2 - A family of satirical weeklies (1769–73)

Summary

Measures and not men, is the common cant of affected moderation; a base, counterfeit image …

Junius

Did Novikov remain a loyal and obedient servant in that editorial chair, or did he use it as a pulpit to assail the shortcomings of Catherine's government? The empress had hoped to preside over a lively family of moral weeklies for whom the official presses of the Academy of Sciences and the Cadet Corps would provide a hospitable home sanctioned by the government. Yet the appearance of other journals in the wake of All Sorts has been seen as a challenge to imperial authority. The present dominant view is that Novikov, somewhat like a radical opportunist, took advantage of the new imperial example to begin a satirical magazine, using it to unmask the unseemly reality of Russian life against Catherine's wishes. There does indeed seem to be ample evidence on the pages of the Drone to indicate Novikov's disaffection and his rejection of Catherine's seductive flattery. From its very first pages the Drone appears to point in this direction, for the introductory self-portrait of its editor certainly does not project an assiduous civil servant. Great weight has been attached to the portrait, since so little is known about the personality of the young Novikov: his biographers have gratefully drawn on it for details of his attitudes at the time.