Abstract

The article covers the emergence and development of telecommunication in the Ukrainian provinces of the Russian Empire in the modern period. Attention is drawn to the factors that contributed to the emergence in the late nineteenth century. the first telephone networks in such large cities as Odessa, Kiev, Kharkov, etc. It was emphasized that by the beginning of the twentieth century. telephone exchanges have already started working in 23 provincial and county cities of Ukrainian lands. This article describes the features of functioning of both government and private telephone networks. At the same time, attention was paid to the fact that the number of telephone sets, especially in government institutions, was constantly increasing. The author also dwells on questions of the availability of the phone for the modern city dwellers, including finding out the cost of using his services, the convenience of communication, etc. It is noted that first of all the phone was used by entrepreneurs, large traders, financiers, lawyers, doctors, law enforcement officials, and officials of local self-government bodies. In addition, the article analyzes the peculiarities of the work of the employees of telephone stations, in particular telephone operators. It was noted that their work was rather difficult, and the salary they received was generally small amounts. The attention was also paid to certain problems in the activity of telephone networks in the Ukrainian lands of the Romanov empire - technical deficiencies in the area of ​​communication, small capacity of telephone stations, high cost of payment for telephone services, etc. Accordingly, for every 100 inhabitants of tsarist Russia there were only 0.1 subscribers of the telephone network. For example, in the United States, for every 100 inhabitants, 7.6 phone holders accounted for. However, it was emphasized that the phone, however, became an important sign of the emergence in Ukraine of the new, industrialized society. After all, in the Ukrainian city of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. it was possible to observe the rapid development of communication technology and its penetration into all spheres of life of the contemporary society. Under the influence of telephone communication, the everyday life of people, their way of life was radically transformed.