the reorganization of mass book printing was Sytin's project to create a "Society for the Promotion of the Improvement and Development of the Book Business in Russia." It was assumed that the range of activities of this organization would be very wide - in addition to the production and marketing of printed materials, the society was supposed to train specialists, supply equipment and consumables, organize printing engineering, and in addition, bibliography and develop a network of libraries. Within the framework of the holding created under the guise of a public organization, further merging of private business and state interests was assumed. In the period 1914–1917. The company produced 25% of all printed matter in the Russian Empire.

In 1916, the 50th anniversary of Sytin's book publishing activity was widely celebrated in Moscow. The release of the beautifully illustrated literary and artistic collection “Half a century for a book (1866–1916)” was timed to coincide with the creation of which was attended by about 200 authors - representatives of science, literature, art, industry, and public figures. Among them were M. Gorky, A. Kuprin, N. Rubakin, N. Roerich, P. Biryukov and many other famous people of that time.

Before the February Revolution, Ivan Dmitrievich did not sell the business for pennies and did not emigrate abroad. In 1917, when Kerensky was the prime minister of the Provisional Government of Russia, Sytin tried to encourage Moscow entrepreneurs to alleviate the crisis that was growing in society by large food purchases for the population. He urged them: “The hungry should throw at least some kind of lifeline. The rich must make sacrifices." Sytin himself wanted to allocate everything that he could then for this - 6 million rubles, Varvara Morozova promised to give 15 million, the rich man N.A. Vtorov - the same amount. It was believed that in this way it was possible to gain 300 million. But they did not meet sympathy from anyone else. An equally unsuccessful attempt was made in St. Petersburg.

Of course, Sytin was not a revolutionary. He was a very rich man, an enterprising businessman who knew how to weigh everything, calculate everything and stay profitable. Ivan Dmitrievich took the October Revolution as inevitable and offered his services to the Soviet government. “I considered the transition to a faithful owner, to the people of the entire factory industry, a good thing and I entered the factory as an unpaid worker,” he wrote in his memoirs. “I was glad that the business, to which I devoted a lot of energy in my life, was getting good development - the book under the new government reliably went to the people.”

However, the activities of Sytin's enterprises were soon terminated and, during the nationalization carried out in 1919, they were transferred to the State Publishing House. Ivan Dmitrievich refused Lenin's offer to take the post of head of the Soviet publishing department, citing a three-year education. The former Sytinskaya, and now the First State Exemplary Printing House regularly published Bolshevik literature. In the 1920s, at the dawn of the New Economic Policy, Ivan Dmitrievich, together with his sons, made a desperate attempt to revive publishing life by registering the Book Association of 1922 with Mosgubizdat, which lasted less than two years. The Soviet government did not allow Sytin to an active life. But it didn't follow. By a special resolution of the Revolutionary Military Council, his apartment was freed from compaction as the housing of a person who "did a lot for the social democratic movement." However, after the death of Lenin, Sytin was offered to vacate the apartment, and he moved to house number 12 on Tverskaya Street, where he lived until the end of his days.

The Sytinskaya firm was originally conceived as a family business. The eldest of the sons of Ivan Dmitrievich Nikolai was his right hand, Vasily was the chief editor of the Partnership, Ivan was in charge of product sales. Peter was sent to Germany to study economics, and only the youngest, Dmitry, became an officer, fought on the side of the Reds in the civil war, and was at Frunze's headquarters.

Sytin was preparing his sons to eventually transfer the matter into their hands. Well, when the company was gone, the brothers went to work in various Soviet publishing houses. Nikolai was repressed for preparing an album for the significant anniversary of the Red Army. The album included portraits of those who were already in disgrace, which caused irritation at the top. At the request of Gorky's first wife, Ekaterina Pavlovna Peshkova, Nikolai's prison was replaced with exile.

Ivan Dmitrievich remained faithful to the printing business - until his retirement in 1928, he advised the leadership of the State Publishing House on the management of his former empire, helping to preserve the traditions of Russian printing business in the new conditions. The famous book publisher, as a sign of special gratitude for everything done, the new government gave the country's first personal pension of 250 rubles, which he received until his death.

Sytin was absorbed in his work all his life and sincerely considered himself a happy person. And he told his children and grandchildren: “When a gifted person does not love anything much, he does not rise above mediocrity.” Ivan Dmitrievich Sytin died of pneumonia on November 23, 1934 in Moscow at the age of eighty-three. No one publicly honored the memory of a man who did so much for the country. The deceased was escorted to the Vvedenskoye cemetery only by relatives, close friends and several former employees. Sytin's grandchildren no longer went to the publishing side.