How did it all begin? (The first Russian printed newspaper “Vedomosti”)
The first Russian printed newspaper "Vedomosti" was organized on the basis of the decrees of Peter I in December 1702. Trial issues of "Vedomosti" were published on December 16 and 17, but were not preserved in printed form; from January 2, 1703, "Vedomosti" began to appear more or less less regularly.
The first Russian newspaper began to be published at the Printing Yard and was a thin brochure of one-eighth of a sheet (11 x 16 cm, the size of the typesetting page was 5 x 7.5 square meters). The newspaper was typed in the Cyrillic font common at that time.
Initially, the newspaper did not have a permanent title and was called “Moscow Vedomosti”, “Russian Vedomosti”, sometimes in the old fashioned way - “Chimes”, and sometimes the title became the definition of the official Document printed in the newspaper: “Genuine Report”, “Relydia”.
The newspaper also did not have a constant format, circulation, or strict frequency of publication. In the first year of existence of the Vedomosti newspaper, 39 issues were published, in subsequent years - 30-40 issues each. Since 1711, the Vedomosti newspaper began to be published in St. Petersburg.
The newspaper's circulation experienced great fluctuations - from several tens to several thousand copies. Data, for example, for 1708 show that individual issues of Vedomosti were printed in quantities of 150, 200, 400, 700 and even 1000 copies, and in 1724 the circulation dropped to 30 copies. The news about the Battle of Poltava was printed in 2,500 copies and sold out in its entirety, but a number of issues did not find distribution and remained at the Printing Yard.
It took many years for the first Russian newspaper to acquire the type of stable, regular publication that St. Petersburg Vedomosti became from 1728.
However, let's turn to the files of newspapers that have survived and have come down to us in electronic form (that is, scanned). Let's analyze the content.
The newspaper contained materials on military affairs, on issues of technology and industry, the production of artillery pieces, and the construction of the fleet. Large share publications were dedicated to the victories of the Russian army, especially in major battles at Poltava, Gangut, in the Baltic states. Along with military topics, the pages of the newspaper reflected the problems civil life: base new capital- St. Petersburg, construction of cities and fortresses, development of trade. Here you can also find information about education, the successes of science and culture. The source of operational information was official documents, reports of ambassadors, and departmental materials. Information was also drawn from foreign newspapers, the range of which expanded compared to the 17th century due to newspapers coming from cities such as Leipzig, Paris, and Amsterdam.
It must be said that the first Russian newspaper, being an organ of the state of landowners, nobles and merchants, appeared at the same time important factor development national culture, especially considering that from 1710 it began to be printed in civil script instead of Church Slavonic.
The content of the first Russian newspaper was limited to broad propaganda of Peter’s reforms; much space was devoted to characterizing the country’s economic potential and reviewing military operations in Northern War, diplomatic relations of the Russian state, facts of national culture, opening of schools, description of solemn holiday acts, publication of sermons of associates of Peter I (Feofan Prokopovich), etc.
The newspaper did not have thematic sections, so many issues are a motley mixture of a wide variety of information - from a description of a naval battle to an advertisement for the healing properties of Olonets waters, “which have been witnessed through many sick people...”. And yet, in this information kaleidoscope, the main themes of the published materials can be identified. For almost twenty years, the newspaper focused on the events of the Northern War.
The first Russian newspaper widely covered the affairs of developing industry and trade. In it you can also find a general assessment of the economic situation in the country: “Merchants, manufacturing and all kinds of handicrafts are doing well.” And then there are specific facts that speak of the growth of production and the development of new technologies: “there are 11 ships in the Admiralty’s slipways, including one that is expected to be launched this fall.”
On its pages, Vedomosti wrote about the profound changes taking place in the field of education and the dissemination of civilian literature, for example, that by order of the Tsar, the network of schools, including special ones, was expanding, that in Moscow “more than 300 students study at the mathematical navigation school people accept good science.” In the 12th issue for 1710, a bibliographic review was published for the first time - “Register of new civil books, which, by decree of the Tsar's Majesty, were printed with the newly invented Amsterdam alphabet.”
