«...Позаботиться о сближении с более симпатичными, ближе стоящими по духу соседями». Перспективы двусторонних отношений и будущего мира в оценках Русс
The Prospects for Bilateral Relations and the Future Peace in the Estimates of the Russian-Italian Chamber of Commerce (Based on Newsletters, 1914–191

Summary/Abstract: The article is devoted to the largely unexplored topic of reactions to the international affairs of 1914–1917 in the specialized press of the Chambers of Commerce, created in Russia shortly before the First World War. In the circumstances of a global conflict, these supposedly “peaceful” organizations began to play a role in forming an anti-German coalition. The periodical literature produced by these chambers shifted from their habitual material economic reviews, advertising, trade information to political propaganda, thereby drawing this literature closer to other wartime press. The war influenced the perceptions of various nations’ cultural, spiritual, moral proximity to Russia based on whether they were military allies, enemies or neutrals. The reporting of these periodicals was intricately tied to purely economic interests and the expectations of what the world would look like after the war. This article is based on a detailed analysis of the “Bulletin of the Russian-Italian Chamber of Commerce,” during the war years. Coverage focused on the unique historical path of Italy from the Triple Alliance to the Entente of 1915. Reporting was heavily swayed by the wide spread Russian conception of Italy as the “cradle of culture,” as a pan-European educational and tourist center and as a model for developing a “national economy.” Despite this positive image of Italy, critics pointed to the “remnants of the German dominance” in the Italian economy and international trade. This German factor, according to Russian-Italian Chamber of Commerce, would hinder any kind of final rapprochement between the Russia and Italy in the postwar world.

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