Our Notes & References

Extremely rare ABC in Swedish for young children of Finland, then newly incorporated into the Russian Empire. No copies at auctions, at OCLC, or in the Russian State or Public libraries. We could only locate three holdings in Finland (Hämeenlinna City Library, Åbo Akademi University Library, and the National library); possibly there is an additional copy at the National Library of Sweden, though none is listed in Libris, the Swedish national catalogue. Mikhail Seslavinskii, President of Russia’s Bibliophile Society, reported that a copy of this “rare edition, absent from all the country’s major libraries” was once shown at a Society meeting by Mikhail Afanasev, Director of the Russian State Public Historical Library (GPIB). The title is not recorded in the GPIB’s catalogue.

The transfer of Finland from Sweden to Russia in 1809 brought with it a new imperial language for a population whose native tongues were Swedish and Finnish. “Russian had not been taught in the country at all during the Swedish period. Teaching tools for the language – textbooks, grammars and dictionaries – had to be created rapidly and out of nothing” (Janhunen). In early 19th-century Finland, even French and German textbooks “were all produced in Sweden, and occasionally reprinted by the local printing houses in Finland [… that] initially did not even possess Russian types”. Although this problem was soon resolved, types for special needs, such as for accented vowels, remained scarce until the 1830s (ibid).

The present title is among the earliest original works published in Finland, little-known today and absent from Janhunen’s bibliographical list of “Russian language tools for Finland (1810–1860)”. Letters and syllables quickly give way to small texts to read: first some Orthodox texts and prayers for the newly acquired peoples, then very short stories from the Bible, to finish with short fables, including a few in verses at the end.

Its author, Matthias Akiander (1802–71), was born into a peasant family in the so-called Old Finland, or the Vyborg Governorate, established in 1744 from territories ceded by Sweden to Russia. At a time when Finland lacked Russian teachers but still required its officials to know the language, Akiander put his skills to effective use, advancing from a modest translator to a Russian teacher, first at school (1830) then a university lecturer (1836), and ultimately professor—despite never completing a degree. In 1863–68, he supervised the teaching of Russian in schools across Finland (Luther).

An “innovative and versatile [scholar]”, Akiander created Russian manuals of “lasting influence” (Janhunen). He wrote this small ABC early in his career as an elementary school teacher, later expanding it into “a particularly successful Russian school grammar, first issued in 1835” (Ibid). The present edition contains texts in both Russian and Swedish, the latter remaining the sole language of school instruction until the 1860s. It was republished in 1853.

A pleasant example, with contemporary Swedish-Finnish aristocratic provenance. It belonged to Otto Casimir Theodor Nassokin (1829-92), who calligraphed his name at age 10. Issued from ancient Baltic nobility, he studied medicine and went on to become a doctor in nowadays Sipoo, just outside Helsinki.

Provenance

Otto Casemir Theodor Nassokin (multiple ink inscriptions to upper pastedown, incl. one dated 3. Maj 1839); illegible owner’s name dated 1916 (black ink inscription to upper pastedown).

Bibliography

Hellman & Kjellberg, Bibliografiia russkoi literatury izdannoi v Finliandii 1813-1972, p. 47; Janhunen, Juha. “Introducing the Imperial Language: Early Russian Language Tools for Use in Finland” // Slavica Helsingiensia 35, Helsinki, 2008; Luther, Georg: “Akiander, Matthias (1802–1871)”, Finnish National Biography, Part 1. Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society, 2003; Seslavinskii, Mikhail. “Knizhnye nakhodki ukhodiashchego goda”, 2015.

Absent from ‘Ot Azbuki Ivana Fedorova….’.