V.G. Korolenko and F.V. Filonov: to history of one act of terrorism

Aspects of Russian society history
Authors:
Abstract:

Purposes: Article is devoted to extremely urgent and poorly studied problem in a domestic historiography. It is a problem of formation of public opinion about revolutionary terror in the Russian Empire during revolution of 1905-1907 and to its influence on scope of terror on the example of covering of the Sorochinsk events of the end of 1905 by the Poltava press. Methods: In a research chronological, historical and typological, historical and genetic, comparative methods of a research are used. Chronological framework of a research is limited by 1905-1907: from the beginning of a country revolt in Sorochintsakh, laid the foundation for information war in the press between liberal and conservative publicists and before publishing of the article of V.G. Korolenko in “The Russian wealth” which has put it an end. The historical and typological method allows to analyse the relation to the Sorochinsk events from the Russian public, to give classification of the main points of view on actions of the power and terror presented in the Poltava periodicals. The article based on archival documents most part of which is for the first time introduced for scientific use, and materials of periodicals of that time. Results: In work the circumstances which have brought V.G. Korolenko's articles (“The open letter to the councilor of state Filonov” and “The Sorochynsk tragedy”) to life are for the first time reconstructed. In the article the author proves that Poltava liberal-democratic press used these events in information war, which it waged with the power. The facts of revolutionary movement were hushed up by it, but cruelty of the power in the course of his suppression was exaggerated. It revolutionized region, promoted the scope of terror and helped the formation of the constitutional state a little. The talented journalism of V.G. Korolenko directed to fight against “lawlessness” actually could not overcome these installations of a liberal-democratic press. The conservative journalism, which has joined in information war on the party of the power, tried to cover events more objectively, however lost to the left press in fight for public opinion. Application: The materials of the article can be used in the course of Russian history teaching at the highest and average schools.