The First Printed Textbook of World History in Russia and Its Readers

Abstract

The article examines the content of the first printed review of world history in Russian and its existence in Russia at the beginning of the 18th century. This review, “A Brief Introduction to Any History”, was published in a series of textbooks on various fields of knowledge, compiled by Ilya Kopievsky (ca. 1651 — 1714) and published by order of Peter I in the Amsterdam printing house of Jan Tessing. The circumstances of the appearance of these books and the content of some of them (mainly on linguistics) have long attracted the interest of researchers. However, their role in Peter’s educational project as a whole remains to be understood. In the article, this gap is partially filled by considering the place of Kopievsky’s textbook in the formation of historical enlightenment in Russia. The article examines three interrelated plots: the content of the book; the reading circle on world history in Russia at the turn of the 17th — 18th centuries; the readership of “A Brief Introduction.” In conclusion, it suggests the necessity to reevaluate the place and role of Kopievsky’s textbook in the formation of a “scientific” picture of world history in 18th century Russia.