Publishing – is one of the major hearths of culture and enlightenment, and the publishers shall be treated as the enlighteners of the public, for these are the publishers, to whom many works owe their appearance, which otherwise would not have ever appear; the publishers, by giving a certain direction to their businesses, so to say develop the taste to this or that realm of science or literature, establish readers and contribute to the spread of literacy

>> Publishers

"Publishing" – is one of the major hearths of culture and enlightenment, and the publishers shall be treated as the enlighteners of the public, for these are the publishers, to whom many works owe their appearance, which otherwise would not have ever appear; the publishers, by giving a certain direction to their businesses, so to say develop the taste to this or that realm of science or literature, establish readers and contribute to the spread of literacy".

John Stuart Mill,
English philosopher and economist
of the 19th Century

Publisher is the intermediary between the author and the reader, the arranger of the complex process of transformation of a work into the book. Its components include the search for the author and evaluation of the work created by him, editing of the manuscript, illustrating, design and prototyping of the prospective book, election of fonts and paper for it, and assurance of the proper polygraph fulfillment.

Formation of the book publishing business as the individual segment of the book business (which previously developed within the printing of books) began on the verge of the 20’s-30’s years of the 19th Century in connection with the transfer from the manual manner of production of books to the machinery one, what contributed to the expansion of the polygraph base, and in result thereof to the formation and the quantitative growth of the publishers and to their specializations.

When in 1825 in Russia around 300 book titles were published, with 700 titles in 1833, then in 1901 the number exceeded 10 thousand. By the middle of the 80’s years Russia ranked third in the world, being outpaced only by Germany and France.

From the numerous Russian publishers of the 19th – beginning of the 20th Centuries for a more detailed examination are selected the following houses: