Suvorin А.S. (1834-1912), publisher

Categories / Press. Mass Media/Personalia
Categories / Literature. Book Publishing/Personalia
SUVORIN Alexey Sergeevich (1834-1912, St. Petersburg), publicist, writer, publisher. Suvorin completed special courses of the Noblemen Regiment (1853), and from 1863 when he settled in St. Petersburg embarked on journalism, and was active as a theatre critic and columnist of Sankt-Peterburgskie Vedomosti. In the 1860s he was closely connected with radical circles. From 1876 published and edited the newspaper Novoe Vremya. In 1877 Suvorin purchased a printing house (Мalaya Italyanskaya Street, today 47 Zhukovsky Street; later he moved it to Ertelev Lane, today 13 Chekhova Street) subsequently turning it into one of the most advanced enterprises of its time. In 1878 Suvorin opened a book store in St. Petersburg and by the end of the 19th century set up a large Publishing and Book Selling Company (with stores in St. Petersburg - the largest one at 40 Nevsky Prospect – and other cities). The A. S. Suvorin and Co Agency, founded in 1903, exercised monopoly rights for selling print media on the railway. The Cheap Library series which published around 300 works of Russian and foreign classics, were quite popular. Suvorin also published the journals Istorichesky Vestnik and Drevnyaya i Novaya Rossia. He was also responsible for publishing Annual directories Vsya Rossiya, Vsya Moskva, and Ves Peterburg, which are of particular interest to historians and regional ethnographers. In the publishing circles Suvorin positioned himself as the prince of journalism, an enterprising book publisher and an unscrupulous hustler. Suvorin's Diary (with the abridged version published in 1923, and the complete one in 1999 in Moscow), provided a valuable resource for the study of St. Petersburg in the late 19th - early 20th century. Suvorin is also known as one of the co-founders of the Literary Society and Affiliated Theatre (today - G. A. Tovstonogov Bolshoy Academic Drama Theatre; 65 Fontanka River Embankment), he owned the controlling share of the company and Petersburgers called it Suvorin's Theatre. Suvorin's house in Ertelev Lane (now 6 Chekhov Street, 1889-90, architects V. F. Kharlamov and F. S. Kharlamov) was one of the centres of St. Petersburg's literary, cultural and social life, also frequently visited by Anton Chekhov, a long term friend of Suvorin (today in the building of the Theatrical Institute - School of Russian Drama). Suvorin is buried at the cemetery of Alexander Nevsky Lavra.

References: Исаченко В. Г. Особняк Суворина. СПб., 1996; Динерштейн Е. А. А. С. Суворин: Человек, сделавший карьеру. М., 1998; Телохранитель России: А. С. Суворин в воспоминаниях современников. Воронеж, 2001.

A. B. Muratov. Chekhov Anton Pavlovich
Kharlamov Fedor Semenovich
Kharlamov Vladimir Fedorovich
Suvorin Alexey Sergeevich
Tovstonogov Georgy Alexandrovich
Chekhova St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 13
Chekhova St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 6
Fontanka River Embankment/Saint Petersburg, city, house 65
Nevsky prospect/Saint Petersburg, city, house 40
Zhukovskogo Street/Saint Petersburg, city, house 47
Динерштейн Е. А. А. С. Суворин: Человек, сделавший карьеру. М., 1998
Баренбаум И. Е., Костылева Н. А. Книжный Петербург - Ленинград. Л., 1986
Исаченко В. Г. Особняк Суворина. СПб., 1996 Sankt Peterburgskie Vedomosti (St. Petersburg Gazette), newspaper
Novoe vremya (The New Time), newspaper, 1868-1917
Tovstonogov Bolshoy Drama Theatre
Nikolskoe Cemetery