The clearest sign that following the outbreak of the Uprising in Poland opinion in the Russian elites changed to a more nationalist position was manifested in the press, especially in the liberal papers and periodicals in favour of the policy ofreform. The principal journalists belonging to this group worked for the magazine Otechestvennye zapiski; and Golos, which was founded in 1863 by Andrei Kraevskii and from its very outset subsidised by the Minister of Enlightenment. Golos started with 4 thousands subscribers and gradually increased its print run to 23 thousand copies. There was also Sankt-Peterburgskie vedomosti, with Valentin Korsh as its chief editor as of 1863. Both Golos and Sankt-Peterburgskie vedomosti came out in St. Petersburg, and were the main papers engaged in polemic with Katkov's publications. This applied particularly to Golos, not least due to the regular subsidy it received from Minister Aleksandr Golovnin.

When the Uprising erupted, at first these papers avoided making firm declarations and judgements on the situation. There was still hope that there would only be a limited extent of combat and that it would soon be put down, and Grand Duke Konstantin would resume his agenda of moderate concessions. The liberal periodicals made numerous appeals for an end to the conflict, and expressed a readiness to forgive, reconcile, and forget. There was recognition for the Polish right to patriotism, but only as regards the Congress Kingdom. This Polish insurgency was compared with the Russian national rising against the Polish invasion in the early 17st century, but it was the unrelenting Polish claim to the Lithuanian and Ruthenian territories that was seen as the essential core of the conflict. Some articles tried to revive the familiar vision of Poland sharing in the bounty to be drawn from staying in the Empire. Some offered a forgive-and-forget approach, asking the Poles to stand arm in arm with Russia, “to walk shoulder to shoulder, towards the great destiny of the Slavonic world.”