State power and the press: On the participation of foreign correspondents of the newspaper “Golos” (“The Voice”) in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878

The article covers an episode that reveals some specific features of the interaction of the state power and journalism during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877– 1878. The starting point for the undertaken analysis of sources, including unpublished ones, is the formation of a new “specialization” of national journalists during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878 — a war correspondent who stays with the combat arms and sends reports for a periodical. The conflict caused by an unsigned publication in the newspaper “Golos” (“The Voice”) on the state of affairs in the Russian army was reflected in telegrams of the commander-in-chief of the army in the Balkans, Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich, Minister of Internal Affairs A.E. Timashev and in letters of the editor of “Golos” A.A. Kraevsky. Among the results of this conflict was the expulsion of all war correspondents of the newspaper from the army on the Danube, the requirement for all printed war correspondences to be signed, and indirectly — the recognition by the authorities of the key role of the press in forming the public opinion. The telegrams and letters in question are being published for the first time. The conflict considered in the article clearly demonstrates the paradoxical relationship between the highest power structures and journalism in the described time. Particular attention is paid to the role of censorship. The newspaper “Golos” was the leader in terms of the intensity of persecution by the authorities, however, as shown by the analysis of unpublished epistolary sources, A.A. Kraevsky eventually managed to justify himself before the authorities and avoid the suspension of the newspaper.