The new century began with various scientific discoveries. The electric telegraph could transmit any news to the farthest corner of the country, but the tsarist government's practice of informing the masses remained at the level of the middle of the last century. On the other hand, revolutionary passions roamed the country and our press, when it tried to calm them down, and when it itself poured kerosene into the flame. Thus, in the newspaper Penza Gubernskiye Vesti of November 5, 1905, in the article “Russian Press” it was published: “The colossal degeneration of the people's way of life, which happened before our eyes, cannot take place without painful shocks, and therefore one should moderate one's aspirations … Consciously treat the word "freedom", because after the "manifesto" the word "freedom of the press" is understood in the sense of the possibility of swearing regardless of the essence of the matter. We need more restraint, more sensibility, and the seriousness of the moment is obliged to this”.
Everything is so, but why, then, was the Manifesto of October 17 published in the same newspaper, as well as the Manifesto of 1861, with a great delay? Only on November 2, 1905, and the telegraph was already there! At the same time, for example, one could learn about the events connected with the publication of the manifesto on October 17 in the Samara newspaper, but the Penza newspapers were silent about the consequences of this in Penza. The material was called "Manifesto of October 17 in Penza".
“At about 11 o'clock in the morning, students of male and female gymnasiums, real, land surveying and drawing schools, having stopped their studies, organized a solemn procession along the main Penza street, Moskovskaya, along the way, offering to close the shops and join the procession. The shops were locked, the merchants and the mass of outsiders increased the procession, so that by the time they reached the railway there were already several thousand people in the crowd. The demonstrators intended to add to their procession the railway workers, whose premises were cordoned off by soldiers. All of a sudden…
Suddenly, it is not known by whose order, the soldiers rushed into the crowd, and work began with rifle butts and bayonets. The demonstrators, among whom were dominated by young men and adolescents, in panic horror rushed to run anywhere. Mercilessly beaten by the soldiers, many fell, and a crowd with distorted faces ran through the fallen, many with their heads smashed in blood, with wild cries of horror … and, armed with a drekol, they pursued the fleeing …
According to rumors, more or less severe beatings and injuries were received by up to 200 people and about 20 killed. This is how the promulgation of the act on October 17 was celebrated in Penza."
“In the only local newspaper - the state-owned Gubernskiye Vedomosti - not a word is said about the events of October 19, 1905, so if you judge local life by this press, you might think that everything was fine in the city that day. However, this "prosperous state" was accompanied by a mass of beaten, crippled and even killed people, a mass of tears, grief and spiritual poisoning of thousands of young lives."
December 3, 1905"PGV" in the official part published the Imperial Decree of the Sovereign-Emperor to the ruling Senate with the rules for time-based publications, which abolished all types of censorship, and those wishing to have their own publications could simply write a corresponding statement, pay something there and … become a publisher! But there were no comments, and it was so important! It is interesting that, judging by the articles, the newspapermen were already aware of the power of popular opinion and sought to rely on it, for which the "PGV" sometimes published letters from peasants of very interesting content. For example, on December 6, 1905, in the "Voice of the Village" section, a letter was published from the peasants of the village of Solyanki, Nikolayevsky Uyezd, Samara Region, in which they referred to Holy Scripture and defended the autocracy, and at the end of the material their signatures were even given. But … there were few such letters! And it was necessary … a lot! And how the newspapermen did not understand this - it is not clear!
Penza. Cathedral Square.
It is interesting that in "Penza Provincial Gazette" analyzes of the capital's press were also arranged. The main idea, which was being introduced into the minds of Penza residents, was that only the friendly and joint work of the government, the State Duma and the entire people of Russia will bear fruit! But … why then did the newspaper write without enthusiasm about such an important brainchild of the government as the Stolypin agrarian reform?
About her "PGV" wrote in a very restrained tone, and not a single (!) Letter from the village was published, which would express the positive opinion of the peasants on this issue! What, they did not find such peasants, or did they not know how to write in line with the requirements of the government's policy?
In the newspaper there were no responses from the localities to the work of land management commissions, no letters approving the abolition of redemption payments, no gratitude to the tsar-father for the decree on the issuance of loans to peasants through the Land Bank. That is, nothing that would show society how the peasants approve of all this, support the course of reforms, which began with the abolition of serfdom in 1861!
