Our Notes & References

The “first printed book on the history of Kazan and the Kazan region; the first printed guide to Kazan” (Grigorev, our translation here and elsewhere).

First and only edition, a crisp copy in contemporary binding.

Rare: OCLC locates only 4 holdings in the US (Columbia, LoC, Stanford and Harvard, the latter “imperfect”, with leaves “slightly mutilated”), and just a handful elsewhere (Stockholms Universitet, Biblioteka Jagiellońska, National Diet Library, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Universitätsbibliothek Bern, ULB Darmstadt).

There are some copies in Russian libraries; but we could find only three copies at auction: two in Russia, and only one in the West, 50 years ago (Diaghilev-Lifar copy, sold in 1975).

Aleksandr Pushkin, Russia’s pre-eminent poet, praised “the glorious Academician Rychkov, whose labours are marked by true scholarship and integrity—virtues so rare in our time” in his History of Pugachev (1834). However, Petr Ivanovich Rychkov (1712–77) was never actually an academician and had not had any formal education – but he became “Russia’s leading expert on the history, ethnography, geography, and economics of the country’s vast southeastern provinces” (Kuchumov), and in 1759, he was the first person in Russia to receive the title of corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences.

Earlier in his career, from 1734 to 1743, Rychkov worked as an accountant on the first Russian academic expedition to Orenburg, later settling in the region and holding various managerial positions in the local bureaucracy. Together with the explorer of Siberia Stepan Krasheninnikov, Rychkov is considered one of the “original Russians of the mid-eighteenth century who produced regional descriptions comparable in scope and spirit to the best of other lands, such as J. R. Forster” (Hooson).

In his dedication to Catherine II and the preface to the present work, Rychkov emphasises that the history of the Kazan region and the former Kazan kingdom had not yet been compiled by anyone. He viewed this Opyt… as one of the essential preliminary works upon which a comprehensive history of Russia could be built (Matvievskii). Later, he in fact contributed to editing Vasilii Tatishchev’s History of Russia from the Ancient Times (1768–84), which also drew on Rychkov’s earlier unpublished study, “Brief Information about the Tatars” (1750).

Rychkov based his work and research on the mid-16th century manuscript Kazanskii letopisets [Kazan Chronicles], written by an anonymous author who had been in captivity in Kazan around 1532-52 and later served at the court of Ivan the Terrible after the Russian conquest of the Kazan Khanate. Under the guidance of Gerhard Friedrich Müller, an important member of the Academy of Sciences, Rychkov extracted the most objective and reliable facts from the Chronicles and supplemented them with additional information about the Horde khans, ancient Bulgar cities, and the Kazan region.

As a result, Rychkov’s publication is the first substantial printed text about Kazan and one of “the first attempts to explore the history of Kazan during the Khanate period” (Sultanov); it stands alongside the work of Andrei Lyzlov (c.1655–97), whose Skifskaia istoriia [Scythian History], detailing the struggle of the Russian people and its western neighbours against the Mongol-Tatar and Turkish conquerors up to the end of the 16th century, was first published only in 1776.

Another early account of Kazan, known as Pistsovaia kniga [Land Survey], was written in the 1560s by Nikita Borisov and Dmitry Kikin, but it was not published until 1877 (Grigorev). A more specialised work, Opisaniie zhivushchikh v kazanskoi gubernii iazycheskikh narodov [Description of Pagan Peoples Living in Kazan Province] by Müller himself, first appeared in the periodical Monthly Essays for the Benefit and Entertainment in 1756, but the first book edition, including a dictionary and illustrations, was published only in 1791. “But perhaps the most significant contribution to the study of the Kazan region at that time was made by […] Rychkov” (Telishev).

Rychkov traces the development of statehood in the region, from the time of the Bulgar settlements to the present-day Kazan province (ie. during Catherine’s reign). The chapters discuss the ancient inhabitants of the area, the old Bulgar cities and their ruins, the founding of the city of Kazan, different Russian military campaigns against Kazan, “the atrocities of the Kazan Tatars” and their Tsarina, Tsar Ivan Vasilievich’s campaigns to Kazan, the construction of the city of Sviiazhsk, the governance of Shah-Ali as a Russian vassal in Kazan, “slander against him by the Kazans”, the entry of Tsar Ivan Vasilievich into Kazan, the establishment of churches by him, and the local spiritual authorities. The work touches on Islam, the Musmins (“Mahometans”) and “spiritual powers”, without however making it its central theme, focusing rather, like Catherine the Great herself, on statehood and power struggles.

The final, 14th chapter titled “About the location of the city of Kazan and the present state of it” serves as “the first printed guidebook to the city” (Bikbulatov). To put Rychkov’s groundbreaking work in perspective, the first guidebook of St Petersburg was published in 1779 and the first consistent Russian guide to Moscow – in 1782 (Bikbulatov). In this chapter, Rychkov used a description of Kazan by geodesist Mikhail Pestrikov, created in 1739 but apparently never published before, and supplemented it with the latest data about the city. This included information on local educational institutions, nine main streets, trades and crafts, followed by a detailed index of prominent names, terms, and places in alphabetical order.

After the publication of Opyt…, Rychkov travelled to Moscow, where he presented his work to Catherine II. Later that same year, she embarked on a journey along the Volga River, stopping in Kazan on May 26, 1767. “Apparently, Catherine not only read Rychkov’s Opyt… but also took it with her on her journey” (Grigorev). In 1772, the book was translated into German by Jacob Rodde and published in Riga.

Bibliography

Bitovt 1604; Svod. Kat. 6247; Sopikov 7831; Solovev Cat. 100, #224 (“redka”); Bikbulatov, Renat. “Kratkaia istoriia goroda Kazani.” Kazanskie istorii, 31 Oct. 2003; Grigorev E. “‘Opyt’ Petra Rychkova. Avtor pervoi pechatnoi knigi ob istorii Kazani.” Kazan, no 5/6, 1999; Hooson, David J. M. “The Development of Geography in Pre-Soviet Russia.” Annals of the Association of American Geographers, vol. 58, no. 2, 1968, pp. 250–72; Kuchumov I. “Nauchnyi interes bukhgaltera. Istoriia Bashkortostana v trudakh russkogo uchenogo.” Rodina, no. 11 2001; Matvievskii P. E., Efremov A. V. Petr Ivanovich Rychkov, Akademiia nauk SSSR, Nauka, 1991; Pushkin, Aleksandr. “Ob ‘Istorii Pugachevskogo bunta’: Razbor stati, napechatannoi v ‘Syne otechestva’, v ianvare 1835 goda.” Sovremennik, Tom 3, Sankt-Peterburg, 1836; Sultanov, Renat. Istoricheskaia geografiia goroda Kazani i ego predmestii v XVI – XVII vv., Kazan, Akademiia nauk respubliki Tatarstan, 2004; Telishev V. F. Uchebno-metodicheskoe posobie dlia studentov, Kazanskii Gos. Universitet, 2009.