 Among his first publications was the "Russian Calendar", which was in high demand all over Russia, followed by an unprecedented series of cheap editions of classics, both foreign and Russian.For more demanding readers, he issued a suite of richly illustrated albums about the great art galleries of Europe.In the late 19th century, he launched a series of city directories, published on an annual basis (each were between 500 and 1500 pages long) for St. Petersburg, Moscow and the rest of Russia that detailed the names and addresses of private residents, government offices, public services and medium and large businesses.