Book projects of editorial offices of Siberian newspapers (by Tomsk "Sibirskaya Gazeta", 1880s)

At the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th cc. the staff of Siberian newspaper editorial officers did not only perform their major task -publishing periodicals ,but also had various book projects. Newspapers (''Sibirskaya Gazeta'', ''Sibirskiy Vestnik'', "Sibirskaya Zhizn'' of Tomsk, ''Vostochnoye Obozreniye'' of Irkutsk, and other) had information on this or that book edited or published by the editorial office. Such books are not often researched as a product of journalistic activity, for they are mainly treated as facts of book publishing development in Siberia, not as a type of editorial staff activity. This study aims to trace the formation of the tradition of book publishing on the basis of a newspaper editorial office by example of ''Sibirskaya Gazeta'' (Siberian Newspaper, SG), the first private newspaper in Tomsk published in 1881-1888. In the article the books edited and published by SG staff are listed, e.g., A. Zlobin's brochure ''From the Notes of a Russian Language Teacher'' (1882), I. Brut's (F.V. Volkhovsky's) fairytale ''New Year Eve'', a book of V.G. Korolenko's essay ''From the Notebook (the Cherkess)'' published in #16 of SG in 1888, etc. The circumstances of publishing and distribution of the books are studied, problems with censorship of the books are reconstructed. From the point of view of polygraphy SG book projects cannot be considered as a "new word" in this sphere, however, they were produced at a rather high level. Books and brochures were published on paper of high quality, had multi-colored covers. The small format of editions facilitated mailing books. The book projects organized by SG solved a number of tasks. They served educational purposes, acquainted readers with serious local history researches, with works of prominent Russian writers (F.V. Volkhovsky, V.G. Korolenko). They gave more opportunities to the authors who could not confine to ''field'' work or, which is important, to the scarce newspaper space. They aroused public activity - book projects were the cause for debate, for discussion in the Siberian society, which promoted the development of regional consciousness.

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