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The first civil calendar issued in Moscow
Having adopted Christianity, for many centuries Russia had used orthodox church calendar for time calculation. On December 28, 1708 (January 8, 1709) on Peter I initiative in Moscow was published the first civil calendar known as “Brusov’s”.
The “Brusov’s calendar” was named in honor of Yakov Brusov, a famous Russian scientist and commander, Peter I’s associate, being in charge of the Moscow civil typography where Vasiliy Anufrievich Kiprianov had engraved in copper plates and printed on six sheets of big format the first edition of the Calendar.
The format was so big that each sheet had to be engraved in two copper plates. The “Brusov’s calendar” first edition is an exceptional antique value. There are only three complete copies of it that are stored in the State Hermitage, the Museum of visual arts of A.S. Pushkin and in the Russian Academy of Science Library. The State Public Historical Library also has in possession some of its sheets.
The “Brusov’s calendar” pages had different content and included church calendar, an omen of time, an omen of actions for each day, titles of tables and their content. On the whole the calendar was called “eternal”. In due course “Brusov’s calendar” numbered 47 sheets and included an ancient Russian “gromnik” - weather forecast for one year; astrological information for each sign of Zodiac and detailed description of these signs impact on human life, the ways of card reading and other information.
The calendar was very popular in Russia. It was used to determine the terms of planting and crop prospects, forecast weather and natural calamities, foretell victories in wars and condition of the Russian economy. The greatest interest arose the so-called “private” predictions allowing to look into the future of a particular person basing upon its date of birth.
Later the Calendar was repeatedly reissued and its latest editions considerably differed from the first one.
Lit.: Бантыш-Каменский Д. Биографии российских генералиссимусов и генерал-фельдмаршалов. СПб., 1840; Сведения о Василие Киприанове, библиотекаре Московской гражданской типографии при Петре I [Материалы из Артиллерийского архива] / публ., вступл. М. Д. Хмырова // Русский архив, 1866. Вып. 10; То же [Электронный ресурс]. URL: http://memoirs.ru/texts/Svedenia1866.htm.
Based on the Presidential Library’s materials:
Science, Education, and Culture // Peter I (1672–1725): [digital collection];