How railway communication in the second half of the 19th – early 20th centuries helped to spread anti-government literature to revolutionaries (on the example of Kursk province)

Importance. In the second half of the 19th – early 20th centuries, an unstable internal political situation was observed in Russia. The activation of the oppositional political forces was facilitated by unresolved topical problems for society (for example, the peasant and workers’ question). The «awakening» of the population was facilitated by agitation and propaganda activities organized by left-wing political parties, such as the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party and the Socialist Revolutionaries. At the same time, the spread of anti-government literature across the country was, as a rule, by rail. The study of the experience of agitation and propaganda work (on the example of a typical Russian province) will not only enrich the historical sphere of scientific knowledge, but also assess the effectiveness of the implemented mechanisms for the dissemination of revolutionary literature in the historical conditions. This is the purpose of this study.Materials and methods. In the process of working on the topic, the following methods of scientific cognition were used: analysis, synthesis, generalization, chronological and comparativehistorical methods.Results and Discussion. It is determined that oppositional political parties used railway lines as an effective «means» of delivering revolutionary literature to provincial regions.Conclusion. However, such propaganda and agitation activities did not always lead to the desired result, and the local population was wary of the discovered «finds» in the form of revolutionary leaflets, appeals, proclamations, pamphlets, etc.