Vedomosti undoubtedly expanded the horizons of its readers, introducing them to the life of European countries, popularizing geographical knowledge, systematically explaining geographical terms, etc.
Let's take a closer look at the first printed issue, dated January 2, 1703, that has survived to this day. Let's turn to the first page. It’s interesting that the title came first, then a comma, and then the text itself.
Translation of the first editorial into modern language: “In Moscow, once again, four hundred guns of copper howitzers and mortars have been poured. Those cannons with cannonballs of 24, 52 and 12 pounds each, howitzers with bombs of a pound and half a pound, mortars with bombs of nine, three and two pounds, and less. And there are many more forms of great and medium-sized cannons, howitzers and mortars ready for casting, and now there is more than forty thousand pounds of copper in the cannon yard, which is prepared for new casting.”
The question immediately arises: why is the editorial of the first issue of Vedomosti in 1703 devoted to the casting of new howitzers and mortars? The fact is that this issue was then the most important, state issue. The Russians were still acutely upset by the loss to the Swedes in the Battle of Narva in 1700. The Russian army completely lost all its artillery there. That is why the first issue of the first printed newspaper immediately reassures fellow citizens: pay attention to how many new guns have been produced, how much copper has been prepared for casting new guns, and know that the Narva losses have been fully compensated.
A rising, resurgent nation is capable of turning even defeat in one battle into a weapon of victory. The defeat of the Russian army near Narva turned out to be useful for Russia, and later in the Northern War, Peter and his associates won victories one after another. Vedomosti constantly devoted its pages to describing the course of this long war, which led to the exaltation of Russia and forever removed Sweden from the ranks of powerful military powers. Already in the first issue, dated January 2, 1703, there was a note about how “from the city of Olonets, priest Ivan Okulov gathered hunters on foot with a thousand people, went abroad to the Svei (that is, Swedish) border, and defeated the Svei outposts. And at those outposts of the Swedes he beat a large number of Swedes, and took the Reitar banner, drums and swords, fuses and horses enough. The Swedish cavalry killed 50 people, the infantry 90 people, and only two soldiers were wounded from the priest’s army.”
The third article reports population growth: “In Moscow, from November 24 to December 24, 356 people were born, male and female.”
The fourth article is about international relations: “They write from Persia. The Indian king sent an elephant and many other things as gifts to our great Sovereign. An elephant was released from the city of Shamakhi to Astrakhan by land.”
The fifth article is about successes in mineral exploration: “They write from Kazan that a lot of oil and copper ore were found on the Soku River, a fair amount of copper was smelted from that ore, from which they hope to generate considerable profit for the Moscow State.”
The Vedomosti newspaper was a fairly successful tool of Peter the Great, but not everything was perfect. The progenitor of Russian newspapers was unstable in everything except format. Everything is mobile in it, everything is unstable. The name of the newspaper changes slightly from issue to issue. The set of issues for 1714 most fully outlined the content and nature of the publication: “Report on military and other affairs worthy of knowledge and memory that happened in the Moscow state and in other surrounding countries.” But both earlier and later, the names of the newspaper change: “Vedomosti”, “Vedomosti of the Moscow State”, “Vedomosti from the Caesar's letters sent via mail in the current year of December 1702 on the 5th day”. “Moscow Vedomosti”, “Genuine Report”, “Russian Vedomosti”, and even the title of the issue: “Essence from French printed newspapers" Some numbers are completely nameless.
But, despite all these shortcomings, the newspaper was popular. If not for the death of Peter I, which entailed the loss of readers and, accordingly, circulation, Vedomosti would have continued to exist.
Long before the advent of writing, people had a need to exchange news. Special people walked around towns and villages, announcing births, deaths and other life events. Later in Ancient Rome there were prototypes of handwritten newspapers - acta. With their help, the Romans received information about events in their country. There were also news sheets in China.
