Everyday Life in Chita as Reflected in the Local Press: The Evolution of the Image of a Provincial Town
DOI: 10.23951/2307-6119-2026-2-86-99
This research examines urban chronicles of Chita in the early 20th century, as presented in the 1905 edition of the newspaper Zabaikalskie Oblastnye Vedomosti. This unique pre-revolutionary publication combined official materials, city life chronicles, feuilletons, private advertisements, and correspondence. By analyzing local press texts, the study reconstructs a media portrayal of everyday life in a provincial town, reflecting not only specific social and daily issues – such as public amenities, sanitation, food shortages, cultural standards, and public sentiment – but also the distinct perception of its space as the "outskirts of the empire." The article offers a comparative analysis of media narratives from 1905 and the 2020s, revealing persistent, "chronic" themes in the urban agenda that have endured throughout the century: insufficient infrastructure, underdeveloped sewerage systems, dilapidated housing, stray animals, alcoholism, and social disadvantage. The study aims to uncover the mechanisms of urban image formation in regional media in the early 20th century and to show how this image relates to contemporary forms of urban identity representation in local online media and social media communities. The methodological framework is based on comparative historical, discursive, and axiological approaches within urban anthropology and media cultural studies, as well as methods of content analysis, interpretation, and historical-anthropological reading of media texts. These methods enable the examination of urban chronicles as a sociocultural phenomenon that captures the value system, symbolic codes, and mental attitudes of the local community. The scientific novelty of the study lies in identifying the meaning-making and communicative functions of the local press, which constructs the city's symbolic space and provides feedback channels between society and the authorities. Contemporary urban media inherit these functions, creating new forms of local identity and inclusion in the digital communication environment. The study concludes that the media image of Chita as a provincial city is marked by significant continuity, with pressing everyday issues forming a stable framework for constructing local identity in the public space. These findings expand the source base and contribute to the development of urban anthropology, confirming the importance of media narratives as a tool for reconstructing historical memory, cultural continuity, identity, and the image of a provincial city over the long term.
Keywords: urban chronicle, provincial city, Zabaikalskie Oblastnye Vedomosti, local press, urban anthropology, cultural identity, symbolic space, social memory
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Issue: 2, 2026
Series of issue: Issue 2
Rubric: ANTHROPOLOGY
Pages: 86 — 99
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