''Northern Bee'' () was a semi-official Russian political and literary newspaper published in

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...

from to . It was an unofficial organ of Section Three (the

Third Section of His Imperial Majesty's Own Chancellery The Third Section of His Imperial Majesty's Own Chancellery (, or ''III otdeleniye sobstvennoy E.I.V. kantselyarii'' - in full: Третье отделение Собственной Его Императорского Величества кан ...

) – the secret police. ''Northern Bee'' was founded by the reactionary writer (and police informer) Thaddeus Bulgarin in 1825. In 1831 through 1849 he published it in conjunction with Nikolai Grech. From 1825 to 1831 it came out three times a week, then daily after that. The paper was pitched toward readers who belonged to the middle classes (the serving gentry, provincial landlords, officials, merchants, burghers). In addition to domestic and foreign news, literature, and criticism, the paper printed a mix of inspirational stories and philosophical essays, bibliographies, and fashion pieces. At first the paper showed a liberal bent, printing the works of

Pushkin Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin () was a Russian poet, playwright, and novelist of the Romantic era.Basker, Michael. Pushkin and Romanticism. In Ferber, Michael, ed., ''A Companion to European Romanticism''. Oxford: Blackwell, 2005. He is conside ...

Kondraty Ryleyev Kondraty Fyodorovich Ryleyev (, , – ) was a Russians, Russian poet, publisher, and a leader of the Decembrist Revolt, which attempted to overthrow the Russian monarchy in 1825. Early life Ryleyev was born in the village of Gatchinsky Distric ...

, and Fyodor Glinka. But after the

Decembrist revolt The Decembrist revolt () was a failed coup d'état led by liberal military and political dissidents against the Russian Empire. It took place in Saint Petersburg on , following the death of Emperor Alexander I. Alexander's brother and heir ...

of December 1825 it became a conservative pro-government publication. By his own admission, Bulgarin worked with the chief of the Third Section, Count

Alexander von Benckendorff Konstantin Alexander Karl Wilhelm Christoph Graf von Benckendorff (, – ) was a Russian History of Russian military ranks, cavalry general and statesman of Baltic German descent. He was also the adjutant general of Alexander I of Russia, Alex ...

, and used the knowledge gained by his position in writing reports for the police. ''Northern Bee'' enjoyed a monopoly on political news and Bulgarin used its platform to express in various ways his disgust for constitutionalism and the parliamentary speakers in France and England, representing them as screamers and

freethinkers Freethought (sometimes spelled free thought) is an unorthodox attitude or belief. A freethinker holds that beliefs should not be formed on the basis of authority Authority is commonly understood as the legitimate power of a person or ...

in need of looking after by the police. Having begun by publishing Pushkin and Ryleyev, including an enthusiastic review of the latter's poem "Voynarovsky", the paper turned to harassing Pushkin, mocking his antics and reproaching him for freethinking. In the French Romantics the ''Northern Bee'' saw "the legacy of the French Revolution, the destroyer of morality and the foundations of

libertinism A libertine is a person questioning and challenging most moral principles, such as responsibility or sexual restraints, and will often declare these traits as unnecessary, undesirable or evil. A libertine is especially someone who ignores or ev ...

". The work of

Gogol Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol; ; (; () was a Russian novelist, short story writer, and playwright of Ukrainian origin. Gogol used the grotesque in his writings, for example, in his works " The Nose", " Viy", "The Overcoat", and " Nevsky Prosp ...

was characterized by the paper as portraits without any moral purpose, the "barnyard of human life". In the pages of ''Northern Bee'', Bulgarin argued fiercely with the ''

Literary Gazette ''The Literary Gazette'' was a British literary magazine, established in London in 1817 with its full title being ''The Literary Gazette, and Journal of Belles Lettres, Arts, Sciences''. Sometimes it appeared with the caption title, "London Lit ...

'', Pushkin,

Anton Delvig Baron Anton Antonovich Delvig ( – ) was a Russian poet and journalist of Baltic German descent. Early life Anton Delvig was born on . He was of Baltic German descent. He studied at the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum together with Alexander Pushkin ...

, the ''Moscow Observer'', ''The Telescope'', ''

Notes of the Fatherland ''Otechestvennye Zapiski'' ( rus, Отечественные записки, p=ɐˈtʲetɕɪstvʲɪnːɨjɪ zɐˈpʲiskʲɪ, variously translated as "Annals of the Fatherland", "Patriotic Notes", "Notes of the Fatherland", etc.) was a Russian lit ...

'', and

Vissarion Belinsky Vissarion Grigoryevich Belinsky (; Pre-reform spelling: Виссаріонъ Григорьевичъ Бѣлинскій. – ) was a Russian literary critic of Westernizing tendency. Belinsky played one of the key roles in the career of p ...

. One of the leading critics for ''Northern Bee'', Leopold Brant, was a harsh detractor of the realist school which flourished beginning in the 1840s. After the defeat in the

Crimean War The Crimean War was fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the Ottoman Empire, the Second French Empire, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Kingdom of Sardinia (1720–1861), Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont fro ...

, readership began to decline due to the radicalization of public opinion. After 1860, under Pavel Usov, the paper changed its course and printed work by democratic writers such as Vasily Sleptsov, Fyodor Reshetnikov, and Marco Vovchok, and reviews of

Nikolay Nekrasov Nikolay Alexeyevich Nekrasov ( rus, Никола́й Алексе́евич Некра́сов, p=nʲɪkɐˈlaj ɐlʲɪkˈsʲejɪvʲɪtɕ nʲɪˈkrasəf, a=Ru-Nikolay_Alexeyevich_Nekrasov.ogg, – ) was a Russian poet, writer, critic and publ ...

and

Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin Mikhail Yevgrafovich Saltykov-Shchedrin ( rus, Михаи́л Евгра́фович Салтыко́в-Щедри́н, p=mʲɪxɐˈil jɪvˈɡrafəvʲɪtɕ səltɨˈkof ɕːɪˈdrʲin; – ), born Mikhail Yevgrafovich Saltykov and known during ...

. The paper also published lesser-known writers such as Ilya Arseniev, Nikolai Gersevanov, Clement Kanevsky, and "Blind Domna" (Domna Anisimova). An attempt by Usov to convert the paper to be more like foreign papers in format and arrangement of sections was not successful. In 1864, the paper folded.

External links

Bee" 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 ...

References

{{Reflist Newspapers established in 1825 Publications disestablished in 1864 Russian-language newspapers Literary magazines published in Russia Newspapers published in Saint Petersburg