I smekh, i gore: an unknown satirical Tomsk magazine during the first Russian Revolution
The article investigates the history and substantial features of a satirical magazine of the First Russian Revolution, I smekh, i gore [Laughter and Sorrow], published in 1905 in Tomsk. This magazine was discovered only last decade thanks to researchers E.N. Kosykh and A.V. Yakovenko. I smekh, i gore was not intended for mass distribution, it was released unofficially and had its only issue presumably in December 1905. In Tomsk, it was stored as a part of the archives of a famous explorer and journalist, ideologist of Siberian regionalism G.N. Potanin. The author reveals the reasons for no research of the magazine, features of its typological status, and its place among other satirical publications of Tomsk in 1905-1907. Like other satirical magazine, I smekh, i gore parodied the model of an ordinary periodical. It started with an article "From the Editor", which traditionally set out the mission of the new periodical. It also had the following columns: "Telegrams", "Local Chronicle", "Russian Life", and "Death Abroad". It contained "soul-winning", "crushing", "comforting" and "other" articles. The magazine used satirical methods to describe the situation in the Russian society after the adoption of the Manifesto of October 17, 1905. In Tomsk the situation was complicated by the fact that on October 20-22 there was an Anti-Jewish pogrom with human losses. The magazine reflected the confusion of the urban society, the helplessness of the Russian authorities, the people's disbelief in the granted "freedoms" by the skillful use of the tools of the Aesopian language, irony, and satire. This is the evidence of the journalistic excellence of the publisher and the only author of the magazine V.P. Bulygin who used the pseudonym " Reflector". The study proves that I smekh, i gore properly opened the series of satirical magazines in Tomsk during the First Russian Revolution. On its pages, it described the growth of public self-consciousness, the process of understanding events after the Manifesto, and gave vivid sketches of urban life in Tomsk at the end of the revolutionary year, though in a satirical manner. Despite the fact that the magazine is not known, it is an important fact in the development of local journalism and information about it contributes to the overall picture of the formation of provincial periodicals in the early 20th century.
Keywords
сатирическая журналистика, Томск, журнал «И смех, и горе», satirical journalism, Tomsk, Ismekh, i gore magazineAuthors
Name | Organization | |
Zhiliakova Natalya V. | Tomsk State University | retama@yandex.ru |
References

I smekh, i gore: an unknown satirical Tomsk magazine during the first Russian Revolution | Vestnik Tomskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. Filologiya – Tomsk State University Journal of Philology. 2014. № 2 (28).