Sytin ivan dmitrievich - biography. For everyone and about everything I.D. Sytin as an example of a successful combination of educational and entrepreneurial activities in pre-revolutionary Russia

(1851-1934) Russian entrepreneur and book publisher

Ivan Dmitrievich Sytin did not acquire all-Russian fame immediately. Only thanks to everyday work did he become what he remained in the history of culture of the 20th century - one of the most interesting and successful Russian publishers, whose name has become a kind of symbol. True, later readers somehow ceased to realize the authorship of many of his inventions. Now, few people know that it was Sytin who owns, for example, the idea of ​​publishing cheap books, as well as the famous tear-off calendars. He managed to expand his enterprise in the country, most of whose population was illiterate, but was introduced to knowledge thanks to his efforts.

Ivan Sytin was born in the village of Gnezdnikovo, Soligalichsky district, Kostroma province, where his father worked as a volost clerk. When Ivan was five years old, the family moved to Soligalich, where by that time two of his uncles had settled.

After graduation primary school in Soligalich, my uncle took Ivan as a delivery boy to the Nizhny Novgorod fair. There Ivan went over to a merchant-furrier, well-known in the city. He helped the owner so well that after the end of the fair he took the smart boy to his place in Kolomna.

Several weeks later, he recommended Ivan to the Moscow merchant P. Sharapov, who had two trade in Moscow - book and fur trade. There was no room in the fur store, and in the fall of 1866 Ivan began working as a boy in Sharapov's book and picture shop in Moscow. Initially, he helped pack the goods, but soon began to replace the sellers.

Ivan Sytin worked for Sharapov for ten years, and during this time he went all the way from a peddling boy to the chief clerk in a store. Gradually, Sharapov instructed him to conduct the entire sale of popular prints. He supplied printed products to traveling tradesmen - ofen. To better study the market, Sytin not only sold popular prints, but also traveled for several years with traders across Russia and Little Russia.

At the Nizhny Novgorod fair, where he also traveled annually on behalf of Sharapov, he came up with the idea of ​​teaching several peddlers of books and popular prints how best to trade these products. Five years later, around a hundred merchants united around Ivan Sytin. This kind of artel also gave a good profit.

After the wedding - Ivan Dmitrievich Sytin, on the advice of Sharapov, married the daughter of his acquaintance, a pastry chef - he decided to start his own business. With his wife's dowry and borrowed money, he bought a printing press and opened his own lithograph for the publication of popular prints. Thanks to good quality execution and low prices, his goods were in demand and brought good profits. A year later, Sytin not only paid off his debts, but also completely separated from Sharapov and opened his own shop at the Ilyinsky Gate. And a few months later, he founded a book publishing company called "Sytin and Co".

The main activity of the printing house was the production of cheap and generally available products. These were primarily popular prints, as well as various cheap editions. Since 1884, Ivan Sytin began to cooperate with V. Chertkov, the secretary of Leo Tolstoy, and soon all publications of the Posrednik publishing house founded with the participation of L. Tolstoy began to be printed in his printing house.

But the main products of Sytin were still prints. This genre of book production was well known to the buyer. In Russian huts one could often find elegant pictures with an unpretentious plot and a laconic signature under them.

Ivan Dmitrievich Sytin was distinguished not only by his special acumen and enterprise, but also by his craving for everything new. At first, he attracted to work on popular prints famous artists- Viktor Vasnetsov and K. Mikeshin. But the main thing is that for the first time I used the most modern technology- a multicolor lithographic machine. Initially, Sytin bought cars abroad, but at the exhibition in 1882 he already showed the first model made for him in Russia. In addition to popular prints, the publisher produced colorfully designed calendars. He also first introduced tear-off calendars and began to make annual table books for reading.

In addition, Ivan Sytin first began to study the market and print those paintings that were in demand. He soon realized that some stories were popular in the city, and completely different in the villages. So gradually he began to publish popular prints targeted at a specific customer. Thanks to his own printing house and large circulation, he was able to keep low wholesale prices, and this determined the high demand for his publications.

In addition to paintings, Sytin also reformed the book market: instead of popular prints of fairy tales and stories about Bove the Prince and Eruslan Lazarevich, he began to print cheap books with works by Pushkin, Gogol, Lermontov. They had bright covers, illustrated popular artists... Since 1901, a special drawing school has been operating at his publishing house under the direction of the artist N.A.Kasatkin.

A special passion of Ivan Sytin was children's literature. He saturated the market with cheap editions of primary school textbooks, fairy tales, educational books and translations. But the greatest fame was brought to him by the "Children's Encyclopedia" in 10 volumes - the first edition of this kind, published in Russia.