It is worth saying that by the end of the 15th century, printing already existed. This was facilitated by the emergence printing press in Italy. In turn, newspapers were published, albeit handwritten ones. They remained so until the end of the 16th century. Basically, their operation took place in Italy; in some places, handwritten newspapers were available in Germany. There were even special people responsible for writing news, the so-called “news scribes.”
As history goes, the first printed newspaper appeared in Venice in the early 16th century. Before this, the country had weekly handwritten publications and special people “avizzotori” who specialized in writing news notes.
However, in the form in which modern readers are accustomed to seeing, the French presented it to the world. This happened on May 30, 1631. The printed publication was called "La Gazeta". It was released in thousands of copies. The copyright holder of La Gazeta was Renaudo.
However, the palm in publishing a printed newspaper belongs to Germany. Back in 1609, the Strasbourg newspaper “Relation: Aller Furnemmen” appeared. Its publisher and printer was Johann Carolus. It's worth saying that exact year The edition of this newspaper is unknown.
Russian Vedomosti
Russia, as always, lagged behind Europe, and in this matter too. The first Russian printed newspaper “Vedomosti” began to function in 1703, when Peter I came to the throne. The country did not pass by the period of handwritten newspapers. In particular, Chimes, created on the model of a Western European newspaper, was popular among the literate population.
The first Russian printed newspaper was small - smaller notebook sheet. Unlike the French La Gazeta, which was published weekly, Vedomosti appeared less than once every 23 days.
It is interesting that Tsar Peter himself edited the first issues. According to statistics, 39 issues of this book were published in 1703. printed edition. Subsequently, the newspaper was renamed “St. Petersburg Vedomosti”.
“Russian Press Day” – a historical inaccuracy?
By decree of December 16, Peter I decreed: “According to the statements about military and all sorts of affairs that are necessary for the announcement of the Moscow and surrounding States to people, chimes should be printed, and for the printing of those chimes, statements in which orders, about what is now and will be in the future, send from those orders to the Monastic Prikaz without wasting, and send those statements from the Monastic Prikaz to the Printing Yard. And this should be sent to all orders from the Monastic Order of Memory.”
One of the first copies of Vedomosti
In fact, according to researchers, the first issues of Vedomosti appeared back in 1702, almost immediately after Peter’s decree. However, these numbers are generally considered to be trial numbers, since they were preserved only in the form of handwritten copies and were discovered relatively recently. The first copy of the newspaper that has reached us in printed form dates back to January 2 (January 13, new style).
Peter I, being a skillful politician and talented strategist, began to publish his own newspaper at the very right time. By 1702, Russian troops had already suffered a number of serious defeats in the Northern War. Narva, where the Russians left almost all of their artillery and up to 7 thousand killed, shook the people's faith in a quick victory over the troops of Charles XII. Peter's Vedomosti, according to historians, was created precisely in order to convince society of the possibility of victory in the Northern War. This is evidenced by the materials that were published in Vedomosti: for example, in the first December issues it was reported about successful military operations, the capture of enemy artillery and the agreement of the head of the Kalmyk Horde to place 20 thousand of his soldiers at Peter’s disposal.
"Vedomosti" dated June 28, 1711
It is no coincidence that Vedomosti is usually called Peter’s newspaper. This suggests not only that the newspaper appeared during the reign of Peter, but also that future emperor personally participated in the creation of the newspaper. Some copies still contain traces of the editing that Peter himself did. He, as researchers have proven, often even provided texts for publication himself, sometimes forbade anything to be printed, and also found time to criticize some issues of the newspaper.
What did the country's first newspaper look like?
First of all, Vedomosti was an extremely unstable publication: there was no clear format, no set circulation, no strict frequency of publication, no specific price, not even a single name (from issue to issue the newspaper could be called differently: there were also Vedomosti Moscow State”, and “Russian Gazette”, and “Relations”, and “Essence from French printed newspapers”). Sometimes Vedomosti was even given out to the people for free. And even the writing of letters changed due to the introduction of civil font in 1710 by Peter. Newspaper volume in different times ranged from 2 to 22 pages.
