“There are many, many complaints”: Tomsk journalism about the problems of the postal service and telegraphic communications in the late 19th and early 20th centuries

Various aspects of pre-revolutionary journalism in Russian regions have been considered by such researchers as A.P. Shinkareva, N.V. Zhilyakova, V.A. Esipova, V.V. Shevtsov, E.I. Orlova, and others. Periodicals have paid much attention to the issue of assessing the interaction and mutual influence of journalism and the postal and telegraph service of the Russian Empire. The works of historians investigating communication problems in Siberia also often include local periodicals as sources of empirical material (for example, the works of O.N. Razumov, Ya.A. Yakovlev, Yu.K. Rassa-makhin, V.V. Mirkin, V.A. Morev, etc.). In this case, researchers are usually not interested in the specifics of the coverage of the topic by journalists, and the actual data that was published in the periodicals. The purpose of this study is to identify the main problem-thematic blocks related to the coverage of the work of the post and telegraph in the periodical press of the Tomsk province, and to determine the specifics of their presentation on the pages of leading Tomsk newspapers. Research material: the first private newspaper in Tomsk, “Sibirskaya Gazeta” (1881-1888) and the first Tomsk illustrated newspaper, “Tomsky Listok” (1895-1896). Research methods: frontal analysis of the annual files of these newspapers, problem-thematic, genre, historical and typological analysis. The authors came to the following conclusions. The increased attention to postal and telegraphic communications in Siberia, which was shown by local journalism, was due to the direct dependence of the newspaper and magazine business on the uninterrupted operation of the post office and the existence of constant telegraphic communication between Russian cities. The analysis of newspaper publications allows us to identify such problem-themed blocks: subscription and delivery of periodicals; the internal life of the post office; the development of telegraphic communications. The specific features of the presentation of information about the post and telegraph in Siberia were: 1) the involvement of not only regular newspaper staff, but also freelance correspondents in covering the issue; 2) combining both factual and emotionally colored materials covering events related to the postal service, as well as the use of statistical data; 3) presentation of information in the format of detailed plots formed on the basis of publication in several issues of materials on the same topic, covering it from different angles. The authors declare no conflicts of interests.

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