DARWIN, CHARLES. 1809-1882.


O proiskhozhdenii vidov. [On the Origin of the Species.] St. Petersburg: A. I. Glazunov, 1864, [1863]. 8vo (238 x 152 mm). Contemporary half-morocco over marbled boards. Light wear to edges, dampstain to upper margin; internal soiling, foxing, some underscoring in green ink on title page. FIRST RUSSIAN TRANSLATION OF THE DARWIN'S THEORY OF EVOLUTION, "THE MOST INFLUENTIAL SCIENTIFIC WORK OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY." Translated from the sixth English edition by S. A. Rachinskii, and including Darwin's 1860 introduction for the American edition, all subsequent Russian translations have derived from this earliest one. Interestingly, Darwin's book was immediately accepted by the Russian scientific community and the public at large. Even Russian Orthodox theologians did not object. The first printing immediately sold out and a second went to press the original year of publication. It sold between 30 and 35,000 copies from 1864 to 1910 in Russia, and over 79,000 between 1926 and 1937 in the USSR.