Unofficial part of «Irkutsk provincial sheets» in 1857-60 as an instance of general-gubernatorial powerin Eastern Siberia

The papers on the Siberian press history reveal the vision of the first publicationyears (1857-59) of the unofficial part of «Irkutsk provincial sheets» as the publicity's independent print newspaper, created by the exiledintelligentsia and incriminating abuse of authority and even promulgating the socialist ideas. The main part in the so-called "Trumpet ofPetrashevsky Circle" had been assigned to N.A. Speshnev, M.V. Petrashevsky and F.N. Lvov. In fact, despite the former commonness ofthese people's political views, no Petrashevsky Circle actually existed in Irkutsk, as well as never existed the elaborated and supported by allthe three members plan on propagation of "forward-looking" ("revolutionary") ideas with the help of the unofficial part of «Irkutskprovincial sheets» (and then with the help of the "Amur" newspaper).In 1857-1858 the unofficial part of «Irkutsk provincial sheets» wasn't critical and incriminatory as a special consistent direction. Themajority of publications (92 in 1857 and 161 in 1858) contained economical, regional and entertaining information. In terms of public policy,the newspaper functioned as government policy steward, provided informational support and gave advantageous assessment of thegovernment's activity concerning the socially important Amur matter. Thereto, N.A. Speshnev had been chosen as an editor by N.N.Muravyov because he was a person who left his former oppositional views and chose the civil service as a form of legal social activity. Theposition of the «Irkutsk provincial sheets» editor enabled Speshnev to leave Siberia in the nearest future. Placing the readers' letters devotedunofficial part of «Irkutsk provincial sheets» with a truly democratic format, not the format of socialistic or liberal ideas propagation means.One can assuredly assert that in the unofficial part of «Irkutsk provincial sheets» of 1857-59, N.A. Speshnev was the author of sixarticles (four leading ones concerning the Amur matters and two historical essays about protohistory of Irkutsk), M.V. Petrashevsky wroteone article and F.N. Lvov wrote 12 ones. Herewith, in the majority of cases, articles of the latter concerned the author's professionalinterests, namely chemistry and geology. The civil servants, officers, teachers, doctors, merchants and the lower middle class peoplebasically were the authors and reporters in 1857-59, not the members of Petrashevsky Circle. They wrote from Irkutsk, Chita, Yeniseisk,Nerchinsk, Blagoveshchensk, Verkholensk, Kirensk and other towns and villages.Such critical incriminatory direction had been accepted by the newspaper at the end of 1858 and it had been intensified by a neweditor - M.V. Zagoskin, an Irkutsk teacher, which arose a reproach from the superior Siberian Committee in 1859.

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