The main features of the classic magazine "usual Russian type".
Thick magazine at the turn of the century.
“Our Russian literature (as a whole) has, among many unique features, one that distinguishes it extremely from Western European literature.
This feature is a significant distribution of the so-called thick magazines,” noted in 1912 the bibliographer N.A. Ulyanov in the preface to the Index of Journal Literature compiled by him. The fact that a thick magazine - a type of periodical, brought to life by the peculiar conditions of Russia, plays a special role in Russian journalism, was noted by everyone who wrote about the development of the press system in the country.
The most common characteristics of a thick magazine are: firstly, volume (up to 300 - 500 pages); secondly, the totality of topics that are in the sphere of his attention; thirdly, the special composition of the issue, which combines a literary and artistic collection, a political newspaper and a kind of scientific encyclopedia. These three objects of attention of a thick magazine, three areas of its interests are in a magazine issue in a ratio determined by the uniqueness of the historical period and the state of the readership. At different times, one of them may come to the fore, pushing the others into the background, but not completely ousting them. This is clearly seen in the study of the history of the thick magazine in Russia.
In the XIX - early XX century. in the European press, journals were mainly distributed by specialties, by branches of science. They counted on their specific reader, and not on a wide range of intelligent people. The type of such publications is a review - revus, consisting of short articles, each issue is a complete whole, without continuing publications. Easily accessible in the West, the books left the magazine "only a small place in the literary market."
In Russia, with its vast territories, rare oases of culture, in the absence of good communications and a limited number of books, it was the journal that became the only supplier of fiction, various information about topical events, and reports on the achievements of science. “For 7-10 rubles,” writes N.A. Ulyanov, - the subscriber receives 12 thick books in which the experienced editors present the reader with the most diverse material to satisfy his curiosity. To some extent, the journal satisfies an acute, especially acute need for the provinces, the need to follow the intellectual life of all mankind. He paid a subscription fee and for the whole year is provided in this respect with the articles of his journal. A major role in this type of journal publication was played by novels printed with continuation, extensive articles, which created the reader's "expectation effect" for the next issue, forcing them to subscribe for a year.
A complete description of the thick journal as a type of publication is contained in the article by D.E. Maksimov, published in 1930 in the collection "From the past of Russian journalism." The author of the article not only showed the reasons for the appearance of a thick journal in the system of Russian journalism, but also identified the main type-forming features of such a publication. The contradiction between the needs of the intelligentsia and the lack of necessary books in the provinces “was resolved by the creation of a form of a thick journal, which makes it possible to combine in one book a kind of scientific encyclopedia, a literary and artistic collection and a political newspaper,” D.E.
Maksimov2.
The thick journal was the dominant type of periodical in the system of Russian journalism for almost a century. Created by N.M. Karamzin and M.T. Kachenovsky, the journal Vestnik Evropy became the first classic thick edition in Russia. With the goal of acquainting the reader with the life of Europe, reprinting extracts from 12 European newspapers, Vestnik Evropy very quickly acquired departments characteristic of subsequent thick magazines: fiction and criticism, political and scientific. Professional interests of the long-term publisher M.T. Kachenovsky - a professor at Moscow University, a historian - was brought to the fore by scientific departments. This is how not only a “magazine of the usual Russian type” appeared, as contemporaries called it, but also its variety - an “encyclopedic thick magazine”. It received its fullest expression in the publication of O. Senkovsky "Library for Reading". When creating it, the publisher was guided by the Parisian “Bibliotheque Universelle” (universal library), but, as almost always happened in Russia, the European model underwent a significant transformation, turning into a magazine of the “ordinary Russian type”. "Moscow Telegraph", "Telescope", "Library for Reading" were encyclopedic magazines. They focused on educating their readers, introducing them to the achievements of scientific thought. “The encyclopedic journal, to a certain extent, broke the class boundaries of journalism. It was a magazine about everything and for everyone, not only for a narrow circle of the educated nobility, the metropolitan par excellence.
The famous opposition magazines Sovremennik and Otechestvennye Zapiski by N.A. Nekrasov and M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin. They came out at the most acute moments in the history of the country, when the intensity of political passions forced the editors to minimize the "scientific encyclopedia", concentrating all their attention on the coverage of political events that relegated even such a traditional area for Russian journals as fiction to the background. The type of journal created by Sovremennik and Otechestvennye Zapiski, D.E. Maksimov and B.I. Esin was called journalistic. In such a journal, a political newspaper comes to the fore, the materials of which are published in the journalistic departments that existed in all thick magazines: Internal Review, Foreign Review, Provincial Review, From Public Life, etc. A peculiar genre of review gave the opportunity to talk about the events that took place during the month, comment on them and express your attitude to what is happening. The review usually presented a number of small articles devoted to the main events of the month. The topics of these articles were placed in the subtitle. So, for example, in the 8th issue of Vestnik Evropy for 1909, the Internal Review consisted of the following articles: Unfulfilled Expectations, His Majesty's Opposition and the Official Press, Moderately Reactionary Programme, Suspension newspaper "Slovo". Even literary criticism very often took the form of a review; it is enough to recall the famous articles by V.G. Belinsky.
