Mediated Vegetarianism: The Periodical Press and New Associations in the Late Russian Empire

• Published in: Media history 2022-07, Vol.28 (3), p.315-336
• Main Author: Malitska, Julia
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Baltic and East European studies; Historical Studies; Historiska studier; Iosif Perper; Kiev; Kishinev; media; Periodical press; Russian empire; vegetarianism; Östersjö- och Östeuropaforskning; вегетарианство; вегетаріанство; ЗМІ; Иосиф Перпер; Киев; Кишинев; Кишинів; Київ; Периодическая печать; Періодична преса; Российская империя; Російська імперія; СМИ; Іосиф Перпер
• ISSN: 1368-8804; 1469-9729; 1469-9729
• DOI: 10.1080/13688804.2021.1937972

This article examines how The Vegetarian Review, the monthly periodical founded in Kishinev and published in Kiev from 1910-1915, and the emerging vegetarian activism, enabled, re-affirmed and empowered each other. The focus of the article is on the periodical's emergence, logistical aspects of its production, ideological settings, form, content, rationale, (re)presentational strategies, as well as the imaginaries constructed and articulated on its pages. By bridging the fields of periodical studies with the history of social activism in Eastern Europe, the role of the advocacy journal in promoting reform agenda and its potential for forging a community of values and a shared identity formation are discovered. Vegetarianism, as the study showcases, had been defined, debated, advocated, invented and negotiated on the pages of The Vegetarian Review through interaction between scribes, editors, readers, practitioners and activists; and its genre fostered, staged and empowered these exposures.