EN
The development of civil society has been one of the major aspects in Czech historiography. Nonetheless, we still know relatively little about how this process took place in rural Bohemia, as so far, studies have focused primarily on the urban milieu. This paper aims to examine the Agricultural Newspaper under the editor Filip Stanislav Kodym (1852–1861). This periodical was published as part of the activities directed at enlightening the rural inhabitants after the abolition of serfdom in 1848–1849 and successfully penetrated the rural population. Analysing the Agricultural Newspaper, this paper tries to demonstrate the genesis of a public sphere in rural Bohemia following the abolition of serfdom.