True, sometimes letters from individual peasants in support of the land reform and the tsarist autocracy did get to the PGV villages, but only as reprints from other newspapers, as if the province did not have enough of its own peasants! For example, on September 21, 1906, a letter from the peasant K. Blyudnikov, a former sailor of the battleship Retvizan, "now living in the village of Belenkoye, Izyumsky district," appeared in "PGV", where he outlined his vision of what was happening.
“First, brothers-peasants,” the former sailor addressed the peasants in a letter that was first published by the newspaper “Kharkovskie vedomosti”, “they drank less, so they would be 10 times richer. The estates were acquired by hard work from the nobles. And what? The peasants are going to ruin all this, and is it Christian?”. “When I was in the navy, I was everywhere,” wrote Blyudnikov, “and I have never seen the government give land … Appreciate this and stand up for your tsar and heir. The Sovereign is our Supreme Leader."
The letter also noted "the brilliant mind of the bosses, without whom there would be no Russia!" A very original passage, because literally right there, "PGV" demanded to punish all those responsible for the defeat of Russia in the Russo-Japanese War. Here - "the mind of the chiefs", here - these same chiefs are taken out by fools and traitors!
Penza st. Moscow. She still is in many ways.
The newspaper reported that in the war Russia did not have mountain artillery and machine guns in the theater of operations, new rapid-fire guns, and conscripts of the second turn were sent to the ships of the Second Far Eastern Squadron. And who was responsible for all this? We read the letter of K. Belenky: "The Sovereign is our Supreme Leader", and then judge all his relatives: relatives, ministers, generals and admirals. It is clear that even then such inconsistencies in what was stated were striking to different people and aroused distrust both in the press itself and in the government, and in fact it was supposed to protect it.
The Penza Gubernskiye Vesti newspaper regularly wrote about the resettlement policy! But how? It was reported how many immigrants traveled through Penza along the Syzran-Vyazemskaya railway to Siberia and … back, and for some reason they gave data about both adults and children. At the same time, information about the movement of immigrants to Siberia and back to "PGV" appeared in the following form: “In November, 4043 settlers and 3532 walkers passed through Chelyabinsk to Siberia. 678 settlers and 2251 walkers followed back from Siberia.
But as noted above, all this was not commented on, and the newspaper space occupied less than the description of the robbery of a wine shop and a pharmacy, published in the same issue and on that page. Moreover, it was reported that armed with automatic pistols of the Browning system, the people who robbed the pharmacy demanded money "for revolutionary purposes."
This very material about the robbery of a pharmacy and a wine shop "in the interests of the revolution" was given in a very neutral way. Well, they got robbed and okay, or rather - it's bad. But the feat of the policeman who tried to detain the robbers and paid for it with his life (the criminals killed him with point-blank shots!) Was not covered in any way. The man fulfilled his duty to the end, died at the combat post, but … "the way it should be." But the newspaper could organize a collection of donations among the townspeople in favor of the widow of the deceased, who was left without a breadwinner, and this, of course, would cause a public outcry, but … the newspaper had enough appeal to the City Duma: they say, it is necessary to restore order in the streets!
But all the Penza newspapers wrote about the State Duma, which was far away. In addition to "Penza Provincial Vesti", "Chernozemny Krai" wrote about her, where materials about the Duma went one after another: "Preparations for the elections", "On the eve of the second Duma", "Elections and the village", "Words and deeds of Mr. Stolypin", "Reform" - that's just a part of the articles published in it, one way or another related to the reform activities of the Russian parliament.
Very interesting, in terms of understanding the role of culture in reforming society, was the article, which was called "Culture and Reform", published in the weekly newspaper "Sura", the purpose of which, as the editorial board itself stated, was "to report on the work of the Duma and to express their attitude to its decisions, as well as tasks of a cultural and educational nature and coverage of local life."
In the article, in particular, it was written that “the reforms require the joint work of the whole society, as well as the elimination of the gap between the intelligentsia and the people. Cultural life is one of the important moments. Without culture, no reforms are strong, the foundation on which they are built is not only the "renewed" system, but also the culture of the entire people.
Penza. Real school. Now there is a school here.
