From the cohort of the first: Sergey Sredinsky

Section: History of Journalism

In the article, for the first time in the literature, the author has carried out a comprehensive analysis of the creative path of Sergei Nikolaevich Sredinsky, one of the prominent representatives of the first generation of teachers and researchers of journalism in the USSR. His name is rarely found on the pages of works, he is remembered as the author of the first Soviet textbook on journalism, St. Petersburg historians recognize him as the initiator of the creation of the Union of Journalists in Petrograd, but there is no complete biography of Sredinsky, the dates and places of his birth and death are still unknown. The author of the article attempted to present in the article the results of his biographical and substantive research, in which he used open sources and archival documents: he used materials from the State Archive of the Russian Federation (Moscow), the Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History (Moscow), the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art (Moscow), the Central State Archive of Literature and Art (St. Petersburg) and the fund of the Book Museum of the Russian State Library (Moscow). The author has restored three main stages of Sredinsky’s creative biography: Petrograd (1918–1922), Moscow (1922–1928), and post-Moscow (1928–1949). A review analysis of the main publications and speeches, some of which have never been replicated, has been conducted. The contribution of Sredinsky to the development of journalism, science (newspaper studies, book studies, design), branch pedagogy and other fields was noted. It is shown that as the author of significant newspaper texts, he underwent an evolution from educational publications (textbooks for educational activities in those institutes of training journalists in which he worked) to scientific articles and a large-scale monograph (“The Face of the Newspaper”, 1926).

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To cite this article: Fateeva I. A. (2025) Iz kogorty pervykh: Sergey Sredinskiy [From the cohort of the first: Sergey Sredinsky]. Vestnik Moskovskogo Universiteta. Seriya 10. Zhurnalistika 1: 57–83. DOI: 10.55959/msu.vestnik.journ.3.2025.5783