History of conception of Makushin's newspapers ''Tomsk Leaflet'' and ''Tomsk Reference Leaflet''

The article describes the history of the first try of publishing of periodical press by famous Siberian entrepreneur and patron P.I. Makushin restored on the basis of the funds of Russian Government Historical Archive (RGHA). The activity of Makushin as a publisher of periodicals is researched. He was a publisher of ''Siberian Newspaper'', the first Tomsk private edition, published from 1881 to 1888. This newspaper was closed as it had a ''bad direction'', and later P.I. Makushin had problems getting a permission to publish another newspaper, ''Tomsk Reference Leaflet'' in 1894. In 1895 the newspaper got a new name, ''Tomsk Leaflet''. In 1897 it became ''Siberian Life''. With the new name the content of the newspaper broadened for it transformed from a reference leaflet to a full-fledged social and political newspaper of liberal direction. These data expand with facts stated in RGHA archive documents on the first two newspapers of Makushin: ''Tomsk Leaflet'' (1876) and ''Tomsk Reference Leaflet'' (1878). The analysis of archive documents allows to make the following conclusions: researches begin to describe Makushin's publishing activity with ''Siberian Newspaper'', which is not the first of his projects in that sphere. He tried to start his own periodical in 1876, still being a theology school student. The name ''Tomsk Leaflet'' appeared back then, and Makushin used it again at the end of the 19th century. Makushin's first attempt to publish ''Tomsk Leaflet'' (1876) was not realized for formal reasons -there was no person in Tomsk who could become a censor. The second attempt failed because of Makushin himself: he got a permission to publish ''Tomsk Reference Leaflet'' in 1878, but he decided not to do it, because at the same time he was thinking about transforming a reference leaflet into a full-fledged newspaper. Makushin did not only refuse from publishing a bigger newspaper, but also from the existing permission on publishing of newspaper. At the same time Makushin could successfully apply this method of struggling with censor limits at the end of the 19th century when founding ''Siberian Life''. The history of the first publishing plans of Makushin represents him as an educated person, who prioritizes the reader, aims at enlarging its number, finds methods of overcoming censor limits, which was a problem in the process of of in Siberian journalism development at the end of the 19th -beginning of the 20th centuries.

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