Serial publications and multivolume editions occupied a significant place in Sytin's activities. These were encyclopedias - "People's", "Children's" "Military", as well as the famous series "The Patriotic War of 1812 and Russian society". All these publications were distinguished by excellent printing and high scientific quality.

From 1897 to 1917, Ivan Dmitrievich Sytin published the newspaper "Russian Word". He started this business on the advice of Anton Pavlovich Chekhov. Gradually increasing, the newspaper's circulation reached 740 thousand copies. In addition to the newspaper, the publisher began to print mass magazines - "Around the World", "Iskra". In 1916, he acquired the majority of shares in the publishing house of A.F. Marx and became the leading producer of mass book production in Russia. He owned two of the largest printing houses - newspaper and book (now it is the First Model Printing House). They were equipped with the most advanced printing technology. In addition, Sytin opened 16 bookstores in different cities of Russia. He was one of the first Russian publishers to enter the world market.

In 1917, Ivan Sytin transferred his newspaper and printing house to the state, and in May 1919 all his other enterprises were nationalized. For more than five years, Sytin worked as the director of his former printing house. On behalf of Anatoly Lunacharsky, he traveled abroad to negotiate the supply of paper and the device book exhibitions... But working with the new authorities became more and more difficult, and in 1924 Sytin's publishing house was completely closed. He had less and less strength, and in 1928 Ivan Dmitrievich became a pensioner. He spent the rest of his life in Moscow.

Ivan Dmitrievich Sytin was never shy about not receiving any systematic education. He studied all his life, although sometimes he found himself in uncomfortable positions. Once a young man came to him and offered to buy a story. Sytin liked the text and bought it for five rubles. Only later in the printing house it became clear that he was offered ... a story by Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol. And the young man turned out to be the writer V.M.Doroshevich, who was beginning at that time, with whom he subsequently had excellent relations. Ivan Sytin spoke about his life and meetings in his memoirs "Life for a Book"

The site observer studied the biography of Ivan Dmitrievich Sytin, one of the largest Russian publishers and educators of the 19th century, who published inexpensive classical literature and was the owner of several popular newspapers.

Publishing activity in Russian Empire in the middle of the 19th century, it was not in the best condition, and it is not surprising: most of the population of the empire remained illiterate, and the upper strata of society preferred foreign magazines and newspapers. After the abolition of serfdom and the gradual popularization of primary education, this problem came to the fore. It was not only about periodicals, but also about books that were supposed to interest new readers, some of whom had only recently mastered reading and writing. In many respects, these tasks were solved thanks to the activities of Ivan Dmitrievich Sytin. Starting his career as a merchant's assistant, he became one of the largest publishers in the empire.

Early life

Sytin Ivan Dmitrievich

(born in 1851 - d. in 1934)

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

Among the most famous names of Russian entrepreneurs who glorified Russia, the name of Sytin is rightfully one of the most honorable places. And not only because he made a huge fortune by his labor or possessed inexhaustible energy, foresight, scope and readiness to help those in need. But primarily because this native of poor Kostroma peasants, a merchant in the first generation, became one of the leading educators of Russia at the beginning of the 20th century, the founder and head of the country's largest publishing and printing enterprise.

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 the common people. He said: “During my life, I have believed and believe in one force that helps me to overcome all the hardships of life. I believe in the future of Russian enlightenment, in the Russian people, in the power of light and knowledge. " Having put their life purpose enlightening the people, Sytin achieved that by the beginning of the 20th century his enterprises accounted for a quarter of all printed publications in the country.

The future book 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 dropped out of school and went to work in Nizhny Novgorod, where his uncle traded in furs. The relative's business was not going well, so the boy, who, although he helped carry the skins and swept in the shop, was an extra mouth in the family. In this regard, two years later, his uncle sent him to Moscow, to a friend of the Old Believer merchant Pyotr Sharapov, who held two trades at the Ilyinsky Gate - furs and books. By a lucky coincidence, the new owner did not have a place in the fur shop, where the relatives were sending the boy, and in September 1866 Sytin began serving "in the book business."

Only four years later, the boy began to receive a salary - 5 rubles a month. Perseverance, perseverance, hard work liked the elderly owner, and the sociable student gradually became his confidant. He helped sell books and pictures, selected literature for numerous "offeni" - village booksellers, 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 of Russia.

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

Sytin's lithograph was more than modest, it occupied only three rooms, and at first her printed editions hardly differed 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. Benefit and battle pictures ”. These were the first such mass publications in Russia. They had no competitors, the product was sold out instantly and brought fame and profit to the publisher.

