Discussion about the “Railway Issue” on the Pages of Periodicals (1864– 1878): the Provincial “Kievlyanin” and Russian publicism

Abstract. The article attempts to consider a number of poorly studied aspects of the public discussion about the “railway issue”. The author sets as his main goal the analysis of publications in the newspaper “Kievlyanin” – almost forgotten in the Soviet historical science, the leading periodical publication of the South-West krai of the second half of the 19th century. First of all, the author is interested in the position of the editorial board on key points of railway construction. As a source, the author used archival materials of the Russian State Historical Archives and the State Archives of the Russian Federation, as well as metropolitan and regional periodicals (“Moskovskie vedomosti”, “Sankt-Peterburgskie vedomosti”, “Russkij invalid”, “Golos”, “Kievskie gubernskie vedomosti”, “Odesskij vestnik”). The author outlined the main controversial issues of government policy for the development of railways, which were actively discussed on the pages of “Kievlyanin”. The process of railway construction in the specified period is particularly interesting itself. It is presented as a gradual transition from the concession “fever” of private companies to the state-capitalist model. It is noted, that “Kievlyanin” newspaper’s editorial office paid considerable attention to railway construction. The defending of Kyiv railway communication with the largest industrial and trading centers of the country, namely Moscow, Saint Petersburg, and Odessa became a basic provision of the railway program in “Kievlyanin” newspaper. In this context, such endeavors of the Kyiv newspaper’s editorial were not only due to economical but political causes. The author aims to show that railway construction is getting one of the most topical socio-political problems of the after-reform epoch that heats debates among periodicals.

Keywords: railways, railway construction, newspaper “Kievlyanin”, publicism, public discussion, South-West krai, South-West Railways.

For citation: Fedorov D.A. Discussion about the “Railway Issue” on the Pages of Periodicals (1864–1878): the Provincial “Kievlyanin” and Russian Publicism, in Novoe Proshloe / The New Past. 2021. No. 4. Pp. 124–141. DOI 10.18522/2500‑3224‑2021‑4-124-141.

The article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0).