3 - The Drone (1769–70)

Summary

Expression is the Dress of Thought, and still

Appears more decent, as more suitable.

Pope

From abstractions to reality: a principle of editorial organisation

A recognition of the Drone's affinities with its related journals and its acknowledgement of their common conventions is the first necessity for a full understanding of its purpose. We have seen that the Drone endeavoured to be a loyal grandson to All Sorts' babushka. However, the editor of the Drone was not shackled by the apron strings of convention. The grandson was able to stand firmly on his own feet: the weekly may have been one of a kind, but more striking was its individuality. What were the particular features which gave Novikov's Drone a stamp of its own, ensuring its contemporary popularity and permanent place in Russian literary history?

The fundamental strength of the Drone was its ability to present abstractions to its readers in concrete, recognisable terms. What, in fact, gave power to the plea for permission to criticise social evils robustly was that it was not mere formal pleading, no empty echo of an ancient literary quarrel. It was set firmly in the context of Novikov's own practice. It is only with hindsight that the polemical articles which made the points for each side can be extracted to make an isolated, coherent debate: to the readers of the day who received each issue at intervals, the controversy was not so clear-cut and tended to merge with other diverting, miscellaneous material.