The ''Vedomosti'' () is Russia's oldest newspaper. It was established by

Peter the Great Peter I (, ; – ), better known as Peter the Great, was the Sovereign, Tsar and Grand Prince of all Russia, Tsar of all Russia from 1682 and the first Emperor of Russia, Emperor of all Russia from 1721 until his death in 1725. He reigned j ...

ukase In Imperial Russia, a ukase () or ukaz ( ) was a proclamation of the tsar, government, or a religious leadership (e.g., Patriarch of Moscow and all Rus' or the Most Holy Synod) that had the force of law. " Edict" and " decree" are adequate trans ...

dated 16 December 1702. The first issue appeared on 2 January 1703.

Petrine Vedomosti

Following along the lines of the 17th-century handwritten '' Kuranty'', Peter's newspaper contained little other than reports of military victories and diplomatic relations, either composed by the tsar himself or translated from Dutch newspapers according to his choice. Originally, the newspaper was published at the Print Yard in

Kitai-gorod Kitay-gorod (, ), also referred to as the Great Possad () in the 16th and 17th centuries, is a cultural and historical area within the central part of Moscow in Russia, defined by the remnants of now almost entirely razed fortifications, narro ...

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

. In 1710, engravings were introduced by way of decoration. They usually represented the

Peter and Paul Fortress The Peter and Paul Fortress () is the original citadel of Saint Petersburg, Russia, founded by Peter the Great in 1703 and built to Domenico Trezzini's designs from 1706 to 1740 as a star fortress. Between the first half of the 1700s and early ...

or the

Neva River The Neva ( , ; , ) is a river in northwestern Russia flowing from Lake Ladoga through the western part of Leningrad Oblast (historical region of Ingria) to the Neva Bay of the Gulf of Finland. Despite its modest length of , it is the fourth-l ...

, thus reflecting the growing importance of

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

. From 1711, most issues were printed in the Northern capital. Peter's ''Vedomosti'' was published quite irregularly, as important news arrived — sometimes as many as seventy issues appeared annually, only one. The circulation fluctuated from several dozen copies to four thousand. In 1719, the newspaper contained 22 pages. These early issues of the ''Vedomosti'' — of which only a fraction survives — were reprinted in 1855.

Academic Vedomosti

With Peter's death in 1725, the newspaper lost its most precious contributor. As Russia offered no choice of journalists who could carry on his project, ownership of the paper was transferred to the

Russian Academy of Sciences The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS; ''Rossíyskaya akadémiya naúk'') consists of the national academy of Russia; a network of scientific research institutes from across the Russian Federation; and additional scientific and social units such ...

, which renamed it ''Sankt-Peterburgskie Vedomosti'' (that is, ''Saint Petersburg News'') in 1727. In the course of the 18th century, the academics issued the newspaper twice a week, supplementing it with extensive scholarly "commentaries", whose editors included Fedor Polikarpov-Orlov,

Gerhardt Friedrich Müller Gerhardt is a masculine name of German origin. It can refer to the following: As a first name * Ants Eskola (1908–1989), Soviet-Estonian actor and singer born Gerhardt Esperk * Gerhardt Knodel (born 1940), American textile artist, educator * Ger ...

Mikhail Lomonosov Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov (; , ; – ) was a Russian polymath, scientist and writer, who made important contributions to literature, education, and science. Among his discoveries were the atmosphere of Venus and the law of conservation of ...

, and Ippolit Bogdanovich. Since 1800, the ''Saint Petersburg Vedomosti'' was published daily.

19th and 20th centuries

Controlled editorially by the liberal journalist

Evgeny Korsh Yevgeni (), also transliterated as Yevgeny, Yevgenii, Yevgeniy, Evgeni, Evgeny, Evgenii, Evgeniy, Evgenyi or Evgenij, is the Russian form of the masculine given name Eugene. The short form is Zhenya (Женя), also transliterated as Jenya or Sheny ...

since 1863, the ''Vedomosti'' was brought to the forefront of the country's political life, as it campaigned for Europeanizing reforms and opposed the conservative stance of the semi-official ''

Moskovskie Vedomosti ''Moskovskiye Vedomosti'' (, ; ) was a Russian newspaper. It was the largest newspaper by circulation in Russia before it was overtaken by Saint Petersburg's dailies in the mid-19th century. Moscow University (founded in 1755) established the ...

''. Korsh repeatedly clashed with censors over his liberal views until 1875, when he was dismissed from the editorial staff and the paper was taken over by the Imperial Ministry of Education. After that, the newspaper's circulation and influence declined and it took the

Octobrist The Union of 17 October (, ''Soyuz 17 Oktyabrya''), commonly known as the Octobrist Party (Russian: Октябристы, ''Oktyabristy''), was a liberal-reformist constitutional monarchist political party in late Imperial Russia. It represent ...

editorial stance. Following the

October Revolution The October Revolution, also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution (in Historiography in the Soviet Union, Soviet historiography), October coup, Bolshevik coup, or Bolshevik revolution, was the second of Russian Revolution, two r ...

, the paper was closed by the

Bolsheviks The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...

on 11 November 1917 (29 October OC). In March 1918 the new Bolshevik government launched the Communist-aligned ''Petrogradskaya Pravda'', which was mainly formed by journalists of the ''

Pravda ''Pravda'' ( rus, Правда, p=ˈpravdə, a=Ru-правда.ogg, 'Truth') is a Russian broadsheet newspaper, and was the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, when it was one of the most in ...

'' that had not been transferred to

after it became the new capital. Following the renaming of Petrograd into Leningrad in 1924, the paper was rebranded ''Leningradskaya Pravda''.

Modern newspaper

On 1 September 1991 the ''Leningradskaya Pravda'' was rebranded as the revived ''Sankt-Peterburgskie Vedomosti''. On December 28, 1995, the St. Petersburg Mayor's Office reorganized the newspaper as a joint stock company. It belongs to the JSC Sankt-Peterburgskie Vedomosti Editorial House.

Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who has served as President of Russia since 2012, having previously served from 2000 to 2008. Putin also served as Prime Minister of Ru ...

was the first chairman of the newspaper's advisory board until June 1997. In 2005 the

Rossiya Bank The Rossiya Bank (Bank Rossiya (), in Russian: Акционерный коммерческий банк Россия, АКБ Россия) is a Russian joint stock bank founded on June 27, 1990. The company's headquarters are in Saint Petersburg ...

, which is a co-founder of the JSC and had previously owned 20% share of the newspaper, acquired ownership of the ''Sankt-Peterburgskie Vedomosti''.

References

*Томсинский С. М. Первая печатная газета России, Пермь, 1959.

External links

"Vedomosti" (1703–1727) digital archives in "Newspapers on the web and beyond"
the digital resource of the

National Library of Russia The National Library of Russia (NLR, , ''РНБ''), located in Saint Petersburg, is the first, and one of three national public libraries in Russia. The NLR is currently ranked among the world's major libraries. It has the second biggest libr ...

"Sankt-Peterburgskie Vedomosti" (1728–1917) digital archives in "Newspapers on the web and beyond"
the digital resource of the

"Leningradskaya Pravda" (1918–1991) digital archives in "Newspapers on the web and beyond"
the digital resource of the

"Sankt-Peterburgskie Vedomosti" (1991–present) digital archives in "Newspapers on the web and beyond"
the digital resource of the