Monografia (document PDF) - Asociatia Tinerilor Istorici din Moldova

Maria Danilov
summary
Press and censorship in Bessarabia
XIXth century – beginning of XXth century
(Secret files of gubernial archives from Chisinau)
Introduction. Bessarabian press is a complex and contradictory reflection of events held in this
territory, that are difficult to understand for today’s analysts. Existing bibliographical sources,
including both singular-issue publications and synthetic monographic works, do not offer a holistic
picture of history of press. In addition, we have to remark that studies of bessarabian press, especially
after ’90 years of XXth century, were concentrated on revaluation of documentary sources
related to apparition of Romanian press in Bessarabia at the beginning of XXth century. Sources
related to the history of bessarabian press as a complex phenomenon, of imperial press, pro-
Russian press that covers nearly all bessarabian media space between 1854 and 1918, are almost
unknown. Therefore, the level of understanding and knowledge about the bessarabian press is
very vague; we are just at the starting point of studies.
Our historiographic study is an attempt to offer a documental interpretation on bessarabian
press history from the perspectives of imperial censorship. This has influenced the entire process
of bessarabian press evolution and formation. Moreover, the press from entire tsarist empire
cannot be understood without studying censorship institutions. Our main purpose is to explain
and underline the impact of imperial censorship on some particular features of bessarabian press
during the century of foreign domination.
Starting with 1812 and till today, bessarabian press (as, in fact, the entire cultural process in
this province) evolution was marked by two influences, two structures, and two models: Romanian
one and Russian, into which Bessarabia was pushed in. Therefore, the history of bessarabian
press is much more complex that one presented in the “history” of Boris Trubetkoi (1989) or in
that of Dumitru Coval (1992). The most painful heritage of bessarabian historiography from totalitarian
regime is the influence of preconceived ideas on our historical writing. Researcher’s effort
on bessarabian press issue cannot be out of influence of social, historical and political contexts
in which Bessarabian model was born. Thus, we consider a contextual analysis of bessarabian
press phenomenon is more important that a comparative one: we have to study it in a specific
historical context, based on available documents. Documents related to the history of bessarabian
press are spread in different deposits of Chisinau archive. Those reflecting the activity of
censorship institutions are mostly concentrated in the deposit of Civil Gubernator of Bessarabia
and in that of Chief of Chisinau gendarmes. Selected information comprises a vast correspondence,
marked as “strictly confidential”, between local administration civil servants of different
levels: Civil Gubernator of Bessarabia, Chief of Chisinau gendarmes, Public prosecutor of Chisinau
city, and people from superior institutions: General Gubernator of Bessarabia and Novorossia
and later, with central administration in St. Petersburg ( Main Department for Press and Censorship
issues). Abundance of this type of documents – office documents – reflects the specifics of
imperial administration of province oriented exclusively to strictly execution of Sankt Petersburg’s
central administration acts. However, what do primary sources offer to researcher?
This category of documents of internal use – various reports, dispositions, informative notes,
petitions etc – contains precious information about provincial journalistic environment, about
historical conditions in which bessarabian press was forced to survive. They offer precise information
about name and surname of editors, their age and home address, typography that will
print the works. Information about newspaper’s and magazines publishing programs are also very
precious. All these data gathered together present an adequate documentary restitution. They
create a unique possibility of objective knowledge of Bessarabian facts related to history of press.
Press in Bessarabia: context, imperial ambitions and cosmopolitism. Historical literature about
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