Raykhlina Dissertation August 2018
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RUSSIAN LITERARY MARKETPLACE: PERIODICALS, SOCIAL IDENTITY, AND PUBLISHING FOR THE MIDDLE STRATUM IN IMPERIAL RUSSIA, 1825-1865 A Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences of Georgetown University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History By Yelizaveta Raykhlina, B.A. Washington, D.C. May 30, 2018 Copyright 2018 by Yelizaveta Raykhlina All Rights Reserved ii RUSSIAN LITERARY MARKETPLACE: PERIODICALS, SOCIAL IDENTITY, AND PUBLISHING FOR THE MIDDLE STRATUM IN IMPERIAL RUSSIA, 1825-1865 Yelizaveta Raykhlina, B.A. Thesis Advisor: Catherine Evtuhov, Ph.D. ABSTRACT This dissertation examines pre-reform Russian periodicals as sources of middle-class culture and argues for the importance of these sources for understanding the fluctuating nature of Russia’s middling groups. It focuses on the private, for-profit newspaper Northern Bee (Severnaia pchela) and thick-journal Library for Reading (Biblioteka dlia chteniia) as genres of European middle class culture transposed onto Russian soil that were produced for an audience of the “middle stratum”, composed of gentry in state service, non-noble civil servants, provincial landowners, wealthy merchants, manufacturers, professionals, and some townspeople. In addition to the periodicals, the dissertation uses archival sources and published correspondence and memoirs. The dissertation begins by contextualizing the publishers and editors of these periodicals as the successful products of Catherine II’s social engineering project, who propagated the values of education, work, and individual achievement. It then analyzes the sources for these periodicals, showing that the Bee and the Library transferred the genres and journalistic practices of European bourgeois publications into a Russian context. The dissertation follows with an examination of how these publishers categorized their middle-stratum audience, arguing that conceptions of Russia’s middling groups were highly flexible, but that a common denominator was the practice of reading secular Russian-language publications. As the thematic chapters illustrate, the practical information contained in these periodicals was suited to the concerns of middle-stratum Russians in Saint Petersburg and Moscow as well as in provincial iii towns and country estates. Furthermore, since the middle stratum was diverse in social origin and came from several legal estates, the representations of the middle stratum in these periodicals emphasized behavior, specifically the pursuit of education and individual achievements. Finally, the dissertation examines critical reactions to these publications and traces their decline in the context of generational shifts and the appearance of cheaper, more competitive periodicals. This dissertation contributes to recent scholarly reexaminations of Russia’s middling groups and presents a fundamental reinterpretation of pre-reform journalism. Working at the intersection of Russian literary, cultural, and social history, this dissertation argues that a better method of understanding Russia’s middle stratum is to examine shared cultural behavior. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation would not have been possible without the guidance and encouragement of Professor Catherine Evtuhov. I am grateful for her insightful comments, for pointing me toward important sources, and for helping me conceptualize and articulate the project at crucial stages. I have benefited from her erudition and generosity in more ways than I can express on these pages. I am grateful to Professor David Goldfrank for his insightful recommendations, for his meticulous examination of the text, and for being a constant source of intellectual support. I thank Professor Michael David-Fox for his intellectual generosity and for his thoughtful questions and suggestions for the project broadly conceived. Professor Jeffrey Brooks provided inspiration for the project at an early stage and gave crucial recommendations at the end of the writing process, for which I am deeply grateful. I have been very fortunate to have these four scholars on my committee. I am grateful for the support of the Georgetown History Department over the years. My warmest gratitude goes to Carolina Madinaveitia, Graduate Programs Manager, for her assistance in matters too numerous to list here. Conversations with scholars outside of my thesis committee have been invaluable in a multitude of ways. I am deeply grateful to Dr. Galina Ulianova for her recommendations and encouragement of my work. I thank Dr. Abram Reitblat for his suggestions of primary source materials. I am grateful to Professor Anne Lounsbery for introducing me to the literature of nineteenth-century Russia at New York University and for her continuing support over the years. I thank Professor Bella Grigoryan for her generous knowledge and thoughtful suggestions. Over the years I have benefitted from the inspiration and advice of scholars in other fields. I thank my graduate school comrades for their comments and suggestions along the way. I thank Professor v Terry Pinkard, Professor James Millward, and Professor Christine Kim; each in their own way has helped me grow as a scholar. I am also grateful to the discussants and participants who provided feedback on parts of this project at conferences and workshops. My family in New York, Belarus, and Russia has been unconditionally supportive from the very beginning. This project would not have been completed without their patience, moral and material support, and steady encouragement. It brings me great joy to dedicate this dissertation to them. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction: Reflecting Both Self and Society: The Russian-Language Press and the Middle Stratum before the Great Reforms...................................................................................................1 Historiography.............................................................................................................................4 Methodology..............................................................................................................................15 Terminology ..........................................................................................................................15 Frameworks ...........................................................................................................................22 Synthesis................................................................................................................................29 Chapter One: Profiles: Retailers of the Press ................................................................................32 Nikolai Ivanovich Grech (1787 – 1867)....................................................................................35 Faddei Venediktovich Bulgarin (1789 – 1859) .........................................................................41 Osip Ivanovich Senkovskii (1800 – 1858) ................................................................................46 Nikolai Alekseevich Polevoi (1796 – 1846)..............................................................................50 Adal’bert-Voitekh Vikent’evich Starchevskii (1818 – 1901) ...................................................55 Pavel Stepanovich Usov (1828 – 1888) ....................................................................................59 Additional Figures: Employees, Associates, Publishers ...........................................................61 Conclusion.................................................................................................................................67 Chapter Two: Methods: Selection Criteria....................................................................................70 Models and Sources: Northern Bee...........................................................................................72 Models and Sources: Library for Reading.................................................................................84 Conclusion.................................................................................................................................95 Chapter Three: Dimensions: The “Soul of the Empire”, 1825 – 1847........................................100 Rationale: Why the Middle Stratum? ......................................................................................102 Limits: The Effect of Censorship ............................................................................................118 Reception: The Real Reader....................................................................................................124 Reception: The Implied Reader...............................................................................................128 Conclusion...............................................................................................................................132 Chapter Four: Knowledge: Informing Readers ...........................................................................134 Knowing the Provinces............................................................................................................135 Economic Activity...............................................................................................................135 Land and People ..................................................................................................................147 Voices from the Provinces...................................................................................................152