In 1878, the lithograph became the property of Sytin, and the very next year he had the opportunity to buy own house on Pyatnitskaya Street, to equip a press at a new location and purchase additional printing equipment. Five years later, the publishing company “I. D. Sytin and K0 ", Trade Shop which was located on the Old Square. At first, the books were not very tasteful. Their authors, to please consumers, did not disdain plagiarism, subjected to "reworking" some works of the classics. Sytin said at the time: “With a feeling and guess I understood 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 has created a unique distribution network of free traveling commercials that spans the entire country. Later, publications of a different type began to spread along the same lines. The merit of Sytin was the fact that he correctly determined which editions were the future, and gradually began to replace the popular print in his sales system. new literature... Many educational publishing houses (Moscow Literacy Committee, Russian wealth”And others) it was Sytin who was entrusted with the production and sale of their publications for the people.

In the fall of 1884, Chertkov, representing the interests of Leo Tolstoy, entered a shop on Staraya Square and offered for publication the stories of N. Leskov, I. Turgenev and Tolstoy's "How People Live". These more meaningful books were supposed to replace the primitive editions that were published and be extremely cheap, at the same price as the previous ones - 80 kopecks per hundred. Sytin willingly accepted the offer. This is how the new publishing house of cultural and educational character "Posrednik" began its activity, in the first four years alone it published 12 million copies of elegant books with the works of famous Russian writers.

Ivan Dmitrievich was looking for the possibility of issuing other publications that would contribute to the education of the people. In the same 1884, at the Nizhny Novgorod fair, the first Sytinskiy "General calendar for 1885" appeared: "I looked at the calendar as a universal reference book, as an encyclopedia for all occasions." Business went well, and soon a second bookstore was opened in Moscow on Nikolskaya Street.

The next year, Sytin bought Orlov's printing press with five printing machines, and selected qualified editors. He entrusted the design of the calendars to first-class artists, and consulted Leo Tolstoy about the content. As a result, the "Universal 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, and each was issued in a multimillion circulation.

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 gorgeous ten-volume collected works famous author... In the course of his work, Ivan Dmitrievich became close to progressive figures of Russian culture and learned a lot from them, making up for the lack of education. Together with public education figures D. Tikhomirov, L. Polivanov, V. Bekhterev, N. Tulupov and others. Sytin published brochures and pictures recommended by the Literacy Committee, published a series of folk books under the slogan "Pravda". Having become a member of the Russian Bibliographic Society at Moscow University in 1890, Ivan Dmitrievich took upon himself the labor and costs of publishing the journal "Book Science". By that time, his company was mass-circulating cheap editions of 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, children's magazines.

In 1889 the publishing house "Sytin's Partnership" 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 output folk books... The monopoly position in the market made it possible to create the necessary reserves for technical re-equipment and modernization of production, and thanks to control over the distribution network, Sytin was able to calmly and systematically concentrate on the concentration of printing facilities in his hands.

Rotary printing presses that had appeared by this time in Europe cost an order of magnitude more expensive than flat-bed printing machines, but at the same time they sharply reduced the cost, subject to sufficient loading and large circulations. The decline in prices, in turn, meant a transition to a fundamentally different market - a mass market. First of all, Sytin was 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 massive of the popular editions, for the production of which Sytin purchased the first two-color rotary machine in Russia.

Folk calendars - publicly available home encyclopedias, from which a Russian person could learn everything they need - brought their publisher both all-Russian glory and super profit. 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 up 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 bureaux in various cities of the country, collaborated with talented journalists and at the beginning of the XX century. had a circulation of about a million copies. Sytin's corporation absorbed the printing houses of Vasiliev, Soloviev, Orlov, and put under its control the largest publishing houses of Suvorin and Marx.

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

New projects required the expansion of the business, and by 1905 three buildings had already been erected for the next printing house on Pyatnitskaya and Valovaya streets. By this time, under the leadership of the architect Erichson, it was built on and acquired modern look four-storey house on Tverskaya. 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 installed 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 their 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, the children of the Partnership employees were preferred, as well as those residents of villages and villages that had primary education... General education was replenished in evening classes. The training and full content of the students was carried out at the expense of the company.

