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Soviet Union [USSR] Magazines and Journals
In the late 1980s, weekly, monthly, and quarterly magazines and
journals numbered almost 5,500 and had a circulation nearly equal
to that of the daily newspapers. The same CPSU regulations and
guidelines that applied to newspapers extended to magazines and
journals. In the mid-1980s, under the regime's less-restrictive
censorship policy, both magazines and journals published articles
and stories to fill in historical "blank spots." These articles
included works of past and contemporary authors once banned and new
works that challenged the limits imposed on literary society by
previous leaders. Assessments and criticisms of past leaderships
exposed many historical atrocities, particularly those committed
under Stalin. As a result, in the late 1980s the number of
subscribers to periodicals climbed considerably, and magazines and
journals frequently sold out at kiosks within minutes.
In the late 1980s, these magazines and journals created
reverberations throughout society with their publication of
controversial articles. Krokodil (Crocodile), one of the
most popular magazines with a circulation of approximately 6
million, contained humor and satire and featured excellent artistic
political cartoons and ideological messages. In 1987
Krokodil published a short excerpt from In Search of
Melancholy Baby by Vasilii Aksionov, an emigre writer and poet
living in the United States. The piece portrayed Muscovite
intellectuals' fascination with American fads during the 1950s and
prompted many letters to the editor that both praised and
criticized the excerpt. Nedelia (Week), another magazine,
supplemented Izvestiia and appeared every Sunday, having a
circulation of some 9 to 10 million.
Such journals as Ogonek (Little Fire), a weekly that
became more popular in the late 1980s because of its insightful
political exposes, human interest stories, serialized features, and
pictorial sections, had an audience of over 2 million people. In
1986 it published excerpted works by the previously banned writer
Nikolai S. Gumilev, who was shot in 1921 after being accused of
writing a counterrevolutionary proclamation. In 1988 it also
published excerpts of poetry from Iulii Daniel, imprisoned after a
famous 1966 trial for publication of his work abroad. Novyi
mir (New World), one of the most controversial and often
original literary reviews, attracted widespread readership among
the intelligentsia. The monthly publication reached nearly 2
million readers and concentrated on new prose, poetry, criticism,
and commentary. Many previously banned works were published in its
pages, most notably Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak. (The
publication of Doctor Zhivago in the West not only resulted
in Pasternak's expulsion from the Union of Writers in 1956 but won
him the 1958 Nobel Prize for Literature.) Oktiabr'
(October), a journal resembling Novyi mir in content,
circulation, and appeal, espoused more conservative viewpoints.
Nevertheless, Anna Akhmatova's "Requiem," a poetic tribute to those
who perished during Stalin's purges, appeared in its November 1987
issue. Finally, Sovetskaia kul'tura (Soviet Culture), a
journal with broad appeal, published particularly biting
indictments of collectivization, industrialization, and the purges
of the 1930s. In 1988 the journal published articles indirectly
criticizing Lenin for sanctioning the establishment of the system
of forced labor and concentration camps.
Data as of May 1989
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