Soviet literature on book design in the years of the Civil war (1917–1921)
Introduction
Books, articles, instructions, and standards concerning book design, published in the USSR between 1917 and 1956, constitute an extensive and valuable corpus of literature. This series of articles seeks to provide an overview of that material.
Such a corpus, of course, did not develop in a vacuum. Books and journal articles on typesetting and book layout had been regularly published in Imperial Russia since the mid-19th century. The output became particularly active in the final decades before the revolution.
A comprehensive account of pre-revolutionary typographic journalism can be found in I. D. Galaktionov’s 1917 article, “Pyatidesyatiletie zhurnalov pechatnogo dela” (The Semicentenary of Printing Magazines), published in “Izvestiya Obschestva sluzhaschikh v pechatnykh zavedeniyakh” (News of the Society of Employees in Printing Establishments). Readers interested in the pre-revolutionary period will find in it numerous journal titles, editor names, and other relevant details.
Being among the senior specialists and authors of their generation, I. D. Galaktionov and V. I. Anisimov (the latter also contributed to Izvestiya Obschestva sluzhaschikh) continued their literary activity in post-revolutionary Petrograd.
Theory
The article “Kak delaetsya kniga” (How the book is made), written by I. D. Galaktionov and intended for authors, was published in 1920 in the journal “Kniga i revolutsia” (Book and revolution). The second part of the article, under the subheading “Vyorstka and illustratsia” (Make-up and illustration), discusses the principles of the work of the typesetter and the make-up man.
In the same year, a brochure titled “O knige” (On the book) by the journalist N. K. Verzhbitsky was published in Perm. It was a collection of twenty-six popular and derivative lectures. Among them were historical sketches as well as an essay on book design in general, “Nuzhno ukrashat’ knigu” (We need to decorate the book).
History
As yearly as 1917, the Izvestiya Obschestva sluzhaschikh published V. I. Anisimov’s article “Maxim Grek” (Maximus the Greek), described by the author as “compiled from different sources” [1] and devoted to the possible connection between Maximus the Greek and Ivan Fyodorov, the pioneer of Russian printing. The following year, the piece appeared as a separate book. In 1920, V. I. Anisimov also issued in Petrograd a compilation brochure titled “Kratkiy ocherk razvitiya pismennosti i tipografskogo iskusstva v Rossii” (A short essay on the development of writing and the typographic art in Russia).
In 1918, a brochure entitled “Izobretenie knigopechatania i nachalo ego v Rossii” (The invention of book printing and its beginnings in Russia) by N. P. Proskurnin was published in Rostov-on-Don. The rarity of this edition, and the unusual method of its production—it was printed on the reverse sides of a calendar—were later described in E. L. Nemirovsky’s article in the third issue of “Almanakh bibliofila” (Bibliophile’s Almanac) (1976). In 1920, Proskurnin issued in the same city another brochure, “Izobretenie knigopechatania” (The invention of printing).
Practice
In 1917, Izvestiya Obschestva sluzhaschikh published V. I. Anisimov’s article “Kniga, ee kratkaya istoria i tekhnika nabora” (The Book, Its Short History, and The Technique of Typesetting). Its technical section seems of greater value than the historical part.
In 1920, a competition for the creation of typographic manuals was announced, which resulted in the publication of a compilation titled “Elementarny kurs tekhniki nabornogo dela” (An Elementary Course in Typesetting Technique) by A. A. Osetsky and I. N. Mikhailov.[2]
In 1921, I. P. Posheshulin’s “Kratkoe rukovodstvo dlya naborschikov, gazetnykh sotrudnikov i tipografskikh zakazchikov” (A short manual for typesetters, newspapers employees, and printing house clients) was published in Vologda.
As yearly as 1919, in Kharkov—and still printed in pre-revolutionary orthography—M. M. Kogon’s “Sputnik naborschika” (The Typesetter’s Companion) appeared. Later critics considered it a rather unsuccessful work. By contrast, S. A. Tsorn’s “Lektsii po nabornomu delu” (Lectures on typesetting), published in Ekaterinoslav (today’s Dnipro) in 1921, was regarded much more favorably.[3] This work is genuinely rare (it is absent from the major Russian libraries), but a large excerpt can be found in the chrestomathy “Osobye vidy nabora” (Special types of typesetting), published in Rostov-on-Don in 1925. Practical manuals on the subject were also issued in Krasnodar and Orenburg.
Magazines and criticism
Magazine criticism of the period is represented almost exclusively by the articles of I. D. Galaktionov, which generally focused on the quality of contemporary book typesetting.
Founded as yearly as 1915, Izvestiya Obschestva sluzhaschikh continued to be published throughout 1917. The magazine was closed only at the end of that year. The editor, I. D. Galaktionov, ran a column titled “Nashi otkliki” (Our responses), under the pseudonym “S. R.”, which consisted of book design reviews. In 1917, these reviews were published as a separate book.
In 1918, this column was continued in the short-lived magazine “Knigopechatnik” (Book Printer). Galaktionov’s articles also appeared in the Petrograd journal “Vestnik literatury” (The Literature Herald) (1919–1922).
The magazine Kniga i revolutsia, mentioned earlier, was published in Petrograd from 1920 to 1923.
At the beginning of 1922, the first and only issue of the Moscow-based magazine “Poligrafia” (roughly Printing Industry) was published, dated December 1921.[4] The issue included M. M. Krivin’s article “Literatura o poligraficheskom proizvodstve” (Literature on Printing Production), which lists some books on the subject from Imperial Russia, thereby complementing Galaktionov’s article on domestic typographic magazines mentioned in the Introduction.
References
[1] As stated on the title-page of the separate edition.
[2] I. V. Galaktionov provides information about the competition in the article written under the pseudonym “Shponik”: Literatura po poligraficheskomu proizvodstvu s 1917 g. // Kniga i revolutsia (Literature on polygraphic production since 1917 // Book and revolution. 1923. No. 2 (26), p. 38).
[3] Both evaluations are provided in the article: Popov V. V., Literatura po poligraficheskomu proizvodstvu za 10 let (1917–1927). Obzor // Pechat’ i revolutsia (Popov V. V., Literature on polygraphic production over 20 years (1917–1927). Review // Printing and revolution. 1927, Book 6, September, pp. 127, 128.
[4] I. D. Galaktionov reported on the late publication of the journal in Literatura po poligraficheskomu proizvodstvu (see reference [2], p. 38).