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Birth of Russian publisher Florentiy Feodorovich Pavlenkov
«None of Pavlenkov’s initiatives… could be compared to that huge impact which had over Russian readers of all social strata and ranks the “Biographic Library or Life of Remarkable persons” issued by Pavlenkov.
N. А. Rubakin, Russian bibliographer
8 (20) October 1839 in Tambov Province into a noble family was born Florentiy F. Pavlenkov, Russian educator and publisher who had published over 750 books including a series of "Life of Remarkable Persons" (200 biographies), and Encyclopaedia.
Pavlenkov studied at the Mikhailovsky Artillery Academy, after which he served in the Kiev and Bryansk arsenals. Still a student, he began to engage in literary work, published his works in the "Russian word", "Artillery Journal", "Russian Invalid". As a student he met with philosopher and writer P. L. Lavrov, was carried away by the works of A. I. Herzen, D. I. Pisarev, N. G. Chernyshevsky, N. A. Dobrolyubov, which affected his world outlook and the future work in publishing.
In 1866 Pavlenkov retired and moved to St. Petersburg, where he decided to do a book-selling, translation and publishing. One of the first books which he translated and published was "A complete course in physics," by a French scientist A. Gano.
The next undertaking of Pavlenkov involved the preparation of the publication of collected works by Pisarev. The publication of literary works by Pisarev was not approved by censorship and led to a trial. As a result, the publisher was sent to the Vyatka province, where he spent ten years. In exile, he composed a "Visual alphabet for teaching and learning of literacy" using a technique of Swiss educator J. H. Pestalozzi. He also wrote a collection of journalistic articles, "Vyatka forget-me-not" - a commemorative book on the Vyatka province for 1878. Having returned to St. Petersburg Florentiy Pavlenkov continued his publishing activities. However, two years later, on suspicion of collaborating with terrorists-populists, he was arrested again and exiled to Western Siberia.
Pavlenkov returned to St. Petersburg in 1881 and continued to publish books. In those years he began to publish the works of Russian writers A. S. Pushkin, M. Yu. Lermontov, N. V. Gogol, F. M. Reshetnikov, G. I. Uspensky, V. S. Belinskiy. Owing to his publishing house Russian reader discovered the works by representatives of the Western Europe literature, such as Victor Hugo, Charles Dickens. Pavlenkov also published non-fiction books on physics, astronomy, zoology, botany, sociology; published a book by Engels 'The Origin of the Family, Private Property and State"; prepared Russia's first collected works of Herzen, and founded several series of books for children: "Pushkin Library", "Gogol library", "Lermontov library," "Fairy library."
In the 1880's publishing work of Pavlenkov gained in scope. In 1889 he released a new series of books – biographic library “Life of remarkable persons." During the life of a publisher in this series were released 200 biographies of progressive leaders of the world. This library was the first universal collection of biographies in Russia, which was the forerunner of M. Gorky’s series "Life of remarkable persons". Pavlenko also published a "Library of useful knowledge", dedicated to applied science and art. Also gained wide popularity an illustrated single-volume "Encyclopedia" which he published, containing 2067 images, 895 portraits and 112 maps. Publisher himself read all incoming manuscripts, selected illustrations, and sometimes worked as proof. The material on the dictionary was easy for understanding and thus very popular among readers.
January 20 (February 1), 1900 Florentiy F. Pavlenkov died in Nice (France), aged 60 and was buried on the catwalk Literatorskie, Volkov cemetery in St. Petersburg. He bequeathed his capital to public libraries, reading rooms and Fund of writers. By 1911 his will to open free libraries in all Russian provinces was implemented. The publishing house of the Russian educator lasted only until 1917.
In the 1990's interest for the book publishing work of Pavlenkov began to revive: many libraries were named after the Russian educator, and under the auspices of UNESCO was established a Club called "The Community of Pavlenkov’s libraries."
Lit.: Блюм А. В. Павленков в Вятке. Киров, 1976; Горбунов Ю. А. Флорентий Павленков: Его жизнь и издательская деятельность. Челябинск, 1999; Издания Ф. Павленкова. [Каталог]. СПб., 1891; Рассудовская Н. М. Издатель Ф. Ф. Павленков. М., 1960; Черкасов В. Д. Фл. Ф. Павленков. СПб., 1907.
Based on the Presidential Library’s materials:
Гольцендорф Ф. Роль общественного мнения в государственной жизни. Изд. Ф. Павленкова. СПб., 1881;
Горянская С. Ф. Беседы о законах и порядках: (азбука законоведения). Изд. Ф. Павленкова. СПб., 1887;