Ivan Fedorov: a monument in Moscow. Description of the monument to Ivan Fedorov

Created in 1909, the monument to the first printer Fedorov is another attraction of Moscow, to which hundreds of tourists and residents of the city go daily.

Ivan Fedorov

Ivan Fedorov came from the Russian kingdom. Although he was born in the territory of modern Moscow , he spent almost his entire life on the lands of the Lithuanian Principality, as well as in Ukraine, in Lviv, which at that time was part of the Russian province and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. For a long time he worked in the Moscow publishing house, open with the money of the tsar, the legendary Ivan Fyodorov, the first printer. The monument to him was originally built near this building.

Nevertheless, it is he who is considered the founder of book printing. In the Russian kingdom of the period of Ivan the Fourth he first published the religious work "The Apostle". It was Fedorov who owned the first printing house in the history of the then state.

A scientist appeared between the years 1510 and 1530. There is a version about his birth in the territory of Vileika district of the Minsk region.

Consequently, today there are very few memories about him. Some researchers of Fedorov's life believe that he received his education in Krakow, becoming a bachelor. The city university has a record of it.

Initially, he was going to devote himself to the service of God and was deacon at the Kremlin church of St. Nicholas of Gostunsky.

Change of work

The fact that Fedorov worked in the Printing House of Ivan the Fourth did not preserve the affirmative data. He is credited with the publication of several anonymous brochures published in Moscow.

Exactly one year, from 1563 to 1564, Fedorov worked with his assistant Peter Mstislavets on the book "The Apostle". On this book, Ivan Fedorov put his seal for the first time. The monument depicts the first page of the "Apostle". A year later, the first printer published a new book - The Chapel.

Life in Lithuania and Ukraine

After boyar attacks on the printing press Fedorov and his partner are forced to flee to the Principality of Lithuania. There they settle with Khodkevich, the hetman of Lithuania, and begin to work with him. The hetman bought and opened a printing house for them.

In the estate of the Zabluds, where they are located, the books "The Teaching Gospel" and "The Psalter with the Heraldman" are published. The second edition of the "Apostle" Fedorov prints already in Lviv. For this book, he also wrote his introductory speech. At the personal invitation of Prince Ostrozhsky settles in for several years in this city, where he publishes the world's first Bible in Church Slavonic. I managed to visit Vienna and Krakow. For a long time corresponded with the prominent European lights of science.

He died in Lviv, where he was buried.

Printing

Being an ecclesiastical servant of the lower class, Ivan Fedorov chose the most widely spread religious texts for publication at that time. He also published several books on grammar so that everyone could learn to write and read.

The first models for books were made almost according to modern standards. In the text on one page placed twenty-five lines. They are almost identical to the modern A4 format. In the first printed book there are footers, and even superscripts and subscripts, fashionable in those days in Europe. Ivan Fedorov took them there. The monument is represented by a scroll with similar letters.

Two colors were used during printing. Before the publication of the book had to carefully read the text, correct errors, change some speech. Each new chapter was decorated with original vignettes and a decorative font.

Machine

About this legendary instrument, which worked day and night Fedorov, almost no data. After the death of the publisher, there was only a description of what was in front of him. The machine was made by Italian technology. Wooden parts went to him in addition. Letters to the paper were pressed with a plate, twisted with a copper big screw. A frame for letters was also found there. We hung a machine about 104 kilograms. They easily used Ivan Fedorov. The monument depicts this machine in an enlarged view.

History of the monument

The funds for commemorating the memory of the great Ivan Fedorov began to be collected in 1870. The initiators of the gathering were representatives of the Archaeological Union of Moscow. Although the money was collected quickly enough, the question of who will work on the sculpture remained open.

The monument to Ivan Fyodorov, where the first printer stands in full growth, was created in 1909. The money was going to him for thirty-nine years. Before the construction of the monument, 29,000 rubles were collected for him, an unprecedented amount at that time. Competition architects and sculptors for the first time failed. The commission did not like any variant of the proposed works.

After a careful selection of the best artists of Russia and other countries, the sculptor Sergei Mikhailovich Volnukhin and the architect Ivan Pavlovich Mashkov were recruited for work. The projects of the winners were evaluated by the historian Kluchevsky and the painter Apollinarias Vasnetsov.

