2007/02/05

February 5 in Russian history

First of all, I beg your pardon if I miss some "days in history" from time to time, like now...

1494: The end of the first Muscovite-Lithuanian war. Ivan III, in the union with the Crimean khan Mengli Girai, managed to gain large territories, which passed from one hands to another for a long time: Vyazma, Kozelsk, Meshchera, Tarusa and a number of other cities. The most important part of the treaty, signed on February 5, 1494 in Moscow, was that the Lithuanians agreed to name Ivan III "sovereign of all Russia." The importance of this step comes from the fact that by this time Russians constituted more than a half of the population of Lithuania, which bore the official name of the Lithuanian-Russian state. Until 1494, Lithuania and Muscovy contested the right to be the nucleus of the forming Russia. Alexander, the duke of Lithuania, married Elena, daughter of Ivan III. The "eternal peace" survived for six years, when another war followed.

1851: Ivan Dmitrievich Sytin was born. He was born in a distant village near Kostroma and his parents were literate, but poor. He moved to Moscow and began working at a book publishing company. Some years later, his boss helped him to start his own publishing business. Soon he became one of the largest publishers and educators in Russia. He published books by Tolstoy and Chekhov, the so called "Popular Calendar" which could be found in almost every home in Russia, and newspapers and magazines for general public, for children, for teachers, etc. One of the largest Russian newspapers, "Russkoe Slovo", was founded by Sytin. One of his magazines, "Vokrug Sveta" (Around the world) is still one of my favourite monthlies. By 1914, around 25% of all book published in Russia were printed by Sytin. In 1911, he built "The teachers' house" in Moscow and sponsored gifted children. In 1917, his typographies were nationalized and he became unemployed. Then, he was invited to work in his own typography, sicne 1928 he received a special personal pension (a very small one, though) and died in 1934.

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