"Russian Vedomosti," one of the largest socio-political newspapers in Russia, was published in Moscow starting September 3, 1863. It represented the interests of the liberal public advocating for constitutional monarchy and actively covered topics related to zemstvo, peasantry, public life, and social initiatives. The newspaper had a reputation as 'professorial' since many liberal professors from Moscow University were among its regular authors. At that time, it was unusual for a publication to have a large staff of special correspondents both in the Russian provinces and in major cities of Europe and America.

By the mid-1870s, "Russian Vedomosti" had become one of the most influential newspapers in Russia. In the late 1860s and early 1870s, editor N.S. Skvortsov became close to a group of young scholars, such as A.S. Posnikov, A.I. Chuprov, V.M. Sobolevsky, and I.I. Yanzhul. This occurred against the backdrop of the struggle for university rights when one professor, failing to gain the necessary two-thirds majority, was appointed by the decision of the Minister of Education contrary to the university statute.

In 1875, the newspaper's editorial office moved from the Delone house on Krivoarbatsky Lane to a specially equipped building on Myasnitskaya Street, in Yushkov Lane, house 185 (now Bobrov Lane, 4).

In the 1870s, Vasily Mikhailovich Sobolevsky became a permanent staff member of "Russian Vedomosti" and the closest assistant to N.S. Skvortsov. In 1876, he was appointed assistant editor and later editor of the newspaper. After Skvortsov's death in 1882, the newspaper came under the ownership of a partnership that included its staff: Sobolevsky, Chuprov, Bogdanov, Posnikov, and others. Initially, it was intended that all members of the partnership would work at the newspaper.

V.M. Sobolevsky attracted the best writers of the time to collaborate, such as N.K. Mikhailovsky, M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, V.G. Korolenko, A.P. Chekhov, and others.

Contemporaries noted Sobolevsky's active civic stance. V.G. Korolenko recalled how, on the eve of the 25th anniversary of the peasant reform on February 19, 1886, the Moscow governor-general Prince Dolgorukov prohibited discussing the peasant issue in the press. Sobolevsky went to see him at night to demand the lifting of the ban. After being refused, he decided not to publish that day's issue of "Russian Vedomosti," which made a significant impression on the Moscow public.

On May 20, 1886, the newspaper's editorial office moved to Chernyshevsky Lane, to a house previously owned by Prince V.A. Cherkassky.

The newspaper existed until the October Revolution and was closed in 1918 for counter-revolutionary agitation after the publication of B. Savinkov's article "From the Road."