Цензурная история провинциальной журналистики (на материалах периодической печати дореволюционной Томской губернии)

Abstract

The paper studies the specifics of censorship control over journalism in Tomsk province in the 19th–early 20th centuries revealed through studying censorship files of the Russian State Historical Archive and the State Archive of the Tomsk Region. The authors substantiate the relevance of the study, present a brief overview of the previous writings and sources, disclose the study stages, and provide general conclusions on the study.
 The specifics of journalistic censorship in Tomsk province, which serves as a provincial periodical press model in this study, include, first, its “lag” from the metropolitan censorship processes. The officials who exercised censorship in the provinces lacked high qualification; therefore, they were either unreasonably strict or overly liberal. The archive files contain evidence of constant disputes between editors and censors, as well as complaints regarding censorship procedures that were handled by the Chief Office of the Press. The situation improved with the appointment of a single censor in Tomsk. Thanks to his work, the process of cooperation with editorial boards was streamlined, and reports started to provide valuable details on circulation and the staff of Tomsk periodicals.
 Second, the censorship cases with respect to journalism in Tomsk province revealed the idea of Tomsk provincialism, which permeated the cultural environment of ante-revolutionary Siberia. This makes the study of archive files an important step in restoring a complete picture of the development of Siberian society and journalism.