“NEED SKIPS, NEED DANCES, NEED SINGS SONGS”: THE SHOWING OF THE PROBLEM OF POVERTY IN THE PRESS OF THE TOWN OF TSARITSYN IN THE END OF THE XIX CENTURY

Abstract

The article for the first time carried out a comprehensive analysis of the problem of poverty and its consequences in the life of the city of Tsaritsyn and its inhabitants of the late XIXth century. Appeal to the local press, represented by two newspapers - «Volzhsko-Donskoi Listok» and «Tsaritsynsky Vestnik», allows you to enter into the scientific circulation of diverse materials that previously fell out of the field of view of researchers. Attracted sources show that contemporaries assessed poverty and, in particular, its extreme form - poverty - as a social evil, a dangerous affliction that affects all of society by virtue of its consequences. At the same time, in accordance with the prevailing pre-revolutionary interpretation, poverty was perceived rather as grief, in which society itself is guilty than a individual person. The desire of the public for charity, encouraged by journalists through publications about the plight of particular families, special societies, charity events, etc., is largely associated with this vision. At the same time, the press strongly insisted on the need to provide feasible assistance to the truly needy, rather than mimicking for them to parasites who turned begging into a profitable business. For this reason, various manifestations of professional begging were condemned. Summarizing, we can state the following: although publicists often considered the problem of poverty (and beggary) not directly but indirectly, as a background, a red thread woven into the picture of everyday life of the Russian city, nevertheless, the regional press is a valuable and promising source for research in the direction of the voiced issues.

Keywords

• «царицынский вестник»
• post-reform city
• poverty
• begging
• urban poor
• saratov province
• tsaritsyn
• the newspaper «volzhsko-donskoi listok»
• «tsaritsynsky vestnik»