In this lively account of the rise of a commercial newspaper industry in
 imperial Russia, Louise McReynolds explores how the mass-circulation 
press created a forum for popular opinion advocating political change. 
From the Great Reforms of Tsar Alexander II in 1855 to the Bolsheviks' 
shut-down of the newspapers in 1917, she chronicles the exploits of 
publishers and editors, writers and readers. Arguing that this 
prosperous industry both expressed and shaped the development of ideas 
among new social groups, McReynolds provides insight into the growth in 
Russia of a fragile pluralism characteristic of modern societies. Her 
discussion of the relationship between communications and politics, 
which draws especially on Jurgen Habermas, combines a variety of 
interrelated ingredients: institutional histories of major newspapers, 
biographical sketches of journalists, the intellectual impact of the new
 language of newspaper journalism, the political ramifications of public
 opinion under the auspices of an autocratic government. Comparing the 
Russian press with independent commercial newspaper industries in the 
United States, England, and France, McReynolds examines the extent to 
which Russia was evolving according to Western political and 
socioeconomic patterns before the Bolshevik Revolution.

The News under Russia's Old Regime: The Development of a Mass-Circulation Press (Princeton Legacy Library, 1219) PDF

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