Pavlenkov F.F. (1839-1900), publisher

Categories / Literature. Book Publishing/Personalia
PAVLENKOV Florenty Fedorovich (1839-1900), publisher. Graduated from the Mikhailovsky Artillery Academy (1861), served at the Kiev Arsenal and Bryansk Arsenal. Having resigned, he moved to St. Petersburg in 1865. In 1866, he started publishing. In 1867 he opened the Book Shop for Nonresidents (36 Nevsky Prospect). He was brought to trial for publishing the collected works by D. I. Pisarev but but won his case. Following the death of a critic, in 1868, he took over the responsibility for organizing the funeral, at which he delivered a speech. Not long afterwards he was arrested and spent 10 months in St. Peter and Paul Fortress and was then exiled to Vyatka under police surveillance. He came back to St. Petersburg in 1877; in 1880, he was again arrested and exiled to Siberia only to return in 1881. Pavlenkov's publishing activities were associated with education, he published books for self-education the Popular Science Library for the People was a cheap, omnibus edition of classical authors which was met with great success. The biographical series Life of Remarkable People including 200 biographies of figures of science, culture, art, literature and politics bought renown to Pavlenkov. Pavlenkov published the collected works of V. G. Belinsky in four volumes (1896), he prepared the first ever Russian legal publication of the collected works of A. I. Herzen which was published in 1905 with censorial suppressions. The publication of the omnibus Encyclopaedic Dictionary (1899; seven issues until 1923) had a special significance. Many publications of Pavlenkov were persecuted by the censorship. Pavlenkov bequeathed the biggest part of his capital to opening of free people's athenaeums (2018 of them were opened). Pavlenkov lived on 6 Malaya Italyanskaya Street (today Zhukovsky Street) in the 1890s in Petrograd. He died in Nice (France). He was buried in Literatorskie Mostki (the names of the book by A. Gano Full Course of Physics which laid the beginning of his publishing activity and of the Encyclopedia are ingraved on his tomb stone). N. A. Rozental, V. D. Cherkasov and V. I. Yakovenko, who were friends and associates, continued publishing after his death; the publishing house of Pavlenkov operated until 1917.

References: Рассудовская Н. М. Издатель Ф. Ф. Павленков (1839-1900): Очерк жизни и деятельности. М., 1960; Баренбаум И. Е., Костылева Н. А. Книжный Петербург - Ленинград. Л., 1986. С. 239-244; Горбунов Ю. А. Флорентий Павленков: Его жизнь и изд. деятельность. Челябинск, 1999.

A. B. Muratov. Belinsky Vissarion Grigorievich
Cherkasov V.D.
Herzen Alexander Ivanovich
Pavlenkov Florenty Fedorovich
Pisarev Dmitry Ivanovich
Rosental N.A .
Yakovenko Valentin Ivanovich
Nevsky prospect/Saint Petersburg, city, house 36
Zhukovskogo Street/Saint Petersburg, city, house 6
Баренбаум И. Е., Костылева Н. А. Книжный Петербург - Ленинград. Л., 1986
Горбунов Ю.А. Флорентий Павленков: Его жизнь и изд. деятельность. Челябинск, 1999
Рассудовская Н. М. Издатель Ф. Ф. Павленков (1839-1900): Очерк жизни и деятельности. М., 1960 St. Peter and Paul fortress
St. Peter and Paul fortress
Literatorskie (Literary) Mostki, the museum-necropolis