Moskovskii Telegraf

(Moscow Telegraph), a Russian biweekly literary and scientific journal published by N. A. Polevoi in Moscow from 1825 to 1834.

Until the early 1830’s the journal’s literary department was controlled by progressive writers. P. A. Viazemskii was in charge of the department of criticism, and the journal published works by well-known writers such as A. S. Pushkin, V. A. Zhukovskii, E. A. Baratynskii, W. K. Kiichelbecker, and N. M. Iazykov. Its literary program was marked by romantic tendencies, which were revealed in sharp polemics against the normative aesthetics of classicism.

In scientific articles Moskovskii telegraf endeavored to promote the development of industry and trade and emphasized the progressive role of the merchant. It elucidated questions of political economy from a bourgeois point of view. From the early 1830’s the position of Moskovskii telegraf grew contradictory. In addition to progressive, antifeudal tendencies, it began to reflect loyalist attitudes typical of the Russian bourgeoisie. The Viazemskii-Pushkin group left the journal, and representatives of the third estate, such as A. F. Vel’tman, I. I. Lazhechnikov, and N. F. Pavlov, became the journal’s main contributors.

Moskovskii telegraf was shut down by a personal order of Nicholas I, because Polevoi published an unfavorable review of N. V. Kukol’nik’s play The Hand of the Almighty Has Saved the Fatherland, which expressed a spurious patriotism.