The beginning of printing in Russia, whose date inrecently became the subject of numerous discussions, usually associated with the names of Ivan Fedorov and Peter Mstislavets, who, by order of Tsar Ivan IV, established the first Russian printing press in the Kremlin.
By this time in Western Europe, printingwas already quite commonplace: after Johann Gutenberg in the middle of the XV century invented how not to rewrite books manually, and print them on special machines, printing houses appeared in many major European cities. Book printing for Europeans became vital: social and economic development, coupled with scientific and technological progress, would simply be impossible without meeting the storage and communication needs.
Typography in Russia had several othersbackground. Here, printed publications were necessary, first of all, in order to ideologically strengthen the increasingly powerful authority of the autocrat and the Orthodox Church. It was the mass creation of books of a religious orientation that, according to Ivan the Terrible, should not only unify all church books, getting rid of the heretical currents that appeared, but also create the necessary ideological basis for positioning Russia as a great power.
The beginning of printing in Russia causes a number ofissues. First, the chronicles talk about Ivan Fedorov and the first printing house is very unclear and vague. Moreover, in the letters of Ivan the Terrible, people like Marusha Nefediev and Vasyuk Nikiforov are mentioned in connection with the beginning of industrial production of books, of which there is no other information. The basic data directly about Ivan Fedorov and Petr Mstislavets are contained in works of the XVII century.
Secondly, if printing in Russia is usuallyassociated with the publication in Moscow in 1564 of the book "The Apostle", at the beginning of the XIX century in the field of view of historians were books that, as further examination showed, were published in Moscow earlier than this date. Scientists have so far identified seven such books: three Four-Gospels, two Psalms and two triads of Lenten.
Thirdly, much says that even before I.Fedorov in Moscow and a number of other cities, Russian masters, primarily from monasteries, who made attempts to create print shops to print religious books there. At the same time, the circulation of the publications produced in them was quite large, although the quality of the work left much to be desired.
According to official history, the beginningbook printing in Russia is associated with a special assignment, which Ivan the Terrible, together with Metropolitan Makarii, gave Ivan Fedorov. To accomplish this task, the latter began April 19, 1563, and only after almost a year, on March 1, 1564, he was issued the first "Apostle". The quality of this book largely surpassed foreign counterparts, but the circulation was extremely limited. A year later, Fedorov and Mstislavets published a "Chapel" in Moscow, after which they were forced to leave for Rzeczpospolita, where they created a new printing house and published the first printed "ABC".
After I.Fedorov left Moscow, his case in the Russian capital was continued by Nikifor Tarasyev and Andronicus, who released the Psalter in 1568. Despite the fire that soon happened, which completely destroyed the Printing House, the process of industrial manufacturing of books could not be stopped. Russia confidently moved along the path of the Enlightenment.
The beginning of printing in Russia, despite everythingThe present-day discussions and discrepancies have become an important milestone in the history of our country. The creation in Moscow of a printing house for the industrial production of books emphasized the great interest of the society in literate people and created the preconditions for the further development of the country.
