Rumors of poisoning at the beginning of the cholera epidemic of 1830/1831 in Russia

Lately historians have increasingly focused on rumors. This is rather due to the fact, that rumors are the serious factor of the mass processes. The purpose of this article is studying the occurrence of rumors of poisoning in the time of cholera of 1830/1831 in Russia and trying to answer the question whether it is possible to catch a rumor at its origin on the base of historical sources, as well as to study its initial stage of development. Cholera, appearing in Russia in 1830, almost immediately caused rumors on this subject. In the focus of this article there is a rumor, which caused a series of cholera riots in Russia: namely rumor of poisoning. This rumor was registered first in sources in autumn of 1830, at the beginning of a cholera epidemic in Russia. At the same time, the social environment where it was firstly registered was not lower classes of people, but representatives of the upper class of society: landowners, officials and officers. In the analyzed cases the representatives of the upper class discussed the rumors, came from lower classes, where these rumors originally had arisen. At the same time the rumors of poisoning in lower classes of society were not registered directly in files of the Third Section in autumn of 1830. This circumstance has two interconnected causes. The first one is rumors of poisoning were not intensive in autumn of 1830; people were more troubled by quarantines, impeding trade and doctors, who allegedly killed people in hospitals. The second one is rumors of poisoning didn't cause mass illegal actions of people in autumn of 1830. That is why in autumn of 1830 authorities did not focus on selection just rumors of poisoning from speech practice of population. Only when rumors of poisoning became intensive and dangerous, and caused riots in summer of 1831 the state focused on searching and registration of just this rumor. That is why the most references of the rumor on poisoning were registered in summer of 1831. All these facts suggest that at the beginning the rumor was in so-called «shadow» zone, when it already existed, but was not registered by historical sources. Consequently it is a serious issue for a researcher to study rumors on the initial stage of their development on the base of historical sources.