Inzhenerniya Zhurnal... No. 1 [Engineering Magazine... No. 1]. 1857

[RUSSIA. SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY]. Inzhenerniya Zhurnal... No. 1 [Engineering Magazine... No. 1]. 1857.

First issue, a superb association copy inscribed by the first Governor-general of Russian Turkestan, of this rare Russian engineering journal. Governor Konstantin Kaufman inscribes this copy for Ivan Lebedev, a war hero and notable engineer, one of the journal’s contributors.

The journal was issued by the engineering department of the Military Scientific Committee in St Petersburg, initially as a quarterly. Its first editor was Vasilli L'vovich Sharngorst, Head of the Engineering School since 1834. The journal contained technical articles about technological innovations and the history of engineering, as well as providing in-depth reviews of current engineering and military literature. Our copy of the first issue stands as the monument of a friendship between two protagonists of Russian history. The young engineer Kaufman (1818-1882) had participated in several military campaigns in the Caucasus, heading the sappers at the siege of Kars in 1855. Director-General of engineers at the War Office from 1861, he rose through the ranks to become Governor-General of Turkestan in 1867. ‘On July 11, 1867, an imperial decree established the governor-generalship of Turkestan, inaugurating a significant experiment in Russian administration of Central Asia. On July 14 General Konstantin Petrovich von Kaufman (1818-82) was appointed Turkestan’s first governor general. During the next fourteen years he rooted Russian colonial rule so firmly that subsequent incompetent governors could not overturn it. He began Turkestan’s modernization’ . Lebedev (1820-1868) had sustained grave wounds at during the Siege of Sevastopol distinguishing himself for bravery. As a member of the Military School he devoted himself to engineering and humanitarian research and publications. This issue of the journal includes an article ‘derived from the account of Captain Lebedev’ which is annotated (with a June 1857 date) by Lebedev with dismissive remarks directed to the people responsible for the mis-editing of his thoughts.

Octavo (215 x 134mm), 6 folding plates (bound without the first plate, plates slightly torn in places, some spotting spotted). Contemporary blind-tooled green morocco, gilt lettering on upper cover, green silk endpapers, green morocco covered card slipcase, edges gilt (chip to head of spine, tear to slipcase). Provenance: Konstantin Petrovich von Kaufman (1818-1882, inscription on front flyleaf dated 3rd June 1857, St Petersburg); Ivan Semenovich Lebedev (1820-1868, inscription and annotations).

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