Vikenty Vikentyevich Pashukanis (russian: Викентий Викентиевич Пашуканис; 1879–1920) was a secretary of the publishing house "Musaget" and a founder of "Pashukanis' Publishing"; after the Russian Revolution (1917) he was an organizer of museums. Vikenty Pashukanis was born in Moscow, Russia. His father was a

Lithuania Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...

n from

Kaunas Kaunas (; ; also see other names) is the second-largest city in Lithuania after Vilnius and an important centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaunas was the largest city and the centre of a county in the Duchy of Trakai ...

and worked as a teacher in the gymnasium. Pashukanis graduated from the mathematical department of

Moscow University M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU; russian: Московский государственный университет имени М. В. Ломоносова) is a public research university in Moscow, Russia and the most prestigious ...

. After graduation, he worked as an

exciseman A tax collector (also called a taxman) is a person who collects unpaid taxes from other people or corporations. The term could also be applied to those who audit tax returns. Tax collectors are often portrayed as being evil, and in the modern w ...

. In 1914, Pashukanis became a secretary and a commercial director of "Musaget" - Moscow publishing house of

symbolists Symbolism was a late 19th-century art movement of French and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts seeking to represent absolute truths symbolically through language and metaphorical images, mainly as a reaction against naturalism and realis ...

. After the beginning of World War I Emil Medtner, who was one of the founders and the main owner of "Musaget", could not return from Zurich to Russia. In that time Pashukanis actually controlled the financial activity of "Musaget". In 1915-1917, he negotiated with Alexander Blok, over a series of fourteen letters, the publication of his poems which improved for some time precarious financial situation of "Musaget". In 1915, Pashukanis proposed a re-organization of "Musaget" to make it more profitable; however, E. Medtner declined his proposal. Then, keeping his work in "Musaget", Pashukanis started his own company: "Pashukanis' Publishing". He mainly published the famous contemporary Russian poets: Igor Severyanin (who was the most popular Russian poet in the 1910s),

Konstantin Bal'mont Konstantin Dmitriyevich Balmont ( rus, Константи́н Дми́триевич Бальмо́нт, p=kənstɐnʲˈtʲin ˈdmʲitrʲɪjɪvʲɪdʑ bɐlʲˈmont, a=Konstantin Dmitriyevich Bal'mont.ru.vorb.oga; – 23 December 1942) was a Rus ...

, Andrey Bely, and Victor Gofman. Books produced by "Pashukanis' Publishing" were elegant and of high print quality. After the Russian revolution in 1918, Pashukanis was employed as an emissary of the Museum department of People's Commissariat (ministry) of Education. He was responsible for assessing and evacuating the art treasures from the estates abandoned by nobles to Moscow. Russia was involved in a civil war and Pashukanis often had to act in the rebellious regions. Among others, he saved from pillage the collections of Count Radziwill from their estate near Bobruisk and the unique collection of Ivan Paskevich from the Gomel Palace. In December 1919, Pashukanis was arrested in Moscow. He was indicted for organizing a meeting of the counter-revolutionary group. On December 16, 1919, the head of Museum department,

Natalia Sedova Natalia Ivanovna Sedova (russian: Ната́лья Ива́новна Седо́ва; 5 April 1882 Romny, Russian Empire – 23 January 1962, Corbeil-Essonnes, Paris, France) is best known as the second wife of Leon Trotsky, the Russian revolutio ...

(wife of Leon Trotsky), sent a telegram attempting to save him. On January 13, 1920, he was sentenced to be shot; however, there is no official record that the sentence was carried out. In 2005, the Belarusian TV and radio company "Gomel" filmed a 26-minute documentary ''The tragedy of Vikenty Pashukanis''. The cousin of Vikenty Pashukanis,

Evgeny Pashukanis Evgeny Bronislavovich Pashukanis (Russian: Евгений Брониславович Пашуканис; 23 February 1891 – 4 September 1937) was a Soviet legal scholar, best known for his work ''The General Theory of Law and Marxism''. Early li ...

(1891–1937), was a famous theorist of Marxist law and a deputy of the People's Commissariate of Justice of the USSR.

References

External links

* ''Евграф Кончин'
Трагедия Викентия Пашуканиса
(о деятельности В. В. Пашуканиса по спасению художественных ценностей в 1918–1919 годах). {{DEFAULTSORT:Pashukanis, Vikenty 1879 births 1920 deaths Businesspeople from Moscow People from the Russian Empire of Lithuanian descent Publishers (people) from the Russian Empire