Educated Sytyn workers became active participants revolutionary movement... They stood in the front ranks of the insurgents in 1905 and published the first issue of Izvestia of the Moscow Soviet of Workers' Deputies, which declared a general political strike. The printing house simultaneously printed classics and contemporaries, monarchists and Bolsheviks, liberals and conservatives. On neighboring machines, eulogies were printed to Nicholas II and the "Manifesto of the Communist Party", which in only two years of the revolution of 1905-1907. about 3 million copies were issued - 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, ready-made editions of publications, stocks of paper, art blanks for printing perished under the rubble. This was a huge damage to the well-established business. Ivan Dmitrievich received sympathetic telegrams, but did not succumb to despondency. Within half a year, the building was rebuilt, the students of the art school restored drawings and cliches, made the originals of new covers, illustrations, headpieces. New machines were purchased and work continued. By 1911, the company's turnover exceeded 11 million rubles. Then on the post general director Vasily Petrovich Frolov was appointed, who began his career in Sytinsk lithography as a typesetter.

Sytin constantly conceived and carried out new editions: for the first time in Russia, the publication of multivolume encyclopedias was undertaken - Narodnaya, Children's and Military. In 1911 the magnificent edition “ Great reform"Dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the abolition of serfdom, next year - a multivolume anniversary edition" The Patriotic War of 1812 and Russian Society. 1812-1912 ", in 1913 - historical research about the 300th anniversary of the House of Romanov - "Three centuries".

The network of the Partnership's book-selling enterprises has also expanded. By 1917, Ivan Dmitrievich had 4 stores in Moscow and 2 in Petrograd, as well as bookstores in Klev, Odessa, Kharkov, Yekaterinburg, Voronezh, Rostov-on-Don, Irkutsk, Saratov, Samara, Nizhny Novgorod, in Warsaw and Sofia (together with Suvorin). Each store, apart from retail trade, was engaged in wholesale operations. Sytin had the idea to deliver books and magazines to factories and factories. Orders for the delivery of publications according to catalogs were carried out within 2-10 days, since the system of sending literature by cash on delivery was well established.

Systematically seeking to reduce the cost of his 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 paperwork syndicate and thus ensured control over the prices of the paper supplied. Three years later, he formed a partnership in the oil industry, insuring himself against spikes in fuel prices. Finally, the final touch in the plan for the reorganization of mass printing was the Sytin project of creating a "Society for the Promotion and Development of Book Industry in Russia." It was assumed that the range of activities of this organization would be very wide - in addition to the production and sale of printed materials, the society was to deal with the training of specialists, the supply of equipment and consumables, the organization of printing engineering, as well as bibliography and the development of a network of libraries. Within the framework created under the guise public organization the holding assumed a further fusion of private business and state interests. In the period 1914-1917. the company produced 25% of all printed products of the Russian Empire.

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

Front February revolution Ivan Dmitrievich did not sell the business for a pittance 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 mitigate the growing crisis in society by making large food purchases for the population. He urged them: “The hungry one should throw at least some kind of life preserver. The rich should make sacrifices. " Sytin himself wanted to allocate everything he could then - 6 million rubles, Varvara Morozova promised to give 15 million, the rich man N.A.Vtorov - the same. It was believed that this way you can collect 300 million. But they did not find 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 with a profit. Ivan Dmitrievich perceived the October coup as inevitable and offered his services to the Soviet government. “The transition to the faithful owner, to the people of the entire factory industry, I considered good deed and entered a factory as a free worker, he wrote in his memoirs. - I was glad that the work, to which I gave a lot of energy in my life, received good development- the book has reliably went to the people under the new government. "

However, soon the activities of Sytin's enterprises were terminated and in the course of 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 Model 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 his publishing life, registering the “Book Association of 1922” in Mosgubizdat, which existed for less than two years. Before active life the Soviet government did not allow Sytin. But it did not pursue either. 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 Lenin's death, 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 - the chief editor of the Partnership, Ivan was in charge of the sale of products. Peter was sent to Germany to study economic sciences, and only the younger, Dmitry, became an officer, in civil war fought on the side of the Reds, was at the headquarters of Frunze.

Sytin was preparing his sons to transfer the matter into their hands over time. Well, when the company was gone, the brothers went to work in various Soviet publishing houses. Nicholas was repressed for preparing an album for the significant anniversary of the Red Army. The album contains portraits of those who have already fallen into 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 consulted the management of the State Publishing House on the management of his former empire contributing to the preservation of the traditions of Russian printing in the new conditions. To the famous book publisher, as a token of special gratitude for everything that has been done, 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 happy man... And he said to 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 years. No one publicly honored the memory of a person who has done so much for the country. Only relatives, close friends and several former employees accompanied the deceased to the Vvedenskoye cemetery. Sytin's grandchildren did not go to the publishing department.