“None of You Should Remain Individual”: Omsk Pre-Revolutionary Journalism in the System of Domestic Periodicals of Conservation

In the domestic pre-revolutionary periodical press, starting from the end of the 18th century, a rather ramifi ed system of assistance to various segments of the population (children, the sick, the poor, people in diffi cult life situations, refugees, soldiers, etc.) was formed, including state, church and public participation. During the Russo-Japanese War and the First World War, the periodicals of the Russian Red Cross Society and its regional branches were active. The experience of pre-revolutionary publications can be relevant for modern domestic media performing social functions in areas of natural disasters, humanitarian catastrophes. This determines the relevance of the study. The object is Omsk pre-revolutionary “participatory journalism”. The subject is its thematic, genre and typological originality. The purpose of the study is to identify the typological, substantive and genre features of the “participatory journalism” of pre-revolutionary Omsk. To achieve the goal, it is necessary to solve the research problems: to study the history of the formation of the charity system in tsarist Russia; to identify the transformation of domestic philanthropic activity from the personal participation of each caring person to its inclusion in the system of state policy; to determine the typology of publications of a charitable nature in tsarist Russia; to get acquainted with the history of charitable societies of pre-revolutionary Siberia and their periodicals; in the course of the content analysis of government, religious, socio-political publications to identify the thematic originality of media texts of a charitable nature; in the course of genre analysis to identify the dominant genres of “participatory journalism”. Empirical material - issues of the newspapers “Akmola Regional News”, “Omsk Diocesan News”, “Omsk Herald”, “White fl ower”. Additional empirical material was provided by pre-revolutionary publications of a charitable nature, as well as Siberian pre-revolutionary publications (“Voice of Siberia”, “Ob’ life”, “Life in Siberia”, “Siberian leaf”, “Siberian Herald of Help to Warriors in War”). The chronological framework of the study is 1871–1917. The study has undoubted prospects: an analysis of the ideological and worldview foundations of the process of charity in the country at its various stages will expand the understanding of the ways and features of the formation of Russian political culture.