Legal Status of the Official Provincial Print Media in the Periodical Press System of the Russian Empire

• Main Author: Vyacheslav V. Shevtsov
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Sochi State University 2014-12-01
• Series: Bylye Gody
• Subjects: provincial and regional journals; official provincial printed media; censorship; history of public administration
• Online Access: http://bg.sutr.ru/journals_n/1417270827.pdf

The article is focused on the formation and changes of the legal base of the publication of the official provincial periodical press оn the basis of legislation and archival sources. The emergence of the chain of uniform official periodicals in the 30s of the XIX century was caused by the policy of Nikolay I, aimed at the strengthening of lawfulness, putting in order the flow of paper documents, creation of the unified information system in various regions and strengthening of the state guardianship over political life of the country. Alexander II expanded the program of the informal part of provincial journals (in 1855 and 1863). It strengthened the tendency of the development of various regional versions of the journals, the informal parts of which often went beyond the law. Journals depended on the local authorities (despite cancellation of the general censorship in 1862 and preliminary censorship in 1881), not on the central censorship institutions. In 1878–1881, 1901 and 1916 the Ministry of Internal Affairs organized the commissions in order to change the legislative framework of the journals publication, but it didn’t lead to any changes in the existing statute and regional governmental newspapers continued to develop diversely.