On May 4, 1812, at the initiative of Karl Neldekhen, a professor at the Kharkiv Imperial University, the first issue of the newspaper *Kharkiv Weekly* was published. The newspaper was published on Saturdays, with a total circulation of 600 copies. However, on July 20, 1812, after 12 issues had been published, the first periodical of Kharkiv and Sloboda Ukraine ceased publication. In essence, the newspaper was a commercial publication that featured articles primarily of an economic nature and provided agricultural advice.
Perhaps that is why, in issue No. 48 of *Zhivopisny Obozrenie* from 1878, A. N. Sinelnikov writes the following in his article “Kvitko Osnovyanenko”:
In 1816, the foundations of local journalism were laid in Kharkiv: the magazine *Ukrainskij vestnik*, edited by Filomafitsky and Honorovsky, began publication at the university printing press. Kvitka was one of the publishers of this magazine in its second year of publication. There he published reports on the state of affairs of the “Charitable Society” and the institute, as well as short humorous articles, signing the latter under the pseudonym “Falalei Povinukhin.” Soon another magazine appeared in Kharkiv—*Kharkiv Democritus*—with an exclusively humorous focus.
*Ukrainskij vestnik* (Ukrainian Herald), published from 1816 to 1819, was Ukraine’s first monthly journal devoted to literature, the arts, science, and social and political issues.
In addition to the aforementioned Kvitka Osnovyanenko, P. Gulak-Artemovsky also actively contributed to the publication. Although the articles were published primarily in Russian, it was here that P. Gulak-Artemovsky’s work “Pan i Sobaka” was first published in Ukrainian, along with his other works. Texts about the life and work of Hryhorii Skovoroda and the history of Ukraine were published. This is not surprising—after all, the magazine’s founders considered one of their goals to be familiarizing readers with the history of their native land. Of considerable interest to us are also the materials related to our beloved city, which appeared in the section “Kharkiv Notes.” The magazine had a circulation of 350–500 copies and, importantly, was self-supporting.
That same year, Vasily Maslovich, a poet and fabulist from Kharkiv, began publishing the satirical magazine *Kharkiv Democritus*.
At the time, it was the first and only purely satirical publication in the Russian Empire. It featured humorous poems, literary parodies, satirical pieces, epigrams, and a number of works on local Kharkiv themes written by Vasyl Maslovych in colloquial Ukrainian. Thus, this marked the first instance of the Ukrainian language being used in periodicals.
Although *Kharkiv Democritus* was published only from January through June 1816, its significance in the literary life of Sloboda Ukraine—and indeed of all Left-Bank Ukraine—is immense. It also influenced the aforementioned *Ukrainian Herald*.
But in 1816, journalism and periodicals in Kharkiv were just getting started.
From 1817 to 1823, the university printing press in Kharkiv, under the editorship of A. Verbitsky, published the weekly newspaper *Kharkiv News* (Har’kovskie izvestija).
The publication had four sections:
1) Domestic and local news
2) International news
3) Jokes
4) Classifieds.
The main focus was on local history.
That same year, Fyodor Vasilyevich Pilger, a professor at the Imperial University, began publishing the magazine *Ukrainian Householder*.
After the second issue was published, government censors gleefully shut down the publication. Incidentally, it was the first veterinary journal in the entire vast Russian Empire.
In 1838, the newspaper *Kharkiv Provincial Gazette* began publication in our city.
Unlike its predecessors, it was printed not at the university press, but at the Kharkiv Provincial Administration’s printing house.
Nikandr Dmitrievich Tikhomirov provides a wonderful description of her in his 1899 book *On the Press in General and the Provincial Press in Particular*.
But among the provincial newspapers, one stands out in particular—the *Kharkiv Vedomosti*, which can serve as a model for all the others, resembling the capital’s publications in style. This gazette, serving as the ideal model for ordinary provincial gazettes, demonstrates in practice that even a provincial gazette can be transformed into a reputable newspaper. To the best of their ability, the “Vitebsk Provincial Gazette,” which was reformed on January 1 of this year, will strive to emulate it.
When discussing this newspaper, it is impossible not to mention the name of our great fellow townsman: the writer, journalist, and translator Mikhail Konstantinovich Pervukhin (1870–1928).
He is famous for being the author of the first work in the “alternative history” genre in the former Russian Empire—*The Second Life of Napoleon*.
The author’s first short stories were published in the *Kharkiv Provincial Gazette* in 1895.
Many great names are also associated with the popular newspaper *Yuzhny Krai*, which was published in our city beginning on December 1, 1880, and was known for its “illustrated supplements.”
The first poems by the poet Stepan Gavrilovich Petrov (pen name: Skitalets) were published here.
Mikhail Petrovich Artsybashev also made his debut with a short story published in a newspaper in January 1895; his work was later highly praised by A. Kuprin. At the beginning of the 20th century, the name of Artsybashev—a native of the Akhtyrsky District and a student at the Kharkiv School of Painting—was on everyone’s lips… Nowadays, alas, few people remember him.
The first story by the man who would later be known as none other than the “King of Laughter”—Arkady Timofeyevich Averchenko—was also published in *YUK*.
However, the well-known writer Vsevolod Mikhailovich Garshin did not like *Yuzhny Krai* and spoke poorly of the newspaper. In a letter to his fiancée, Nadezhda Mikhailovna Zolotilova, dated June 25, 1882, he wrote the following:
“Skverny Krai” publishes my satirical pieces but doesn’t pay me. Tomorrow I’ll send my third piece along with a scathing letter, because I need to make a living and I need to travel, and all that costs money.”
I am referring to the essay “Letters from St. Petersburg,” first published in 1882 in a Kharkiv newspaper. Although the publication itself was, incidentally, far from small—on the contrary, it was considered one of the largest provincial newspapers in the empire. In the late 1890s, its circulation ranged from 2,000 to 5,000 copies; after the 1905–1907 revolution, it ranged from 12,000 to 40,000 copies per day.
Starting in 1906, a daily newspaper called *Utro*—covering politics, society, literature, and economics—began publication in our city, competing with *Yuzhny Krai*.
It was financed by a wealthy Kharkiv merchant, Andrei Yakovlevich Zhmudsky, whose mansion at 31 Hryhorii Skovoroda Street is now known to most residents of our city as the “Pushka” restaurant. From 1912 onward, its editor was his daughter, Varvara Andreevna, known to the world by the surname Karinskaya.
It was not her work in journalism, however, but her work in film that brought her the greatest fame. In 1948, the film *Joan of Arc* was released in the United States, and for her work on it, she received the first-ever Oscar for Best Costume Design.
And in 1915, *Kharkiv: A Guidebook for Tourists and Sightseers* informed its readers of the following:
So, in the 19th and early 20th centuries, there were quite a few different magazines and newspapers in our city.
Some say that journalism in Kharkiv began on May 4, 1812, while others say it began in 1816… But I don’t think that really matters now.
What is far more important is that 200 years ago, our beloved city saw the emergence of the *Ukrainian Herald* and the *Kharkiv Democritus*, which went on to influence periodicals in both Kharkiv and Ukraine. It turns out that it was in Kharkiv—thanks to the efforts of university professors who published these journals—that the foundations of today’s Ukrainian press were laid.
Where, perhaps, after 200 years, everything is just beginning all over again?
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