The southern sentinel. (Winnfield, La.) 1883-1910, 1884-11-28
The First Russian Printer.

1t may not be altogether superfluous
to remind Westerns that Russia has
celebrated the three hundredth ami
yer ary of her first printer. Ivan
Fedorof, who dit d at Lvof on the 18th
of December. 1853. I he sole fact that
the introduction of Typography INTO
Russia dates century later than the
establishment of the press in the chief
centcrs of civil ed Europe speaks vol
umes. The opposition and persecution
which met Fedorof on all sides would
have been sufficient to make most men
abandon even their darling schemes.
But Fedorof was man with u firm pur-
pose and firm faith in that purpose.
No base motive prompted the one en-
deavor to which his life was devoted;
the diffusion of the Scriptures and that
which he deemed noblest in literature
among his countrymen was the purpose
which animated his life. In his own
country accused of heresy, subjected to
sore trials of his faith in lithuania,
where he had sought an asylum, vol
UNFAIRLY renouncing the support Tered
by his friend khodkevich, who wished to
con me his energies to agriculture, driven
from town to town, daunt!ess and I'M
wavering he pursued the one object
for which he existed, the foundat on OF
the Russian press. upheld doubtless by
firm belief in his mission and regard
less of the clouds which lowered round
his outer life.
Like Caxton. he was not mere prin-
ter. In one respect he may be looked
on as superior to him. for NJ. Petrushe-
vich shows that he was Ia gely instru-
mental in preserving tale purity Of the
Great Russian language. and that he in
this intention resisted pressing solicita-
tons to print the Scriptures in local di-
aiects. He maintained q strict adhe-
renee to the Church Slavonic, in which
the first printed Russian book. the
..Apostol" (the Acts and Epistles), ap-
peared in 1864.
1t is necessary to remember that Pc
ter the Great only introduced the civil
alphabet in l70j. one hundred and fifty
years after the date of the foundation
of the first press in Moscow During
his thirty years of arduous toll under
the most disheartening difficulties Fee
dorof printed the whole of the Script
ures besides various liturgical books.
The chief production Of his types was
the great Bible printed under
the patronage Of Prince
Usthrozhsky. The opposition which
beset Fedorof- has never been per-
manently and effectually relaxed in
Russia For two centuries the print
ing press renamed State monopoly.
used almost exclusively for the produc-
ton of Government publications or re-
ligious books. Only in 177l was the
first free press established in st. Peters
burg. and this with permiss on only to
print in foreign languages, in order to
prevent injury to the Government
presses. 1t was. no more than q CEN
fury ago that free printing establish
ments were allowed to set up In the
towns of the empire and to print in the
native as well as In foreign languages.
Perhaps only those who have lived
in Russia can fully recognize how the
same policy Of suppression is pursued
in Russia to this day, and to what .
degree the Government, through the
machinery Of the censorship, is still
master of public utterance. This not
withstanding, Rus ia, with her vast
area, sparse population. bad internal
communications and vast distances be-
tween her cities, owes in special way
whatever of civilization she has &C
quired chiefly to what Russians call
s'the Printed Word. The Ataengum.