The cadet newspaper Perestroi, which was published in Penza in 1905-1907, and set itself the task of promoting the reorganization on the basis of political freedom, "raising the spirit and material well-being of the masses", also devoted many of its materials to the work of the State Duma, pointing out at the same time, that among all the reforms in Russia, the first place belongs to the convocation of the people's representation. In the article "Difficulty of elections to the Duma," the newspaper wrote that they were caused by the fact that "we are still developing political parties, and the average person is not able to understand all these details." The newspaper talked about the rights of the State Duma and the role of autocracy ("Autocracy or the constitution), demanded universal suffrage (" Why is universal suffrage necessary?), Called for equality of estates ("Equality of estates").
Appeared in "PGV" and openly "yellow articles" (as, indeed, they appear today!) So on December 17, 1905 in the article "Where are the causes of the turmoil?" all the problems of Russia were explained by the machinations of the Freemasons. It is clear that this was talked about at that time and that the "conspiracy theory" was also there then. But then it would be necessary to give a series of articles on Freemasonry, to conclusively accuse them of all mortal sins and lay all the omissions on them. In the end, the paper will endure everything. But this was not done.
For some reason, almost all the provincial newspapers of those years (although who financed them?), As if by chance, and even in reviews of theatrical performances, for some reason tried to offend the authorities at any cost! So, when on October 19, 1906, Penza residents first watched a play about Sherlock Holmes, which was presented under the name "Sherlock Holmes", the newspaper "Chernozemny Kray" gave the following material on it: "The imminent reaction managed to influence the tastes of the public; not only in the social manifestations of life its influence appears, but also in the field of art traces of a destructive effect were felt … Was it conceivable at least in 1905 to stage the same Holmes, of course, not … they look, laugh, rejoice …"
Such small injections took place in almost every publication, and even about the legal newspapers of the opposition parties and private publications, you can not even talk about. It is not for nothing that the Petrograd mayor, Prince A. Obolensky, in a letter to Prince A. Trubetskoy in Ashgabat, written on January 31, 1915, wrote: "The newspapers are all bastards …" !
Penza. Cathedral Square. Now such a majestic cathedral is being completed here that the old one, this one, blown up by the Bolsheviks, is no good for him! It is immediately evident that the wealth and power of the country has increased!
On the other hand, the activities of journalists opposed to the tsarist regime, despite all the changes that had taken place in society, were extremely difficult. So, on January 3, 1908, the newspaper "Sura" published an article "The Mournful Chronicle of the 10-Month Leaving Newspaper," in which it described in detail the fate of the newspaper "Chernozemny Krai", which changed four different names and four editors in ten months. The fate of its publishers was also sad: the court sentenced Count P. M. Tolstoy to three months in prison, E. V. Titov was sentenced to one and a half years in a fortress with deprivation of editorial rights for five years, and publisher V. A. … Judging by complaints from rural subscribers, the newspaper often did not reach beyond post offices and volost boards, where it was confiscated and destroyed.
But the lack of information was replaced by rumors, so that even a special section appeared in the Sura newspaper: "News and rumors." Apparently, even then, the journalists purely intuitively understood that it was possible to “kill the rumor” by publishing it in print. But we know about one interesting problem of our society in 1910 from “PGV”. The review of the catalog of children's books by M. O. Wolf in No. 6 of Penza Provincial Gazette for 1910 stated that it was dominated by literature from the life of “Western European peoples, Americans, Asians, the novels of J. Verne, Cooper, Mariet and Mine Reed has practically nothing about the Russian people. There are books about the life of France, but not about Lomonosov. In the books of Charskaya - “when the mountaineers are fighting for freedom - this is possible, but when Russia is fighting the Tatar region … it is harmful””As a result, the newspaper concluded that the child becomes a foreigner in soul and it is not surprising that“our children grow up as enemies of their homeland” … Curious, isn't it?
That is, it was easier and calmer to publish reports on the State Duma meetings, and on what is happening abroad, than to regularly write articles on topical topics and take care of … the security of our own state. Most of the problems with such a presentation of information were still not resolved, the diseases of society were only driven deeper into the depths. Under these conditions, people perceived any underground printed materials with confidence, as a “voice of freedom”."If they are being driven, then it’s true!" - was considered by the people, and the tsarist government did nothing to break this stereotype, and use the means of journalism to manage public opinion in its own interests. Didn't know how? That's why they paid for their ignorance!
