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Особенности освещения событий в Российской империи в британской прессе в середине
XVIII века
Features of the coverage of events in the Russian Empire in the British press in the middle of
the XVIII century
Артеменкова Ксения Павловна
Магистр истории Россия, Санкт-Петербург artemen-ksen@mail.ru
Artemenkova Ksenia Pavlovna
Master of History Russia, Saint-Petersburg artemen-ksen@mail.ru
Аннотация.
В работе рассмотрены особенности британских газет середины XVIII столетия как исторического источника и определены характерные для печати черты отражения новостей о Российской империи. Установлено, что источником публикаций британской печати о России были материалы западноевропейской прессы, главным образом, французской и нидерландской, в намного меньшей степени оригинальные новости создавались в Великобритании. Первоисточником известий являлась дипломатическая корреспонденция, которая распространялась по нескольким информационным каналам. В качестве примера были собраны и проанализированы газеты за 1740-е годы.
Annotation.
The paper considers the features of British newspapers of the middle of the 18th century as a historical source and identifies the characteristic features of the press in reflecting news about the Russian Empire. It was determined that the source of publications of the British press about Russia was the materials of the Western European press, mainly French and Dutch, to a much lesser extent, the original news was created in Great Britain. The primary source of news was diplomatic correspondence, which was distributed through several information channels. As an example, newspapers of the 1740s were collected and analyzed.
Ключевые слова: россика, западноевропейские газеты XVIII века, британская пресса XVIII века, The Daily Advertiser, The London Gazette.
Key words: rossika, European newspapers of the XVIII century, the British press of the XVIII century, The Daily Advertiser, The London Gazette.
The importance of the press as a historical source is undeniable. The periodicals of the XVIII century are essential for researchers, as they contain retellings or verbatim reproductions of lost or hard-to-find archival materials. English newspapers about Russia published a lot of messages with retellings of dispatches, messages, manifestos, declarations, both from the Russian side and from the European courts. Some of them have already been discovered in the archives and published by Russian researchers, some of them remain unexplored. No less unique are newspaper rumors spread in Europe about the plots of Russia's foreign and domestic policy, which perhaps do not have any preserved printed analogues at all and were specially recorded by editors only for publication in newspapers.
With the development of the British periodical press, the expansion of the network of metropolitan and provincial newspapers or magazines, their role in informing British readers about the events in Russia in the first half of the XVIII century increased. If the second half of the XVII century marked the first stage of the formation of newspaper business and departments, headings of foreign news, then the next century was marked by the flourishing of the British press and the appearance of many metropolitan, provincial publications covering the situation in the international arena, the everyday life of the royal courts of Europe, loud, curious events, and cases in European capitals and cities. Due to the strategic and geopolitical interests of Great Britain, its trade, military, and diplomatic ties with Russia, correspondence from Moscow and St. Petersburg was of considerable importance for the kingdom. The most detailed and extensive reports
appeared in the British press when covering the change of the monarch on the Russian throne. By the middle of the XVIII century both western European and British periodicals have developed a tradition of publishing not only the latest news about the death of the monarch and the circumstances of the accession of the new autocrat, but also historical articles-pedigrees chronologically briefly telling the reader about the previous Russian rulers. A similar tradition was preserved in British periodicals during the accession to the throne of Anna Ioannovna, Elizabeth Petrovna, Peter III, and Catherine II [20; 28, p. 561; 18, p. 668; 29, p. 341-348]. These sources are a vivid example of the first historical works on the subject of Russia, accessible to the reading audience, and to one degree or another influenced the formation of its views in the field of Russian history. Such historical excursions appeared not only in the form of pedigrees but also as reviews of the modern history of Russia, which preceded the beginning of the reign of the new monarch. They not only played the role of reference material, but also emphasized the growing need of British society to deepen knowledge about the history of Russia and its rulers, as evidenced by a number of published in Europe (in addition to special newspaper indexes) [3] dictionaries and journals containing information about Russian monarchs [23, p. 70-75; 1, p. 42; 19, p. 267-268; 32, p. 13].
The source of publications about Russia were translations from European newspapers without editorial intervention. As a rule, on the first page of each issue there were special headings indicating the borrowing of messages from the foreign press, the characteristic of them being: "yesterday mail arrived from Flanders or mail arrived from Holland, France" [14;15]. Messages of the same content also migrated from the capital to the regional ones [2, p. 195]. The same article could be found in many local newspapers [25; 31; 5]. Sometimes newspapermen honestly signed the origin of the published text, but not always. As a rule, there was an indication of the name of the publication from which this or that message was borrowed. The link was either at the beginning of the news or at the end, depending on the established editorial tradition. For example, the provincial newspapers in question often referred to the capital's "The London Gazette", "The London Evening Post". The date of the issue of the newspaper from which the information was extracted for copying was not always set.
The reports on events in Russia in the studied publications focused on informing the reader about foreign news. They were found in special sections on the front page, entitled "Foreign Affairs" [30] or "Foreign News" [21], "Foreign History" [18; 28], or in a series of other news from different cities and were not included in a specially selected category [4; 16; 22; 24]. Newspapers were also published, mostly writing about life in the British Kingdom and, to a much lesser extent, about other countries. In such publications, as a rule, along with news from different cities, brief information about the Russian Empire was located under the heading "London". Information about the coup of 25 November 1741 was of high significance, and therefore reports about Russia were printed on the front pages of newspapers. However, in some cases, this news, depending on the importance of information about the Russian Empire, can be found on the second and even third pages of the newspaper [16]. In the British newspapers under consideration in the middle of the XVIII century most often, at the beginning of messages about Russia, only the city and country of origin were indicated, for example, "Utrecht (Holland) Dec. 29", "Petersburg (Russia) Dec. 9." [30], or they wrote a brief description of the administrative significance of the city - "Moscow (the capital city of Muscovy) February 7." [17]. Sometimes newspapermen gave a link to a newspaper, the original text of which was borrowed and signed, for example, "From The London Gazette, 26 Dec." [4].
