The paper deals with some social aspects of diffusion of telephone communication into the milieu of urban middle classes in Russia during the 1900s and 1910s. General dynamics of the number of telephone subscribers’ numerical growth is studied. The rise of telephone penetration pace on the eve of World War One is registered. A degree to which some segments of the middle class, such as high-ranking civil servants, professionals and business people were provided with telephone services, is examined. Democratization of telephony manifesting itself in its proliferation into businesses that dealt with low-income customers is underlined. The author’s point is that measuring the degree of telephone services installation in late Imperial Russia by dividing the number of subscribers by the total number of urban residents is incorrect. The more reasonable approach is to compare the former only.
For citation: Stepanov A.V. Telephonization of Urban Middle Class in Early 20th century Russia, Ivanovo State University Bulletin, Series: Humanities, 2024, iss. 4, pp. 117—126.