Sherlock Holmes in Russia

The new literary hero must have been received well, because the following year saw the publication in The Star of The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet and The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle. In 1876 the baton passed from The Star to the popular Russian publication Niva (The Field), which hospitably opened its pages to the Red-Headed League and (yet again) The Blue Carbuncle. A year later Niva No. 5 of 31 January 1898, published Professor Moriarty, The Adventure of the Final Problem. On 23 February 1898, in Petersburg – hurrah! – the first Sherlock Holmes stories in book form, a 143-page collection entitled Notes from the Famous Detective and consisting of The Adventure of Silver Blaze, The Adventure of the ‘Gloria Scott’ and The Adventure of the Reigate Squires. In December of the same year, as part of a 12-volume free monthly supplement to the Petersburg newspaper Dawn, A Study in Scarlet was published in Russia for the first time. It was translated from German(!), so it wasn’t entirely surprising that the hero’s surname sounded somewhat Spanish, Golmez, and that he lives on Bakkerstrasse and is referred to as Herr.

Such were the steps the great London detective was to take on Russian soil. It didn’t spell success as yet. Let’s call it a preliminary acquaintanceship, timid, coincidental, but what is coincidence if not a rod thrown at the wheel of fate speeding towards a prepared place in the universe.

And the place made ready in Russia for Conan Doyle’s brilliant creation was no less enviable than the one in his native land. What had started as a coincidence, an accident, grew to become habitual. Sherlock Holmes made a lasting entry into Russian society.

Amongst those who were first to popularize Sherlock Holmes in Russia were the brothers Panteleyeff, who published a remarkable monthly magazine, The Herald of Foreign Literature. Working for this magazine were the best translators of the time, able to select the best new literature abroad and bring it to the attention (and judgement) of the Russian reading public. This is why, in 1901, as a supplement to their magazine, the Panteleyeffs issued, for the first time in Russia (and very probably in the world), a three-volume edition of the works of Conan Doyle, consisting of most of The Canon available at the time, viz, vol. 1, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Notes; vol. 2, The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes; and vol. 3, From John Watson’s Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes. A large number of the stories in this collection appeared in Russian for the first time, including The Sign of Four. This was, indeed, a unique edition but, in Russia today, there is hardly a library that has a complete set. The translations were the work of M.P. Voloshinova, to whom a very special thank you!

And so, at the start of the twentieth century, as the brilliant era of Queen Victoria was ending, the era of Sherlock Holmes was just getting under way in Russia.

While the 3-volume Panteleyeff edition was coming out in July, F.I. Miturnikoff, a Petersburg publisher, put out a 253-page The Famous Detective’s Notes.

And so, by the end of 1901, this is the Sherlock Holmes picture in Russia: six publications in magazine form, two books and a 3-volume set.