Famous Dutch: Civil Type

After his first trip to The Netherlands in 1697 and in an attempt to open the window to Europe in St. Petersburg, Peter the Great took home many influences from The Netherlands. He studied ship building in Zaandam and he took home a large assortment of human and animal fetuses with anatomical deficiencies, bought from the Dutch physician Frederick Ruysch and exposed at the Kunstkamera. But he also wanted to bring Russian science and society closer to Europe.

One of Peter's reforms, was that of typography. He ordered for a new type to be designed. It is called Civil Type, after its non-clerical use, and is still in use today. It was ordered with typographers from Amsterdam and introduced in 1708. So next year, it will be the 300th anniversary of the modern Russian typography.

The Association Typographique Internationale (ATypI) voiced its support for a world-wide campaign in commemoration of the typographic reform of Czar Peter the Great in 2008.

UPDATE: It seems for the latest reform of Russian typography they did not need the Dutch. Volapuk encoding as used in SMS can look like this: Xai Hat! skazu bcem 4to 9 ne npudy. Dabai bctpet cy6 7ve4era.9 lav tebya ;-)