Day of Workers of Publishing Houses, Printing and Book Distribution of Ukraine (28/05)

Day of Publishing, Printing and Book Distribution Workers (Ukrainian. The Day of Practitioners of Vidavnitsa, Poligraphy and Books is celebrated in Ukraine annually on the last Saturday of May, according to Presidential Decree №563/99 of May 25, 1999, and is a national professional holiday for workers in one way or another connected with printing.

The first Ukrainian printing house can be considered the Krakow printing house of Schweipolt Fiol, in which the first books printed in Cyrillic appeared in 1491. Fiol's printing house published books for Ukraine and related countries, and she began publishing books in Cyrillic in the form that printing houses in Ukraine continued.

The first printing house on Ukrainian lands was established in Lvov by Ivan Fedorov-Fedorovich. It operated throughout 1573-1575, and the first book published here was the second edition of «Apostle» in 1574.

A real masterpiece of printed art was the Ostrog Bible, completed in 1581. Ostrog also became the first center in Ukraine for publishing the then journalism, which later researchers called «polemic literature».

Another of the printing cells was the Pechersk Lavra. Founded in 1616, the Kiev Lavra Printing House operated for three centuries.

In addition to printing houses in Cyrillic script, Latin-Polish ones also worked in the country: the first was a small printing house in Lviv that operated in 1592-1602.

In total, 25 printing houses operated in Ukraine in 1574-1648. The main centers of publishing activity were large trading cities — Kyiv, Lviv, Ostrog. There were not only personnel of artisans, scribes, and editors, but also opportunities for wider sales. Large printing houses had their own bookstores. The sale of books was also carried out by printing workers, merchants and shopkeepers, who distributed books along with other goods.

Currently, there are about 6,000 enterprises in the field of publishing in the country, employing more than 45 thousand people (from sellers in bookstores and kiosks to managers of large publishing centers and media magnates) and the last Saturday of May is a — holiday for each of them.

381