The emphasis on the foreign news agenda indicates that the newspapers of the XVIII century were aimed at the public of politicians, London merchants, and other residents of the city who were interested in the economic and political consequences of the change in the balance of power in Europe [2, p. 195]. Of course, the news contained a lot of advertising information about cultural events in the country, in London, announcements about theatrical productions, about the latest popular literature of various genres, so the newspapers were read by writers, scientists, and representatives
of other creative professions. Most reports about Russia were published in the press with references to St. Petersburg and Moscow, but even in the first half of the XVIII century during the reign of Peter the Great, during which Russia was rapidly involved in European politics, information about the empire appeared in British newspapers with links to other European cities, countries with which Russia had certain relations of both conflict and peaceful nature [26;27]. Among them, it is necessary to highlight such information centers as The Hague, Utrecht, Stockholm, Hamburg, Danzig, Vienna, and to a lesser extent, Copenhagen, Paris, Berlin. Given this circumstance, it was possible to cover and collect as many diverse sources about Russia as possible in the British press. Thus, the paper presents conclusions based not only on voluminous correspondence from the Russian capital and Moscow, but also on more than a hundred messages from the above-mentioned cities.
In British periodicals messages from European cities about Russia from the point of view of the moment of publication of the issue were more relevant and fresh news than similar messages from Russian cities. For example, in the issue of the London newspaper "The Daily Advertiser" dated January 9, 1744, the news from Hamburg about the events in the Russian Empire, dated January 3, was published. The issue of 11 January included a similar note from a German city with a date of 7 January [10; 11]. Thus, the gap between publications in a particular European publication, from which British newspapermen borrowed news, and publications in English newspapers could be less than 7 days. In the case of messages with links to St. Petersburg, this time gap could average 10-20 days, in the case of news from Moscow on average about 20-25 days [6; 7; 8; 9].
In the XVIII century, news that did not appear in continental newspapers came from official sources, reports from British diplomats, or military news from field commanders, the Admiralty, and private correspondents [2, p. 195]. An intractable problem for the researcher is determining the exact primary source of news coverage about Russia. Instead of mentioning the names of specific documents, there were similar general phrases, "messages from St. Petersburg speak" [11]. Similar cliches were used in European newspapers when telling about events in different states, and not only in Russia [12]. As experts on the history of British periodicals of the XVIII century have established and as its news materials about Elizabethan Russia show, the main source of newspaper information was diplomatic documentation. And some publications indirectly or directly pointed to this circumstance, speaking of the receipt by one or another official (foreign minister, ambassador), for example, letters from St. Petersburg, a brief retelling of which was presented in the message [13]. In times of relative calm, the press reflected the politics of Great Britain to a small extent. Indeed, British newspapers, telling about Russia during the period of peaceful interaction with Russia, occasionally broadcast the real attitude of the British cabinet to the empire. The reason for this phenomenon lies in the fact that most of the messages were strictly informational in nature. Newspapers broadcast the external position of the British government, pleasant to the Russian state.
Список используемой литературы:
1. Almanach Royal. Paris de FImprimerie de la Veuve d'Houry, 1742. 434 p.
2. Clarke B. From Grub Street to Fleet Street: An Illustrated History of English Newspapers to 1899. Ashgate: Ashgate Publishing Limited, 2004. 283 p.
3. Muscovy // The Gazetteer's, or, Newsman's Interpreter. London: Printed for S. Ballard, 1741. [без пагинации].
4. The Caledonian Mercury. Numb. 3324. 1742.
5. The Caledonian Mercury. November 22, 1745.
6. The Daily Advertiser. Numb. 3535. 1742.
7. The Daily Advertiser. Numb. 3619. 1742.
8. The Daily Advertiser. Numb. 3660. 1742.
9. The Daily Advertiser. Numb. 3774. 1742.
10. The Daily Advertiser. Numb. 4049. 1744.
11. The Daily Advertiser. Numb. 4051. 1744.
12. The Daily Advertiser. Numb. 4054. 1744.
13. The Daily Advertiser. Numb. 4058. 1744.
14. The Daily Advertiser. Numb. 4424. 1745.
15. The Daily Advertiser. Numb. 4428. 1745.
16. The Derby Mercury. Numb. 42. 1741.
17. The Derby Mercury. Numb. 50. 1742.
18. The Gentleman's Magazine. 1741.
19. The Historical Companion: being a New Introduction to the Political History of all Nations. London: Printed for G. Smith, 1742. 309 p.
20. The Ipswich Journal or The Weekly Mercury. 1730. Numb. 497.
21. The Ipswich Journal. №150. 1741.
22. The London Gazette. Numb. 8078. 1741.
23. The New Political State of Great Britain Including The Public Affairs of Foreign Courts. Vol. I. London: Printed by A. Campbell in King-Street, 1730. 614 p.
24. The Newcastle Courant. Numb. 2507. 1741.
25. The Newcastle Courant. Numb. 2709. 1745.
26. The Post Boy. Numb. 4500. 1718.
27. The Post Boy. Numb. 4651. 1719.
28. The Scots Magazine. 1741.
29. The Scots Magazine. 1762.
30. The Stamford Mercury. Numb. 498. 1741.
31. The Stamford Mercury. Numb. 732. 1745.
32. The Universal Pocket-Book. London: Printed for J. and J. Fox, 1742. 276 p.
