Printing House of Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russian Empire in Mid-19th — Early 20th Centuries: structure, functions, personnel

Abstract

The general characteristics of the government printing house that served the interests of Ministry of Internal Affairs in the middle of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries, from the moment the printing house was created in 1836 until the 1910s, when the government was forced to join the struggle for public opinion. The staff of the printing house of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, its structure and changes in personnel and functions are investigated. It is shown that the outbreak of the First Russian Revolution accelerated the transformation of the printing house of the Ministry of Internal Affairs from an institution dealing with printing works on the document circulation of the Ministry of Internal Affairs into a structure that performs important functions in the ideological struggle for public opinion. It is proved that at the beginning of the twentieth century the priority direction for the printing house of the Ministry of Internal Affairs was the task of printing government newspapers “Government Bulletin”, “Russian State”, “Evening addition to the Government Bulletin”, etc. The difference between the servants and the workers of the printing house of the central state institution is emphasized. It is noted that if the servants of the printing house of the Ministry of Internal Affairs initially had the right to receive a social package, then the workers of the printing house had to earn this right.