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searched 100 texts of the ‘advertising announcement genre’, 100 texts of the ‘advertising article’ genre, and
25 texts of the ‘advertising slogan’ genre. In total we have analyzed about thirty five thousand word usages.
Obviously, the advertising forms which have been available in the Russian mass media for the period
of two centuries need a detailed specialized description. It has been the topic of many investigations
which would have occupied a many volume edition. So, the topic of our research will be focused on the
crucial moments of the development of the Russian Press advertising process fulfilled for the purposes of
comparison.
Peter the Great and his newspaper ‘Gazette’ which initially was having a many-lined heading, (it
was a characteristic for the European medieval printing matters) made a good start for the advertising
development in Russia. Sometimes the newspaper was published in the form of the leaflet having a
subheading ‘relation, or communique’.
On the contrary, the newspaper was not busy with the large-scale advertisement publishing on a regular
basis. It was a governmental edition and its relations with the private advertisers had not been developed.
But the appearance of some advertisements could be mentioned. Some authors try to find similarities of
the ‘Gazette’ with the first French governmental newspaper published by TheofastRenodo; it contained
advertisements about the treatment of numerous diseases in the Mineral Waters, as well as the publication
of the Bible in many volumes. Mineral waters in the ‘Gazette’ of Peter the Great are also popularized.
Below follow the advertisement in the newspaper dated by 1719 year №2, in which a new spa is
convincingly recommended to visit: ‘’ The waters mentioned are capable to cure different severe illnesses,
i.e. scurvy, morbid depression, jaundice, stomach problems, voting, gall-stones, gall-bladders’’ (Old
Russian language). Visits of the high-rank officials to the spa, Tsarina PrascoviyaFedorovna and Alexander
Menshikov, tsar’s favorite,provided for its prestige. Along with the newspaper announcements we can
trace that the leaflets, advertising the same spa facilitiesappeared.
There are examples that sometimes the ‘Gazette’ published the lists of the newly published books.
For example one can find a ‘List of civil books, published by the order of His Majesty in the Amsterdam
spelling in the period up to June, 1, 1710 year’. Newspaper was dated on the 31st of May, 1710. In
bibliographic data, classified into 15 divisions we may come across such an advertisement as ‘Rules how to
write letters to different officials, military architecture and military science, seize of a fortress Troy history,
Geography or short description of the earth, calendars’’. So, we may distinguish this time as a period of
the bibliographic advertisement appearance. Very soon catalogues appeared as specialized types of the
advertisements. For example, more than 80 copies of the catalogue ‘Greek manuals collection of the synod’
were published in November 1723in the Moscow Publishing House.
Lately, the ‘Gazette’ was followed by a new paper ‘Saint Peters bough Gazette’, which was published
by the Academy of Sciences. In contrast to the first paper it was published on a regular basis: it was a
weekly edition in the first year of publishing, and then it was issued twice a week. Book lists are also of
top priority in the advertisement chapter. Commercial advertisements appear in a new paper along with the
government advertisements, which were usual for the previous newspaper as well.
Commercial advertisements mainly were filled the ‘news’ pages and were placed under the columns
‘sail’, ‘contracts’, ‘departing persons’ and so on. Capital salesmen and craftsmen, home and foreign
entrepreneurs found a means of advertising for the goods and products in the newspaper. Editorial staff was
willingly meeting their interests, because they were pursuing their own ends. Circulation of the newspaper
was not very good, only 500-600 copies and it sale did not cover the costs of the Academy for publishing
one copy cost for only 4 kopecks. The advertisements were constantly increasing in number, and soon a
separate supplement was developed and published, as a severe necessity.
By the end of the 18th century the advertisement department was equal to the main information part of
the newspaper. As A.P. Kiselev mentions ‘’the advertisements appeared to be if not the only, then the major
part of the economic and cultural life information’. It was not just a bare listing of the official registers and
reports, but a live reflection of time with all its contradictions and paradoxes.
For example, Russian economy dynamic development and strengthening was accompanied by the
severe serfdom violence. It is confirmed by the supplement No 13 to the ‘Saint Petersburg Gazette’ dated
1770: ‘the salted cucumbers of the best quality are sold along with the high respected coachman and his
wife’, and another advertisement: ‘Those willing to buy the house-serf young girl, aged 13 can make
inquiries in the Semenovsky regiment in the Officer’s line’. Such kind of the advertisement had been usual
for the ‘Saint Petersburg Gazette’ till the beginning of the next century [3,297].