Publication of the first issue of the newspaper known since 1932 as “Tobolskaya Pravda”

The newspaper Tobolskaya Pravda (Tobolsk Truth) can rightfully be considered the founder of journalism in Western Siberia. It has changed many names, but remains for the modern reader an objective bulletin of the social, political, economic and cultural life of Tobolsk and Tyumen Region.

The newspaper Tobolskiye Gubernskiye Vedomosti (Tobolsk Provincial News), the first issue of which was published on April 27, 1857, is considered to be the ancestor of the newspaper Tobolskaya Pravda. Vedomosti began to be published regularly under Governor V. A. Artsimovich, under whom Tobolsk underwent significant socio-cultural and economic development. Tobolskiye Gubernskiye Vedomosti was broadcast throughout the entire Tobolsk Governorate, consisted of two parts (official and unofficial), told about important events of the city, and also contained resolutions, decrees, orders of local and central authorities, articles on economics, ethnography, history and local lore. Teachers and historians, artists and church leaders actively collaborated with the first newspaper of Siberia. The oldest newspaper in Siberia was published until April 1918.

On April 21, 1918, reading citizens picked up the first issue of the newspaper Izvestia. It is from this date that the age of the publication is calculated. On the second page, a decree of the Council of Deputies was published, according to which “the printing house of the Tobolsk Provincial Department, as well as Tobolskiye Gubernskiye Vedomosti published, are declared the property of the Russian Republic, the newspaper was renamed Izvestia Soveta rabochikh i krestyanskikh deputatov (Izvestia of the Council of Workers’ and Peasants’ Deputies). In the first issue of Izvestia, a program article Our Tasks was published, calling: “So, comrades, let’s cheerfully go forward to a new life, to creative construction work! We will work while studying and study while working – this is the key to success in our great struggle for socialism.” The status of the newspaper was lowered from provincial to urban. Official documents were published on the pages of the newspaper, but these were decrees and resolutions of the Soviet government: On commodity exchange to strengthen grain preparations, On the Academy of Arts, On monuments of the Republic, On nationalization, etc. The newspaper was published 3 times a week. The editor-in-chief during this period was I. Ya. Koganitsky. In June 1918, units of A. V. Kolchak’s White Army approached Tobolsk. The power in the city has changed. Izvestia of the Council of Workers’ and Peasants’ Deputies, having released 17 issues, ceased to exist for some time.

After the final establishment of Soviet power in Tobolsk, the newspaper Tobolsky Sever (The Tobolsk North) began to be published. Its first issue dated January 3, 1922 was published as an organ of the Uyezd Committee of the RCP (b) and the Tobolsk Executive Committee. The publication called for starting a new life, talked about the work of the Committee to Help the Revival of the North, about plans to increase the volume of fish production. The newspaper wrote about the new economic policy (NEP), participated in fundraising for the starving of the Volga region.

The newspaper was published under the name Tobolsky Sever until January 1923. Then a break followed, after which, from 1924, the newspaper was published as Severyanin (The Northerner), and from 1929 – as Sovetsky Sever (Soviet North), becoming the official publication of Tobolsk District of Ural Region. The publication was released twice a week. At that time, a large number of notes and articles covering the problems of the development of the northern territories were still being printed. Several issues for 1924 were published in mourning frames – that was the way the newspaper staff reacted to the death of V. I. Lenin. It also told about the life of the city of Tobolsk – the work of mechanical workshops, industrial plant, repair and restoration of housing stock, children’s town, state museum, outpatient clinic. A separate topic was the struggle for universal literacy of the population.

The succession of renaming ended in year 1932. For the first time, under the familiar name Tobolskaya Pravda, the newspaper was published on January 17, 1932. In the 1930s, journalists reflected the life of the country on the pages of the newspaper – the collective farm movement, party conferences and congresses, the struggle for universal education, industrialization, high-profile political processes.

The main topics during the Great Patriotic War were reports from the front, short sketches about heroes, stories about the exploits of front workers. The newspaper was published with a circulation of 10,000 copies, and was signed by the editor-in-chief V. P. Slinkin. In the New Year’s issue on January 3, 1943, the front page told in detail “About the results of the 6-week offensive of our troops on the approaches to Stalingrad”, as well as about the “battles” of local significance: “The collective farm Novy Mir of the Alymsky Village Council celebrates the new year with the implementation of the bread delivery plan, 70 quintals of bread were handed over to the state in advance on account of supplies in 1943, all voluntary monetary contributions and mandatory payments were made ahead of schedule," said the chairman of the collective farm T. Talyzin. It also touched upon the life of citizens in wartime. For example, that the Tobolsk District Office of Cinematography had 8 relocations: “In Tobolsk District alone, 134 screenings were organized in October and November, which were watched by about 5,000 people." A collection of fiction for wounded soldiers was held in the city.

The post-war issues of Tobolskaya Pravda were filled with materials about the work on the revival of the country from the ruins. The specificity of the city was expressed in the fact that up to 70% of the newspaper area was devoted to agricultural news. The cost of the newspaper then was 20 kopecks; the editor-in-chief was N. P. Makarov.

During the Soviet years, the newspaper continued to talk about the most important thing – it reported on the rapid development of the region. On the pages of the publication, reports were published on the completion of the laying of the reserve line of the Samotlor-Tyumen-Almetyevsk oil pipeline through the Irtysh, on the construction of the “Giant on the Irtysh” – a huge petrochemical complex and railway, the development of the river fleet, the construction of new neighborhoods, the rapid development of the social sphere. By the mid-80s of the 20th century, the circulation of Tobolskaya Pravda had grown to an unheard-of size by local standards – 25,000 copies.

In the 1990s, the industrial theme on the pages of the newspaper was thoroughly displaced by the political one. Citizens of Tobolsk engaged in polemics, and Tobolskaya Pravda was the main platform for the brightest publicists among its readers. In 1990, a city photo club was opened at the newspaper, bringing together a large number of beginners and recognized masters. The urban economy at that time was in a deplorable state: monuments of antiquity were dying, public utilities were dilapidated, enterprises were closing, the river fleet, about which much had been written since the days of Gubernskiye Vedomosti, was almost disappearing, local aviation was falling into decline. But the newspaper did not close and managed to maintain its importance for the city and its residents.

Since the beginning of the 2000s, the newspaper, which was popularly called Tobolka, covered the development of Tobolsk. Tobolskaya Pravda is keeping up with the times even today. It lives, works, participates in competitions, festivals, holds promotions, exhibitions. In order to get closer to the reader, it goes online, talks about the life of the city through social media accounts.
 

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Based on the Presidential Library's materials:

Тобольские губернские ведомости. Тобольск, 1857–1918

Тобольская правда: орган Тобольского городского и районного комитетов ВКП (б), городского и районного Советов депутатов трудящихся. Тобольск, 1944–1945 (other issues of Tobolskaya Pravda are available in the ERR)

Based on the article of the Tyumen Region Branch of the Presidential Library