The problem of trafficking in women on the pages of the press of Transdniprian Ukraine (end of the 19th – early 20th century)

Abstract

The purpose of the research is to analyze the degree of coverage on the pages of the press of Transdniprian Ukraine at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th cen- turies the worldwide phenomenon of traffi cking in women and to demonstate measures taken by the state and the public to reduce and eliminate it. Th e research methodology is based on general scientifi c principles as objectivity, historicism, systematicity, as well as on the use of methods – analysis and synthesis, comparison and abstraction, generalization and systematiza- tion, historical-typological and problem-chronological. Th e scientifi c novelty is that for the fi rst time in domestic historiography, an attempt to analyze the attitude of the state and the public to the problem of traffi cking in women at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th cen- turies by studying the periodical press of this period was made. Th e author also draws attention to the global nature of the problem, emphasizing on little-known aspects, in particular, child traffi cking. Conclusions. At the end of the 19th – at the beginning of the 20th century traffi cking in women has become global and has become an urgent problem that can only be solved by the combined eff orts of governments of all countries. Meanwhile, newspaper publications testify to the reluctance of the elites to engage in this, and the reason was not only the presence of military and political confl icts, but also the corrupt component of this trade, the patrons of which were oft en representatives of the authorities and the local police. Journalists of newspapers published in Transdniprian Ukraine generally have a negative at- titude towards traffi cking in women and prostitution. Meanwhile, the chauvinistic “Kievlianin” places too much emphasis on the Jewish factor and on the fact that most oft en the agents for fi nding and selling women were Jews; provides many examples of governmental attempts to solve this problem and cites documents adopted at the international level. We cannot rule out the PR technologies that journalists resorted to, describing in a detective style the stories of the victims of the “live commodity” trade and their way back home. Undoubtedly, such publications infl uenced the growth of circulation and sold copies of the newspaper. Th us, we can state that the problem of traffi cking in women was given enough space in the press of the Under-Russian Ukraine at the time, but the goals of the appearance of such notes in the columns of newspapers were diff erent: to draw attention to the urgent problem of today; develop ways to fi ght it; increase readership.