Description of the monument to Ivan Fyodorov

Ivan Fedorov froze on the monument in his favorite position while working. In one hand he has a printed board with a set of letters. In the other hand, he holds the page he just made from the book "The Apostle". The sculpture was made of bronze.

The description of the monument to Ivan Fyodorov will not be complete, if not to tell about his clothes. Although the book publisher was also a spiritual person, his sculptors depicted him in clothes usual for those times: a long buttoned caftan, from under which pants, dressed in boots, can be seen.

The first printer's hair is tied with a ribbon so that they do not interfere with the work.

The pedestal is decorated with the coat of arms of Fedorov in the form of a hand with a shield and initials. Above the letters there is a small tip, like an arrow. Under the sculpture of the master there is a signature "Nikola Miracle-worker of Gostunsky deacon Ivan Fedorov."

The sculptor could not ignore the book "The Apostle" and put the date of the beginning of its creation under the name of the book publisher.

Location

The place where the monument to Ivan Fyodorov was erected was chosen not accidentally. Near it was once the Printing Yard, which was financed by Ivan the Terrible. There, the book "The Apostle" was published in the first edition. The courtyard was founded in 1553, and at the same time Fedorov began to work there.

Under Peter the First, it was at this place that the newspaper Vedomosti was published.

But if tourists ask where the monument to Ivan Fyodorov is located, they will be called quite a different place. The reason for this was the transfer of the monument to the pedestal. In 1934, the streets of Moscow began to expand, the old buildings to demolish. Kitaygorodskaya wall was gone, and the statue was decided to move.

And in the 90 years the monument was transported to the hotel Metropol. From the place of Fedorov's work, once a huge Printed Court, only a small tower remained. There, in the former "right", Ivan Fedorov worked. Excursion at the monument is held on weekdays and weekends, and it ends with an inspection of the tower.

In memory of Fedorov

The Moscow monument is not the only mention of this worthy person, spiritual person and enlightener. In 1997, a museum was opened near the Potocki Palace in honor of Ivan Fedorov. In it you can find out more about the life of the creator of books, as well as about the origin of the printing process, which books they preferred to publish and why they published only spiritual literature for the first time.

Near the museum, "stands" in human growth Ivan Fyodorov - first printer. The monument was made by the sculptor Anatoly Galian.

In 1998, in the Troitsko-Sergius Lavra, an icon was consecrated, on which the author of books with his machine tool is depicted. This relic is unique already because for the first time in the entire Orthodox history, it has a picture of a printing press.

In 2009 Fedorov was canonized in the Old Believer Orthodox Church, baptizing him as Deacon John.

And in 2010 the name of Ivan Fedorov was awarded to the State University of Press in Moscow on the day of celebrating his 80th birthday.

In Lviv, on one of the central squares towers a five-meter sculpture - dressed in a church cassock Ivan Fedorov. The monument in Moscow is very different from it. The monument in Lviv was placed not far from the place where his printing house was located.

Facts about the monument

• During the opening of the monument in 1909 all the city authorities gathered. A procession was made. The next day passers-by found that a wreath appeared at the monument, on which was the inscription "The Martyr of Russian Printing". The unknown wanted to hint at the persecutions that Ivan Fedorov himself experienced in Moscow from the then authorities.
• Legend of the USSR was Ivan Fedorov. The monument in Moscow was depicted on Soviet postage stamps that year, when celebrated three hundred and fifty years from the time of his death.
• The sculpture can be seen during the viewing of the once sensational Soviet blockbuster "The meeting place can not be changed." Near him, Sharapov and Anya met.
• The monument is located near Nikolskaya Street. It has long been famous for its book market and shops. Before the revolution, Nikolskaya was a real center of book life, where all Moscow elite lived from morning till evening.
• In Soviet times, the monument became directly associated with books. He was drawn on the advertising of book bazaars and new shops.
• The monument to Fedorov is visible from the Okhotny Ryad.
• The creator of the work Volnukhin is considered the ancestor of modernity, as well as symbolism in Russian sculpture. Above him he worked for two years.
• Up to now, there are no references to what Ivan Fedorov looked like. The monument was partly helped to create I. Zabelin, a Russian historian who directed the sculptor, focusing on the era when the publisher lived.