Ado Grenzstein päevalehte püüdmas - Lehekülg XIX sajandi lõpu eesti ajakirjandusest
Ado Grenzstein’s pursuit to launch a daily of his own - A page from the Estonian press of the end of the 19th century

Summary/Abstract: In 1881 Ado Grenzstein started the weekly paper Olevik, which complemented Estonian press with various innovative features concerning language, contents and form. The article provides a survey of Grenzstein’s journalistic innovations, including one of the earliest Estonian evidences documenting an attempt to regulate the relations between a newspaper and its correspondents. Since the end of 1885 Grenzstein began to sense the need for a daily paper, which was expressed in his discussion over the possibilities of creating an integrated Estonian press. Karl August Hermann’s Postimees was released, since the end of 1887, three times a week, turning into a daily in August 1891. Press rivalry was gradually increasing in the context of internal reforms and strengthening censorship. Grenzstein’s need for a daily of his own grew ever more pressing. Although Olevik, as a paper opposing Baltic German privileges, enjoyed a wide readership and had an extensive web of correspondents all over Estonia, at the turn of the century both Grenzstein and his paper had to surrender to the conservative circle close to Jaan Tõnisson and his Postimees, which was supported by censor Jaan Jõgever. As Grenzstein made a point of playing by the rules and abiding the law he also lost the support of the radicals. An attempt is made to gauge the possible background of Grenzstein’s voluntary exile by examining his unpublished essay Uus hommik, where Grenzstein called on his sympathisers to unite. This text testifies to Grenzstein having developed a quite clear understanding of the changed power relations.

• Details
• Contents