Russkoe Slovo

(Russian Word), a monthly journal published from 1859 to 1866 in St. Petersburg; founded by Count G. A. Kushelev-Bezborodko.

Initially, Russkoe slovo was a “literary-scholarly journal” with a moderate, liberal orientation; it was not very popular. After mid-1860, however, a new editorial board, headed by G. E. Blagosvetlov, was formed; D. I. Pisarev, V. A. Zaitsev, N. V. Shelgunov, D. D. Minaev, A. K. Sheller-Mikhailov, and N. V. Sokolov were the leading contributors. The invigorated Russkoe slovo was characterized primarily by literary criticism and publicism—above all, by the contributions of Pisarev. On the most important general political questions, it shared the revolutionary democratic line of Sovremennik (The Contemporary): denunciation of autocracy, serfdom, and the capitalist order and advocacy of a Utopian peasant socialism. It came out in favor of a realistic, “unretouched” depiction of the life of the people and correctly evaluated the talent of I. S. Turgenev, L. N. Tolstoy, N. G. Chernyshevskii, and V. A. Sleptsov. However, in analyzing the creative work of A. S. Pushkin, M. Iu. Lermontov, and others, Russkoe slovo committed errors resulting from a utilitarian view of art.

The government persecuted Russkoe slovo; it suspended publication twice and subsequently banned the journal altogether.

(Russian Word), a daily newspaper, bourgeois-liberal in orientation, published in Moscow from 1895 through Nov. 26 (Dec. 9), 1917. I. D. Sytin was its publisher from 1897; V. M. Doroshevich (from 1902, the actual editor), A. V. Amfiteatrov, P. D. Boborykin, V. A. Giliarovskii, and Vas. I. Nemirovich-Danchenko were contributors.

Russkoe slovo was the first Russian newspaper to send correspondents to Russia’s largest cities and to the capitals of many countries. Its extensive news coverage—it was called a “news factory”—and its criticism of tsarism helped make it one of the most widely distributed publications in Russia. By the beginning of 1917, it had a circulation of 600,000–800,000. The weekly illustrated journal Iskry was published under its auspices.

After the February Revolution of 1917, Russkoe slovo supported the bourgeois Provisional Government and opposed the Bolsheviks. It was hostile to the October Revolution of 1917. It was closed down by a resolution of the Moscow Military Revolutionary Committee. From January 1918 through July 6, 1918, it was published under different titles, including Novoe slovo and Nashe slovo. In July 1918 it was closed down.