Editorial Commentary in the Byloe Journal (Documentary-Historical Periodicals)

Abstract

The publication of historical documents in periodicals is accompanied by paratextual elements – editorial notes and apparatus texts. The functions, structure, and content of paratext in specialized publications vary across historical periods and reflect the specifics of publishing and research practices. The paratextual elements of the journal Byloe – the first Russian legal journal to publish documents related to the history of the liberation movement in Russia – and the trends in their development have not been sufficiently studied. The present study aims to identify the functions of editorial commentary in the journal Byloe and to compare the specific features of their realization in the issues of 1917 (resumption of publication) and 1925 (cessation of activity). The empirical corpus comprises prefaces, afterwords, notes, and editorial apparatus sections from all issues of the journal for 1917 and 1925; the analysis is based on identifying recurrent elements and comparing their distribution across the issues. The findings indicate that in 1917 editorial commentary predominantly accompanies individual documents and performs primarily attributive and explanatory functions, including the indication of source provenance and reproduction techniques, while also delineating the limits of editorial responsibility. In 1925, editorial commentary becomes a functionally and substantively richer component of the issue structure as a whole, designating the principles of source selection, defining the vector of reception of publications, and foregrounding editorial responsibility for text preparation, including corrective notices concerning emendations and variant readings. The contribution of this study to the investigation of the paratext phenomenon consists in a typological description of the functions of editorial commentary and in identifying their changes based on materials from different issues of the journal Byloe.