New-York tribune., 1899-03-05
THE RUSSIAN PRESS.
,NrtrrNTIAL PAPERS NOW PUBLISHED
IN THE EMPIRE OF THE GAR


TIE CHARACTER OF THE CENSORSHIP PAPERS
THAT HAVE BEEN FOUNDED AND SUP
PRESSED THE DANGER of DISCUSSING
POLITICS NEWSPAPERS NOW ARE
SOCIETY ORGANS
Correspondence Of The Providence journal
There has never existed a political press in the
real acceptatiOn Of the term In RUSSIA. 49, ~Acco'
ING to inmpmorial tradition the Government oi
the car only allows the publication Oh he"9
which is in every respect agreeable 10 ils o"H
views and opinions In certain special cd9Va VI VI
great importance, when II IS tnGusn. nirjon me
either to excite or to calm pubic opihlDh .ne
Russian Government is trile more Iehleh',
Thus for instance, in ISL, during the ~ain
against Napoleon |, two newspapers suuuo,ny oy
made their appearance and at once p'cdilIe
tho recnrnized organs of the Russian ChauVh-
ISL partv THE Russian Invalid mouthPlece " y
the Ministry of War and the oyh ote M Sror, he
The first Russian newspaper uateeS iiI,i . .,'
r.i,u of the Car Alexis OG43-lb'ol IL was
known under the name Of current News. anu
was only destined for the immediate ehtoul
.yor of the Emperor The real founder OF Ihe
Rnssian press was Peter the Great VINO irs'
tarted .'The St Petersburg Gazette the OF
GniaI organ of the Academy Of Sciences coh-
nIete collection Of which exists since l'lt'
SOME EARLY JOURNALS.
,e,o. tho fret imnetus a number OF other peri
iiots ,vnro started successfully. Among these
the hest known were The M9nthiy VII Wtltias9,
In 1755. "The Aurora" in lISS, ana Inc MOS
cow Iournai" in 1871. These publications. we're
bowever almost entirely literary In their char-
acter and never ventured upon the daheeIou'
ground of politics, unless by oruei 81 one
ernment. During the reign 81 oir AeHam tat no :
The Bee" was first published. lhs SiTet @ 90
h,, Far tho most important and inlluental organ
If Russian press opinion during the nis. ~ ,o,
ter of the present century. Among 10 In,'1 MI
famous contributors were DE fretch anu "'''
ga rino PouChkine and LerfnOh'ol - -
The censorship in every form mas always en- ,n
isted in Russia but it was never more po" u''i
organized than under the reign 81 I ~ omo'a o.
Every newspaper. every pamphleI eNeIy ~ W
.ian ar foreign book Whe her ancient OF HiDu1ih
WAS first subjected to the censorship @ lhel =
..as even an upper committee ol cr"S'iS >,
.necially charged with the supervision Vi the
fr,,. If c.rs,rs Later on during the latter
,ort of car Nicholas Is reign. speclai censor
ships we're established. Not only were "'ic 'O
cl.siastical censOrs ana military cenSoI7 Du'
..orv Government degartm mt vas lhIe7t WIN
ia, ,n,ver Of controlling every newspaper ol
,tber printed article published which in any way
dealt with the. department ~ question: Inc
many difficulties which Russian authors met
with in publishing their works resulted III me
novel pIan of collective publ alton. IN perodl-
Gals known as "almanacks. II was IN these al
manacks that first appeared thc ""TNs 81 IN, lhs
great national historians. kalamJne, IoucHklhe
Tarnontor Poleiaief Ryleei PoSadlhe ana
others These publications proved 50 'u'ces4
rul that they resulted in the starting ol seNe'di
monthly magazines. II was tnen ma aPl'e =,
"1'he NuscnVitr" The Patriotic AnilalS 10
which DustorvsN and fIefg c)ntrlou Ell ne
various ;rnpedmentS placed in the way ol '"c
russian press were of a kind 10 make these
monthly publications prosper. rather ina" u"
daily newspapers. =, ~ .h
ON the accession Of Alexander II d" ue
special jurisdiction mentioned above Was dpo.-
shed An imperial "ukase' suppr' -Seu t'rlS
..exc.ptional' law against the press exc 'ft'pn
n.iu., made only for offences against feHEIoH.
Ordinary censorship. such as exists III "th't
countries was established instead II Vas d'
this time that Katkof and his friend. Professor
Lcontef founded at Mos'o" m r"Ha a.,
Messenger" "A large mon .hly review The agl'
and of Alexander lis reign DNNl) put suu zen
sion tn the relative Liberalism when had 'NiSt-
I'd in tie matter of the press. 'Fhe Polos.
The order" The Moscow Telegraph anu
other ORGANS Of the Liberal party were sup
dressed The rema mig orgars Of the press te-
came IN. mere echoes of the autocrauc regime
inauguratad by Alexander III.
Until the lime Of katkOfS death. IN lN'N, IN
Moscow Gazette" continued To he the most in
nuential daily organ in the empire. The prin-
ripal existing daily papers IN the empire at
present are the '\ONoir Nrrma tIhc New
Times'D. a newspaper having no political olin-
ions but widely read ON account "i us an" "d-
t0rial articles and its Weil-OrGanized system or
reporting unique i'm Russia the "NoVosu.
Liberal sheet the "Sviet.' an ardent Slavophile
organ: the journal d" st. Petersburg. pub
lished in French. venerable organ or the MN
istry of Foreign Affairs. and finally the Ne
della" democratic organ. widely read among
university students.
CHIEFLY SOCIETY ORGANS
There are many monthly magazines published
in Russia Chief among these are The Euro
pean Messenger" a liberal and progressive or
pan. tho 'Roussk NrcStml Russian Mes