Fight against “the Trade Direction” in the Russian Journalism of the 1830s: ″A Story without a Title″ by Stephan Burachok

For citation: Sartakov E.V. (2016) Bor'ba s «torgovym napravleniem» v russkoy zhurnalistike 1830-kh godov: «Povest' bez zaglaviya» S.A. Burachka [Fight against “the Trade Direction” in the Russian Journalism of the 1830s: ″A Story without a Title″ by Stephan Burachok]. Mediaskop 2. Available at: http://www.mediascope.ru/?q=node/2102

© Egor V. Sartakov

PhD, Senior Lecturer at the Chair of History of Russian Literature and Journalism, Faculty of Journalism, Lomonosov Moscow State University (Moscow, Russia), esartak@mail.ru

Abstract

The subject of the article is a novel by S.A. Burachok, a conservative journalist and writer, who by now has long passed into oblivion. The novel itself, ″A Story without a Title″, was banned by the censor’s office in 1838, and found by us in the manuscript section of IRLI RAN. The main character of this novel, which has some strong socio-political undertones, can be identified as O.I. Senkovsky, a well-known journalist of the time, with whom Burachok thus entered into covert polemics. The protagonist is a woman-writer going under the name of Aketo-il-bibe (which in Russian is the anagram for library – biblioteka and stands for the magazine title ″Reader’s library″), who was born in Poland (which is a hint at Senkovsky’s Polish origin), and who “published <…> the top-drawer Russian magazine under her own auspices”.

In the novel, the magazine’s editor goes as Baron, which was Senkovsky’s nom de plume, and there are numerous references made by Burachok to ″The Reader’s Library″editor’s biography.

The materials of the RGIA collection helped examine in detail the objections raised by the censors and the reasons behind the ban. The study of the novel in this context has helped to extend our knowledge of the tactics used in literary and journalistic infighting of the 1830s−1840s and to define more exactly the place of certain journalists in that fight.

Keywords: Burachok, Senkovsky, “the trade direction”, ″The Reader’s Library″.

Notes

Belinskiy V.G. (1953−1959) Poln. sob. soch.: v 13 t. [The Complete Works in 13 Volumes]. Moscow: AN SSSR Publ., vol. 4.

Biblioteka dlya chteniya [The Reader’s Library]. 1834. Vol. 3. Section 1.

Burachok S.O. Povest' bez zaglaviya [A Story without a Title]. Ch. 1. 1838 g. RO IRLI. F. 34. Ed. khr. 14. [Past 1. 1838. RO IRLI. Cpl. 34. Item 14].

Delo 1838 g. o rukopisi G. Burachka pod zaglaviem «Povest' bez zaglaviya». RGIA. F. 777. Op. 1. Ed. khr. 1439. [The life of 1838 on G. Burachok’s copy entitled ″A Story without a Title″. RGIA. Col. 777. Inv.1. Item. 1439].

Herzen A.I. (1954−1966) Poln. sobr. soch.: v 30 t. [The Complete Works in 30 Volumes]. Moscow. Vol. 14.

Mayak [The Beacon]. Part 4.

OR RNB. F. 831. Op. 1. Ed. khr. 7. L. 30–32. [OR RNB. Col. 831. Inv. 1. Item 7.

Senkovskiy O.I. (1858−1859) Sobr. soch.: v 9 t. [Collected Works in 9 Volumes]. St. Petersburg: the Imperial Academy of Sciences Printing-House, vol. 3.

Zotov R.V. (1890) Peterburg v sorokovykh godakh. Vyderzhki iz avtobiograficheskikh zametok [Saint Petersburg in the ‘40s, Excerpts from Autobiographical Notes]. Istoricheskiy vestnik 39: 333−334.

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