The Christmas story in Tomsk pre-revolutionary periodicals: formation of genre tradition

The article examines the emergence and development of the Christmas story in the leading newspapers of the pre-revolutionary Tomsk: «Siberian Newspaper», «Siberian Bulletin» and «Siberian Life». The Christmas story, one of the traditional «calendar genres», was a fixture in the Russian pre-revolutionary newspapers in the late XIX - the beginning of the XX century, and this is true also for the regional press. In the Siberian journalism the Christmas story genre development was due to its capabilities of emotional impact on the reader, referring to the spiritual values that were important to the pre-revolutionary regional newspapers. In each of the test papers can be traced to a certain evolution in understanding of the capabilities of the Christmas story genre. Initially, they are published trial solitary materials on the theme of Christmas, then the Christmas theme developed in several publications that complement each other, and at the beginning of the XX century in the papers come complete the Christmas numbers, which contains materials of different genres: poems, essays, stories, translations. Contents of materials about Christmas depended on the situation in the society, from the «social order», so they are perceived more as journalism, not as fiction. However, thanks to participation in major newspapers Siberian artists of word (K. M. Stanyukovich, G. A. Vyatkin, G. D. Grebenshchikov et al.), in this genre you can find a high level of work. At the end of the XIX century the Christmas stories have a pronounced social pathos, their tone was mostly tragic, but at the beginning of the XX century in the newspapers appear the classic examples of the genre with a happy ending, the miracles of Christian moral and ethical issues. Analysis of the «Siberian Newspaper», «Siberian Bulletin», and «Siberian Life» - the major regional periodicals published in Tomsk at the turn of the century - reveals the formation of a tradition for such genre as the Christmas story. First of all, it had its own peculiarities associated with local flavor, as well as the social and political position of the newspapers, so that part of the materials had a prophetic orientation, or in contrast to the newspaper environment perceived by readers as «the only ray of light» in the surrounding darkness. In this respect, the Siberian newspapers followed the general trend of emerging of realistic literature from the end of the XIX century, as the researchers write. Presence of the Christmas story genre in newspapers was a tribute to the established tradition, and the ability to convey to the reader the positive ideals of the authors, corresponding to the representation of local publications about educational and enlightening role of the press. «Calendar genres» allowed to look at the situation from the other side, "legally" bring in the newspaper texts elements of mystery, science fiction, and thus expand the range of methods to influence on the reader. In this sense, the genre of the Christmas story was very important for the Siberian periodicals, as evidenced by its inclusion in the structure of the socio-political newspapers in late XIX - early XX century.