Soikin Petr Petrovich

Born Aug. 23 (Sept. 4), 1862, in St. Petersburg; died Jan. 5, 1938, in the city of Pushkin. Russian publisher.

In 1885, Soikin founded a publishing house in St. Petersburg that printed the periodicals Priroda i liudi (Nature and People), Knizhnyi mir (World of Books), Sel’skii khoziain (Rural Landowner), Znanie dlia vsekh (Knowledge for Everyone), and Mir prikliuchenii (World of Adventures). From 1898 to 1902 he published the journal Nauchnoe obozrenie (Scientific Review), which printed works by K. Marx, V. I. Lenin, and G. V. Plekhanov. In 1895, Soikin’s publishing house issued the collection Materials for a Characterization of Our Economic Development, which included Lenin’s first legal work, “The Economic Content of Populism and Criticism of It in Mr. Struve’s Book.” The collection was destroyed by the censors. During the Revolution of 1905–07, Soikin published the newspapers Obnovlennaia Rossiia (Russia Renewed) and Sovremennaia zhizn’ (Contemporary Life).

Soikin’s publishing house also printed books for young people, works on agriculture for a general readership, popular science literature, and the collected works of many Russian and foreign writers. The publishing house was nationalized after the October Revolution of 1917.

In 1921 and 1922, Soikin was director of the editorial and publishing department of the Petrograd Sovnarkhoz (Council on the National Economy) and of the printing section of the Supreme Council on the National Economy. In 1922 the publishing house resumed operation and published the journals Vestnik znaniia (Journal of Knowledge), Zhurnal dlia usovershenstvovaniia vrachei (Journal for the Advanced Training of Physicians), Mir prikliuchenii, and Priroda i liudi. More than 100 scientific and scholarly works were published, including books by V. M. Be-khterev, A. F. Koni, N. A. Morozov, and A. E. Fersman and the New Encyclopedic Dictionary.

In 1930, Soikin’s publishing house was made part of Lenobliz-dat (Leningrad Oblast Publishing House). From 1933 until his death, Soikin worked in a printing house in the city of Pushkin.