Ukrainian Press at the Dawn of the Industrial Age: Scientific and Technological Modernization in the Journal “Osnova” (1861–1863)

Abstract

The article examines scientific and technological issues on the pages of the journal “Osnova” (1861–1863). Particular attention is paid to how the journal’s materials conceptualized technical innovations, railway construction, and industrial development in general in the Ukrainian gubernias at the initial stage of imperial modernization. This study addresses a significant historiographical gap: while previous scholars have predominantly treated Osnova as a purely national-cultural project of the Ukrainian movement, they have largely overlooked its profound response to industrial transformation.

The theoretical basis of the article is intellectual history, in particular Reinhart Koselleck’s methodological approach to the history of concepts. The practical application of this theoretical framework is based on the use of quantitative and qualitative content analysis of the complete run of the journal, which consists of 21 issues.

The article shows that scientific and technological aspects were already embedded in Osnova’s programmatic texts, although they did not become a separate and systematic direction of the journal. The structure of the periodical did not include a special section devoted to industry, technological progress, or practical science. At the same time, modernization-related topics appeared in isolated specialized economic and technical publications, chronicles, geographical surveys, travel notes, and even reviews and polemical articles. The most prominent marker of technological modernization was the railway question. Through railways, the authors and editors of Osnova reflected on the economic backwardness of the Ukrainian gubernias and their transport isolation from the main markets for agricultural products, while clearly articulating the need for new overland routes of communication.

The article demonstrates that the attitude of the contributors to “Osnova” toward modernization was generally positive. The journal’s criticism was directed not at technological progress as such, but at the slowness of modernization processes, especially in the sphere of railway construction. At the same time, Osnova viewed modernization through the prism of Ukrainian cultural and linguistic interests. For the editors, it was important not only to include the Ukrainian peasantry in the new era, but also to provide it with Ukrainian-language education and practical knowledge suitable for the new technological reality.