The Moscow observer journal, S. S. Uvarov and Moscow censorship: to the history of struggle in the Russian periodicals of the 1830s

The article focuses on the history of creation and initial years of the publication of The Moscow Observer (Moskovskiy Nablyudatel') journal. The journal was founded in 1835 by a group of writers and scholars close to the circles of the so-called “wisdomlovers” and future Slavophiles. The activity of the journal publication is discussed within the context of the journalistic struggle, which since the mid-1830s increasingly determined the latent confrontation between the Department III of His Imperial Majesty's Own Chancellery and the Ministry of Public Education. Each of these institutions supported a number of periodicals that promoted views close to their own; additionally, the Ministry of Public Education, headed by S. S. Uvarov, contributed to the creation of new journals under its control. These journals, including The Moscow Observer, promoted the idea of nationality, advocated the development of national literature and national culture. S. S. Uvarov counted on the active participation of The Moscow Observer in his struggle with the journal Library for Reading, edited by O. I. Senkovsky, as well as other publications sponsored by Department III. The struggle between “national” and “cosmopolitan” forces that started in the Russia society at that time is also examined through the analysis of different attitudes towards the journal on the part of various censorship bodies in Moscow and St. Petersburg.