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Crimean Commercial Fruit Growing

The fundamental scientific work of Levko Symyrenko, Crimean Commercial Fruit Growing, is one of the finest scientific publications of the early 20th century dedicated to the horticulture and pomology of Crimea. The book was published in 1912 by Nikolai Kushnerev's publishing house in Moscow with a print run of 10,000 copies, which sold out completely.

Overview

Levko Symyrenko, whom the scientific world dubbed the "King of Horticulture", conceived his work as a major three-volume publication based on 25 years of field research in Crimean orchards. At the end of 1907, the manuscript of over 2,000 pages won the Grand Gold Medal of the russian imperial Society of Horticulture.

The publishing committee, formed by the Simferopol branch of the society on the initiative of V. V. Tayursky, met in Simferopol at the premises of the Taurida Zemstvo Board (17 Karla Marksa St.), which also housed the "Tavryka" library. The first volume was published in 1912; however, the publication of subsequent volumes was disrupted by World War I and Bolshevik terror. In the 1930s, the print run of the first volume was destroyed by the Chekists, but in the 21st century, thanks to the titanic efforts of Petro Volvach, the work was republished and reconstructed.

Key Details / Subtopics

  • History of Creation and Publication:
  • Preceded by the 1891–1892 works: "An Attempt to Research Crimean Commercial Fruit Growing" (Opyt issledovaniya krymskogo promyshlennogo plodovodstva) and "Materials on the Issue of Crimean Commercial Fruit Growing" (Materialy k voprosu o krymskom promyshlennom plodovodstve).
  • The manuscript was submitted to the 1907 competition (commemorating the 50th anniversary of the russian imperial Society of Horticulture), where it won the Grand Gold Medal and imperial awards.
  • Publisher: Nikolai Kushnerev (Moscow). Print run — 10,000 copies.
  • Review by General Vasily Gomilevsky (1912):
  • The Secretary of the russian imperial Society of Horticulture, General V. Gomilevsky, noted that this work would be a "guide, reference book, and source of enjoyment... Happy is the country where such hard workers as L. P. Symyrenko live and work..."
  • Illustrating Artists and Photographers:
  • Hryhoriy Myasoyedov — artist, friend of V. Korolenko. In Yalta, he owned the dacha "Villa Elena" (Autkinska St.), where illustrations were created.
  • Ksenia Ivanova — artist, gold medalist of the 1894 international exhibition.
  • T. Safronov — Crimean artist who worked with Symyrenko in the field.
  • K. Knyazkov and V. Sokornov — photographers whose photos formed the basis for high-quality illustrations.
  • Lost Materials and Repressions:
  • During World War I, the manuscript of Volume 3 ("Atlas of Fruits") disappeared at the Bruckmann Publishing House in Munich, while Volume 2 was lost at Kushnerev's printing house in Moscow.
  • In the 1930s, following the arrest of Volodymyr Symyrenko (1933), the Chekists/NKVD confiscated Volume 1 of the work from libraries and burned it.
  • Revival and Re-edition (Petro Volvach):
  • In 1996, Petro Volvach compiled and translated Symyrenko's collection Local Ancient Varieties of Crimean Fruit Crops (Tavriya publishing house).
  • In 2001, for the 150th anniversary of Symyrenko's birth, a reprint of Volume 1 (1912) was published.
  • In 2008, the reconstructed Volume 2 was published under the "Ukrainian Book" program after 10 years of searching for fragments in archives and the Symyrenko Family Museum.