Institute of History and Archeology, Ural Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Yekaterinburg, Russia
S. D. Batishchev, Post-Graduate Student, batischew.sergey2015@yandex.ru

The article retraces an ambitious project connected with publication of collected books of selected articles from Gornyi Zhurnal in French in the 1830s–40s. Emphasis is laid on contribution made by some representatives of the Mining Department in implementation of the project. Among these individuals, there are E. F. Kankrin, Minister of Finance, K. V. Chevkin, Head of the Corps of Mining Engineers headquarters, S. V. Shemiot, Head of the Ministry of Finance Office, Earl Ch. de Sainte-Aldegonde, a French mining engineer on service in Russia, and A. N. Demidov, a representative of the famous dynasty of mine owners. Their letters, reports and messages are reviewed. These evidences are used to reconstruct the financial matter of the project: it is shown how much money is spent to publish selected papers in Paris. The journal circulation dynamics is followed up, including sales in France and in Russia. It is pointed at the prevailing gratuitous distribution of the published books between various scientific societies and scientific men. It is concluded that the project achieved no commercial viability because of a low demand, and was scaled down therefore to publication of individual articles from Gornyi Zhurnal in specialized foreign periodicals.

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