Report on the victory in the naval battle off the Gangut Peninsula, published in Vedomosti
The first Russian newspaper was a purely official publication, which is evidenced by the fact that Vedomosti underwent preliminary (that is, even before publication) censorship. Basically, Peter's Vedomosti presented a chain of laconic messages from various places, with most of their materials taken from foreign publications. The main genre in which the first worked Russian journalists- report (report of incidents during the war). In the first years of its existence, the newspaper published Peter's associates: B. Kurakin, P. Tolstoy, A. Dolgoruky and F. Golovin.
The Adventures of the French King in Vedomosti
Vedomosti was published in a circulation of 500 to 4,000 copies. Now these figures seem ridiculous, but for that time this circulation was quite large. For example, the legendary “Contemporary” by Nekrasov, almost a century and a half later, was published in a circulation of 3,100 copies. However, by 1724, the circulation of Vedomosti had already become really small: one of the issues was published in the amount of 30 copies. This is probably due to the fact that the reader has not yet acquired a real reading habit.
The first issue of St. Petersburg Gazette in Russian
With the death of Peter I, the history of Vedomosti did not end: in 1728, the publication was transferred to the jurisdiction of the Academy of Sciences, and the newspaper itself began to be called the St. Petersburg Vedomosti. With this name, the newspaper existed until 1914, then, along with the renaming of the city, the name of the publication changed: now Petrogradskie Vedomosti appeared before the reader. In October 1917, when the Bolsheviks came to power, the newspaper ceased to exist. The publication was resumed only in 1991: the modern version is the largest daily publication in the North-West region.
Predecessor of Peter's Vedomosti
By the way, you can note that in Peter’s decree there is not a word about a newspaper, we are talking only about some kind of “chimes”. The whole point is that in Muscovy, as in others European countries, the appearance of the first printed newspapers was preceded by handwritten publications that contained information about political and economic events. So in this regard, “Vedomosti” cannot be called the first publication, since Russian handwritten newspapers arose around 1600, and they were called “Courants” (from the French Courant - current).
Handwritten “Courants” for 1631
Kuranty, however, was least like a modern newspaper or even Vedomosti. First of all, because they were of the nature of state secrets, and the dissemination of information that was in “Chimes” was unacceptable. The first handwritten newspapers were compiled with the help of a number of informant agents who lived in European countries. The Chimes were issued in a single copy and read to Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich, and sometimes the boyars were allowed to stand at the door and listen to what was read to the Tsar.
Under Peter the Great, a newspaper appeared in Russia
The idea of publishing printed political bulletins for the public belongs to Peter the Great, who is considered the founder of the Russian newspaper. He was also the first editor of Vedomosti. Proof of this is that he himself used a pencil to translate and insert passages from Dutch newspapers into them, and even read the proofs himself. As a precious monument, the Synodal Library contains several issues with proofreading notes by his sovereign hand.
On December 16, 1702, Emperor Peter the Great indicated that “according to statements about military and all sorts of affairs that are subject to announcement of Moscow and the surrounding States to people, chimes should be printed, and for printed chimes, statements in which Orders about what is now and will continue to be sent from those Orders to the Monastic Prikaz, without wasting, and send those statements from the Monastic Prikaz to the printing yard.”
Peter the Great's wish was soon fulfilled: on January 2, 1703, the first sheet of printed Russian newspapers appeared in Moscow - the first Russian newspaper printed in Church Slavonic script. It was published under the following title: “Vedomosti, about military and other affairs worthy of significance and memory, which happened in the Moscow State and in other surrounding countries.” Then, over the course of a year, 39 issues appeared, published at indefinite dates, ranging from 2 to 7 sheets , each number with a separate numbering, and sometimes without numbering at all.
To familiarize yourself with the nature of the contents of Peter’s statements, we will give an abbreviation of their first number.
