Florenty Fedorovich Pavlenkov is a legendary Russian book publisher, translator and educator, or, as they say today, a cultural trader. In 1890, he invented and began publishing his most famous series, "The Lives of Remarkable People." During Pavlenkov's lifetime, 191 books and 40 reprints were published, and the total circulation exceeded a million copies. It was, according to many, the first collection of biographies in Europe, which gained tremendous success among readers.