The Lives of Remarkable People

The Lives of Remarkable People (Russian: Жизнь замечательных людей or the acronym, ЖЗЛ, commonly referred to as "жэзээлка") is a book series comprising both fictional and biographical works intended for a mass audience. It was initially published from 1890 to 1924 by Florenty Pavlenkov under the title Жизнь замечательных людей. The series primarily features reprints of biographies published after the 1900s. Since its inception, there have been several attempts to revive the series, with Maxim Gorky being the most successful. Between 1933 and 1938, the series was reissued by the Association of Periodicals and Newspapers, starting with a new numbering system. After 1938, The Lives of Remarkable People was published by Molodaya Gvardiya, maintaining a continuous numbering system. As of 2001, the numbering was doubled to account for Pavlenkov's editions. By 2010, the total number of publications in the series exceeded one thousand five hundred, with total circulation surpassing one hundred million copies.

Pavlenkov's series was designed to be accessible to the public and aimed to "acquaint readers with outstanding personalities of past epochs." The genre format was guided by educational objectives, presenting popular biographical essays focused on the significant achievements of individuals who made notable contributions to world civilization. The biographies were authored by prominent publicists and journalists of the time, such as E. A. Solovyov and A. Skabichevsky. Some essays were penned by professional philosophers and writers, including V.S. Solovyov, and N.M. Minsky. Maxim Gorky introduced a new format of biographies featuring world-renowned figures in science, art, and revolution. Under the publishing house Molodaya Gvardiya, a public editorial board was established, which included academicians V. L. Komarov, E. M. Minsky. L. Komarov, E. V. Tarle, A. E. Fersman, professors Y. N. Tynyanov and P. F. Yudin, as well as writers A. A. Fadeev and A.N. Tolstoy.

In the 1950s, the editors of The Lives of Remarkable People established three main principles for selecting texts to be published, which have since been adhered to: scientific accuracy, high literary quality, and entertainment. For authors, publication in the series represented a recognition of their high social and professional status. Over the years, Molodaya Gvardiya invited notable figures such as Lev Gumilevsky, Sergei Durylin, Konstantin Paustovsky, Marietta Shaginian, Kornei Chukovsky, Juri Lotman, Alexei Losev, and Nathan Eidelman to contribute biographies. Many of these authors subsequently became subjects of new books in the series. During the 1960s and 1970s, the texts were influenced by ideological requirements, with the concept of "remarkable" often interpreted as "flawless." Consequently, most individuals selected for biographies were viewed as ideologically sound, which led to a limited exploration of the complexities of their lives.

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the circulation of the series declined significantly, primarily due to competition from emerging media and the Internet. The number of published books did not increase for many years, and the genre of "classical" biography became restricted to scientific frameworks. The tradition of the narrative biography diminished, and professional historians and philologists began to dominate authorship within the series. At the same time, since the 1990s, the thematic range of the series has expanded considerably, encompassing biographies of tsars, Orthodox saints, émigré writers, figures from the White movement, and Soviet and foreign film actors. Additionally, the influx of translated literature has increased markedly.