The paper provides a historiographical analysis of the points of view by modern Russian researchers on the development of censorship and press in Russia in the second half of the XIX - early XX century. The paper notes that there was no consensus among Russian researchers on the transformation of the domestic information sphere during this period. The studies of Russian historians have a very ambiguous assessment of its potential and the results of its development. The paper concludes that the works of modern Russian historians do not completely exhaust the topic of socio-cultural modernization in the field of censorship and press of the late Imperial era. Therefore, the development of Russian information sphere in the aforementioned period needs further comprehensive research.