On the History of the Liberal Press: the Russkaya Molva Newspaper (1912–1913)

Section: History of Journalism

A quality social and political publication designed for the broadest enlightened audience, the daily independent non-party newspaper Russkaya Molva (1912–1913) has not yet become the subject of researchers’ attention, although those studying the works of A. Blok, who published 2 articles and 5 poems there, know it very well. Many other writers and literary critics also contributed to the newspaper. Among them were A. Remizov, Sasha Chorny, L. Gurevich, B. Eihenbaum and others. For a long time, the assessments given to the newspaper by V. Lenin, who claimed it as bourgeois, pseudo-democratic and nationalistic, remained decisive. This article analyzes the content and direction of the newspaper based on the study of journalistic works, mainly of the publisher of Russkaya Molva D. Protopopov. The author concludes that the newspaper's reputation, formed under the influence of V. Lenin’s purely negative assessments, turns out to be false and requires revision. The role of Russkaya Molva in literature of the early 1910s is of great interest for researchers and needs to be further investigated.

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