Konstantin Petrovich Pyatnitsky (russian: Константин Петрович Пятницкий, 31 March 1864 – 6 January 1938) was a Russian

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

publisher Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...

and

memoirist A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based in the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autobiog ...

. Pyatnitsky was a co-founder of the publishing company

Znanie Znanie (russian: Зна́ние, ; en, Knowledge) was a publishing company based in St. Petersburg, Russia founded by Konstantin Pyatnitsky and other members of the Committee for Literacy. It operated from 1898 to 1913. History Znanie initially ...

and one–time close associate of

Maxim Gorky Alexei Maximovich Peshkov (russian: link=no, Алексе́й Макси́мович Пешко́в; – 18 June 1936), popularly known as Maxim Gorky (russian: Макси́м Го́рький, link=no), was a Russian writer and social ...

Biography

Konstantin Pyatnitsky was born in the village of Kemtsy,

Valdaysky Uyezd Valdaysky Uyezd (''Валдайский уезд'') was one of the subdivisions of the Novgorod Governorate of the Russian Empire. It was situated in the southwestern part of the governorate. Its administrative centre was Valday. Demographics At t ...

Novgorod Governorate Novgorod Governorate (Pre-reformed rus, Новгоро́дская губе́рнія, r=Novgorodskaya guberniya, p=ˈnofɡərətskəjə ɡʊˈbʲernʲɪjə, t=Government of Novgorod), was an administrative division (a '' guberniya'') of the Ru ...

, to the family of a local priest. After he graduated in 1888 from the

Kazan University Kazan (Volga region) Federal University (russian: Казанский (Приволжский) федеральный университет, tt-Cyrl, Казан (Идел буе) федераль университеты) is a public research uni ...

he moved to

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

and joined the Committee for Literacy (1892–1895) and also the staff of ''

Mir Bozhy ''Mir Bozhiy'' (God's World, Мир божий) was a Russian monthly magazine published in Saint Petersburg in 1892–1906. It was edited first by Viktor Ostrogorsky (1892-1901), then by Fyodor Batyushkov (1902-1906). In July 1906 ''Mir Bozhiy'' ...

'' magazine, where he worked from 1893 till 1896. In 1898 Pyatnitsky founded

publishing company and became its executive director and editor. In 1900 he invited Maxim Gorky to join it and found himself under the latter's strong influence. He signed an agreement with

RSDRP The Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP; in , ''Rossiyskaya sotsial-demokraticheskaya rabochaya partiya (RSDRP)''), also known as the Russian Social Democratic Workers' Party or the Russian Social Democratic Party, was a socialist pol ...

which obliged Znanie to publish the

Marxists Marxism is a left-wing to far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand class relations and social conflict and a dialectic ...

materials. In 1909, facing prosecution, Pyatnitsky left Russia. He returned in 1913, a year after Gorky had left Znanye, disillusioned with its policies. After the

1917 Revolution The Russian Revolution was a period of political and social revolution that took place in the former Russian Empire which began during the First World War. This period saw Russia abolish its monarchy and adopt a socialist form of government ...

Pyatnitsky served as a director of the House of Science's library. In 1919 he handed off 250 thousand book copies from the Znanye storehouses to the

Bolshevik The Bolsheviks (russian: Большевики́, from большинство́ ''bol'shinstvó'', 'majority'),; derived from ''bol'shinstvó'' (большинство́), "majority", literally meaning "one of the majority". also known in English ...

Ministry of Education. In 1937 he published a book of memoirs called ''M. Gorky Back Home'' (М. Горький на родине). He died in Leningrad in 1938.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pyatnitsky, Konstantin 1864 births 1938 deaths People from Bologovsky District People from Valdaysky Uyezd Russian memoirists Russian editors Russian book publishers (people) Kazan Federal University alumni