"Moscow Vedomosti"
“In Moscow, again, now 400 copper cannons, howitzers and mortars have been poured. Those cannons are 24, 18 and 12 pound cannonballs; bomb howitzers, pound and half pound; mortars with a bomb of nine, three and two pounds and less. And there are many more forms of guns, howitzers and mortars ready for casting, large and medium. And now there is more than 40,000 poods of copper in the cannon yard, which is prepared for new casting.
By order of His Majesty, Moscow schools are multiplying, and 45 people are studying philosophy and have already graduated from dialectics.
More than 300 people study at the mathematical navigator school and accept good science.
From Persia they write: the Indian king sent gifts to our great sovereign of an elephant and quite a few other things. From the city of Shamakhi he was released to Astrakhan by land.
They write from Kazan: a lot of oil and copper ore were found on the Soku River; A fair amount of copper was smelted from that ore, which is why they hope to make a considerable profit for the Moscow state.
They write from Siberia: in the Chinese state they did not like the Jesuits much for their cunning, and some of them were executed by death.
From Olonets they write: the city of Olonets, priest Ivan Okulov, having gathered hunters on foot with a thousand people, went abroad to the Svei border and defeated the Svei outposts - Rugozen and Hippon, and Sumer, and Kerisur. And at those outposts of the Swedes he killed a large number of Swedes... and he burned the Solovskaya manor, and near Solovskaya many other manors and villages, about a thousand households, he burned...
From Lvov they write on the 14th day of December: the Cossack forces under Lieutenant Colonel Samus are multiplying daily; Having knocked out the commandant in Nemirov, they took possession of the city with their military men, and they already intend to take the White Church, and they hope that he will take possession of that town as well, as Paley will unite with his army...
Oreshek Fortress - high, all around deep water embraced 40 versts from here, firmly besieged from the Moscow troops and already more than 4000 shots from cannons, suddenly 20 shots each, there were already more than 1500 bombs thrown, but to this day they have not caused a great loss, and they will have a lot of work in the meantime the fortress will be captured...
From the city of Arkhangelsk they write, on the 20th day of September, that as His Royal Majesty sent his troops in various ships to the White Sea, from there he went further and sent ships back to the city of Arkhangelsk, and 15,000 soldiers were found there, and on the new fortress, on Named Dvinka, 600 people work every day.
As can be seen from the above sample, at that time the newspaper was published without any system: there was no division of the newspaper’s content into sections; there were no “leading articles”, no “feuilletons”, etc. The facts were recorded in the newspaper without any connection, they were not given a proper assessment of their significance. Big fact or an event from state life placed next to some small note.
The statements were printed in 1000 copies; after 1703, various changes were gradually introduced into them. Since 1705, they began to place a number at the bottom of the first page of issues indicating the order of publication; in 1710, the number of statements printed in civil font first appeared; from this year until 1717, statements were printed either in Church Slavonic or in civil script; and since 1717, exclusively in one civilian font, except for extraordinary additions containing reports of military operations, which were also typed in Church Slavonic letters.
On May 11, 1711, the first sheet of St. Petersburg Gazette appeared, printed in St. Petersburg. From that time on, Gazette issues were published sometimes in St. Petersburg, sometimes in Moscow.
In 1727, the publication of the Gazette ceased - their editorial office came under the jurisdiction of the Academy of Sciences, which on January 2, 1728 published the first issue of the Petersburg Gazette. The publication of special bulletins in Moscow resumed in 1756.
All numbers of the first statements now represent the greatest bibliographic rarity: only 2 complete copies of them have survived in Russia, and both belong to the Imperial Public Library. In 1855, the authorities of the Imperial Public Library reprinted them not only page for page, but also line for line.
This reprint, with a preface outlining the original history of the Gazette, was published under the title: “The first Russian Gazette, printed in Moscow in 1703.” New edition in two copies; stored in the Imperial Public Library." This publication, dedicated to the Imperial Moscow University, on the day of the centenary celebration of its founding on January 12, 1855, was printed in 600 copies, which were all sold out within 2 months, so that in our time this publication itself has become a bibliographic rarity.