686 



RUSSIA, THE PEESS OF, IN 1868. 



ism. But, although it confined its polemical 

 articles mostly to subjects connected with the 

 foreign policy of Eussia, and, in treating of 

 domestic topics, took pains to pursue a most 

 conciliatory course toward the Imperial Gov- 

 ernment, it was involved in endless conflicts 

 with the latter, prosecuted for violations of the 

 press laws every month or two, frequently sub- 

 jected to heavy fines, and, on the 27th of De- 

 cember, 1868, ordered by the Government to 

 suspend publication for six months, a measure 

 which is likely to result in the definite sup- 

 pression of this most popular and influential of 

 Eussian newspapers. In Odessa, where there 

 is a comparatively large foreign population, 

 and where the administration has always dis- 

 played more lenity toward the press than in 

 any other large city of the empire, there were 

 published in the year 1867 six daily papers, 

 with a circulation of twenty-five thousand 

 copies. One of these daily papers is published 

 in the French language ; and two of the Eus- 

 sian journals of Odessa, so far as editorial 

 ability is concerned, are equal to any of the 

 St. Petersburg papers. The National party, 

 which is very strong in St. Petersburg, and, 

 above all, in Moscow, controls most of the 

 papers published in those two capitals ; but it 

 is exceedingly weak in Odessa, the population 

 of which has more of a cosmopolitan char- 

 acter, and, in consequence, only one of the 

 dailies in that southern city, and, moreover, 

 the one having the smallest circulation, advo- 

 cates Old Eussian principles. 



In the Baltic provinces of Eussia there were 

 published in the year 1866 thirty-one dailies 

 and .weeklies in the German language, and 

 seven in the Eussian. language. In 1867 and 

 1868 the Old Eussian party made energetic ef- 

 forts to increase the number of Eussian organs 

 in the principal cities of those provinces ; but 

 these efforts, though indirectly supported by 

 the St. Petersburg administration, had re- 

 mained fruitless until the middle of the year 

 1868, when, for the first time after several 

 years, a new daily paper, printed in the Eus- 

 sian language, made its appearance at Eiga. 

 Owing to the disinclination" of the population 

 to encourage the growth of Eussian organs in 

 their city, while the German papers were 

 sorely oppressed by all sorts of vexatious 

 measures on the part of the authorities, the 

 journal had to suspend publication in Octo- 

 ber, 1868. 



In consequence of the persistent attempts 

 of the Imperial Government to Eussify all the 

 border provinces inhabited by non-Eussian 

 populations, the German papers, published in 

 the Baltic provinces, were subjected in the 

 year 1868 to a series of persecutions, which 

 would have certainly resulted in the ruin of 

 most of them but for the great firmness with 

 which the population stands by them, and the 

 resolute resistance which it offers to the efforts 

 of the administration to lessen the circulation 

 and influence of the German press of Eussia. 



Throughout the year 1868, there has been 

 going on a bitter war between the Eussian 

 journals of St. Petersburg and Moscow, on one 

 hand, and the German papers of Eiga, Dorpat, 

 Mitau, etc., in regard to the Eussification 

 measures strenuously advocated by the former, 

 and as resolutely resisted by the latter. Al- 

 though most of the German papers of the 

 Baltic provinces are managed and edited with 

 considerable ability, their circulation, owing to 

 the limited extent of the field, to which they 

 are confined, is not very large. 



By far more successful than in the Baltic 

 provinces have been the efforts of the Eussian 

 Government to extirpate the independent 

 organs of the Polish press. The number of 

 political papers published in 1868 in Poland 

 was considerably smaller than it was during 

 the most oppressive periods of the reign of the 

 Emperor Nicholas. Nearly all the Polish 

 newspapers at the present time are official 

 organs of the Government, and, owing to the 

 hostility with which the vast majority of the 

 population looks upon the administration, 

 whose views and policy they support, their in- 

 fluence and circulation are very limited. 



There exist, however, in Poland six or eight 

 papers, which are printed clandestinely, and 

 which circulate in large numbers all over the 

 country. 



In the Old Eussian provinces of the empire, 

 too, there are issued numerous clandestine pa- 

 pers, whose aggregate circulation Alexander 

 Hertzen, an excellent authority in regard to 

 this point, estimates at one hundred thousand 

 copies. Most of these clandestine papers are 

 printed at Moscow and St. Petersburg. They 

 are almost without an exception organs of the 

 Nihilists, and advocate the consolidation of the 

 Slavic races into a great Panslavonic Eepublic. 

 In one respect these clandestine papers of Eus- 

 sia, objectionable as their language and tenden- 

 cies frequently are, certainly exercise a very 

 salutary influence, and that is by the opportu- 

 nity which they constantly afford to their edit- 

 ors to expose the crimes committed by tyrannous 

 and dishonest functionaries, etc. Besides the 

 papers secretly printed in Eussia, large num- 

 bers of the two democratic journals published 

 in the Eussian language in London and Geneva 

 are smuggled every week into the various prov- 

 inces of the empire. At one time, ten thou- 

 sand copies of the celebrated KoloTcol (Bell), 

 edited by Alexander Hertzen, were regularly 

 sent to St. Petersburg. 



As regards the relations of the independent 

 Eussian newspapers toward the administration, 

 the year 1868, like the preceding one, presented 

 an unbroken series of prosecutions and all those 

 vexatious measures which the Eussian press 

 code enables the Government to bring to bear 

 upon the journals that incur its displeasure. 

 Since the year 1865, when the attack made 

 upon the life of the Emperor Alexander II. 

 put an end to the moderately liberal policy 

 which he had pursued during the first decade 



