Nikolay Novikov's satirical tradition in Tomsk magazine Yorsh (1906-1907)

The work uncovers how the tradition of satire, formed in the publications of N.I. Novikov (his magazine Truten' ('Drone')), was revived in Tomsk magazine Yorsh ('Ruff) which was published during the period of the First Russian Revolution, 1905-1907. History and content of the Truten' magazine is well known due to the works of such researchers as P.N. Berkov, G.P. Makogonenko and others. The essential advantages of the magazine, which made it extremely popular, were, firstly, a sharp Truten' polemic about the nature and objectives of satire with the magazine Vsyakaya Vsyachina ('All Sorts and Sundries') issued by Catherine II; secondly, a very personal, private nature of the communication with its audience that made the discussion upon the most painful and sensitive points of the society, contemporary to Truten', especially vivid. Novikov's Truten' was a model of combative, socially urgent, polemically sharpened and oppositional media for Russian satirists of the end of the 18th and throughout the 19th centuries. It insisted on the importance of "satire on a person" (personalized ridiculing) as an important means of society improvement. That was the reason why satirists of Iskra ('Spark') and Gudok ('Buzzer') in the 1860s and M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin at the end of the 19th century regarded Truten' as an example. Novikov's tradition of satire also happened to be in demand at the beginning of the 20th century, during the flourishing of satirical journalism in the First Russian Revolution of 1905-1907. The provincial Tomsk magazine Yorsh, published in 1906-1907, was largely guided by Novikov's satirical tradition. It used a method of "animation" of the magazine which (starting with N.I. Novikov) was widely spread in Russian satirical journalism: Yorsh ('Ruff) became a personage, an author and a hero of the articles. Truten' tradition in Yorsh reveals in its sympathy for the working people, in the principle of personalized satire, in the aspect of genres. Comparison of Truten' and Yorsh can not be direct and straightforward: it is more about understanding the publisher's mission to correct morals and manners, about general principles and approaches, about individual features which connect the two satirical magazines. Yorsh absorbed not only Novikov's satirical traditions, but also those from the rich satirical heritage of the 18th and 19th centuries. Nevertheless, the basic approach to the creation of the inner space of the magazine, its "animation" originates from Novikov's Truten'. It is no coincidence that the very type of those magazines was demanded in the situation of crisis, during the freedom of speech formation. In the time of Catherine II and during the First Russian Revolution, society needed an open discussion of emerging issues, wanted to define personal responsibility for certain situations, but faced censorship, restrictions, requirements of "smiling" satire. Magazines speaking "Aesopian language" to their readers were more free in this situation than socio-political publications and, therefore, were more popular among both authors and the audience. Thus, in the critical moments of Russian society evolution when the problem of freedom of speech formation is brought to the forefront, satirical traditions established by N.I. Novikov become especially topical for public opinion and civic society.

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