Obshchee Delo

Obshchee Delo

 

a newspaper of Russian political émigrés. From 1877 to 1890, 112 issues of Obshchee delo were published in Geneva. Founded by A. Kh. Khristoforov with the assistance of the publisher M. K. Elpidin, the newspaper had a circulation of 500. The editorial board included the regular contributors Khristoforov, N. A. Belogolovyi, V. A. Zaitsev, and N. A. Iurenev. Obshchee delo strove to rally the opposition forces of Russian society on the common ground of the struggle against the autocracy for a constitution. Along with articles of a revolutionary orientation, materials of a moderate liberal tenor were printed, representing a polemic being carried on among the editors. The newspaper published other writers, including P. F. Alisov, M. P. Dragomanov, M. I. Veniukov, N. A. Morozov, S. A. Podolinskii, N. V. Sokolov, Z. Stoianov, and N. M. Ia-drintsev. It printed Petr Alekseev’s speech at his trial; materials from other political trials, including the trial of 193, the trial of the 20, and the trial in the Mar. 1, 1887 case; and works by L. N. Tolstoy, M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, and T. G. Shevchenko that had been banned by the tsarist censorship.

REFERENCES

Koz’min, B. P. “Iz istorii russkoi nelegal’noi pressy: Gazeta ‘Obshchee delo’.” In Istoricheskii sbornik, vol. 3. Leningrad, 1934.
Kuznetsov, F. F. “Varfolomei Zaitsev.” In his book Publitsisty 1860–kh godov. Moscow, 1969.