In the analytical reviews and newsreels of the thick magazine, its ideological program and direction were expressed. “Journalism, pursuing mainly social and educational goals,” writes D.E. Maksimov, - naturally, put forward reviews and articles, and treated fiction as an inevitable concession to the frivolous reader. Therefore, non-fiction departments (especially political review) were given a lot of space. The Russian thick magazine, especially its journalistic variety, is characterized by a special attitude towards fiction, which was not only a “concession to the frivolous reader”. It was more important that in the journal “the works of art placed in it are perceived by the reader first of all as the views of the journal itself and only secondly as the individual opinions of authors with one or another worldview. The literary personality of a writer participating in an ideologically determined body helps to comprehend and supports not so much individual parts of the journal (an article, a poem, etc.), as the entire journal as a whole.
The type of thick magazine actively dictated its requirements for the literary material placed in the issue. Not every literary work could be published on its pages, but only consonant with its program. In addition, the magazine context gave the novel or story new shades, perhaps not foreseen by the writer. “It is known that in traditional Russian journalistic journalism of the journalistic type,” E.D. Maksimov, - each ideologically tightly knit organ to some extent depersonalizes the material placed in it, acquiring a special function in it in comparison with that which would be characteristic of this material outside the journal. The material included in the journal loses its individual shades and turns towards the reader with its total, typological side, both in the ideological and partly in the aesthetic sense.
Thus, the ratio of departments, the role of fiction, political news and encyclopedic publications in the composition of the issue help to determine the nature of the journal in question, to attribute it to the encyclopedic, journalistic or literary subtype.
The “ordinary Russian type” of the journal, best adapted to the peculiar conditions of Russia, familiar to the reader, who knew well what he wanted and could find in the journal book he received, often dictated his terms to the editors of the journals. Thus, for example, the Vestnik Evropy, revived in 1866, was conceived according to the type of English three-monthly magazines, but by the end of the second year of publication it was forced to become a monthly of the “ordinary Russian type”, since the reader’s journal is published once every three months. did not suit. To do this, “he only had to turn into permanent departments what had hitherto been more or less random in him, fiction and chronicle,” said the editor of Vestnik Evropy, K.K. Arseniev subsequently6.
In 1892, the journal "The World of God" was published, which then played a prominent role in the system of Russian journals. But it was conceived as a publication "for youth and self-education." In the second half of the 1990s, the magazine turned into a socio-political and literary publication of the same "usual Russian type".
The magazine "Life", created as a magazine for family reading, "Obrazovanie", originally called "Women's Education", and some others that arose in the 90s of the XIX century, inevitably transformed into traditional thick publications.
This was caused, firstly, by the demands of the audience, who wanted to see the new magazine the way they were used to reading in the almost 100-year history of the development of journalism. Secondly, social life, which became more complicated in the pre-revolutionary period, demanded from the editors a wide generalizing coverage, detailed comments, exactly what the thick magazine was so well adapted to.
But at the turn of the XIX and XX centuries. the development of newspapers pushed the magazine from the first place in the press system. Talk about the death of this type of publications was heard everywhere. The journal Sovremennaya Zhizn wrote in 1906 that thick journals are “too slow and too cumbersome to be the main channels of ideological currents in acute periods of social life. True, their solidity and thoroughness in working out the tasks of the time are much higher than the methods of the frivolous press. But when the center of gravity of interests is not in theoretical, but in practical creativity, as long as there is no voluntary or involuntary lull, reaction, this solidity helps them little”7.
The main reproach to the thick magazine is its slowness and cumbersomeness. But there were other reasons for the decline in the prestige of publications of this type. The accelerated rhythm of historical development, the complication of social life, the growth of literacy of the population led to a significant increase in the readership, which was interested in a wider range of not only social, but also scientific and cultural problems. The thick magazine, for all its versatility, no longer met all the requirements of readers. For example, interest in scientific problems has increased significantly, especially since the scientific and technological progress of the early 20th century. contributed to this. Thick magazines noticed this, at the turn of the century the role of encyclopedic material increased, much attention was paid to the problems of education and enlightenment. For a fairly short time, journals again became encyclopedic. But a significant differentiation of sciences, interest in the natural sciences - mathematics, chemistry, medicine, etc. - brought to life a large number of specialized publications for trained readers and popular science for those interested. "Bulletin of knowledge", "Bulletin and library for self-education", "Knowledge for all", "Around the world", "Nature and people" in the XX century. fully solved encyclopedic problems.
Before the first Russian revolution, as well as in 1905-1907. the development of events forced thick magazines to focus again on understanding what was happening. At this time, almost all the press was political, and magazines acquired a journalistic character. But the development of political newspapers, especially party organs, was a serious competition for the journal.
Another new phenomenon of life was reflected in the fate of the thick magazine - the emergence of new literary trends and schools that caused a great public response and exacerbation of the literary struggle. To solve complex aesthetic issues, those that appeared at the very end of the 19th century were more suitable. “manifesto magazines”, “World of Art”, “New Way”, “Scales”, etc. Artistic works began to be published not in magazines, but in various almanacs issued by numerous publishing houses, around which writers of different directions were grouped. The collections of the publishing houses Znanie, Rosehip, Northern Flowers, Scorpion and many others made it possible to show their work without the ideological "additive" introduced by the direction of the magazine. Fiction, its best examples, also gradually left the cover of the traditional edition, as it became cramped there. This does not mean that thick magazines were completely left without good fiction after the revolution of 1905-1907. many Russian writers again returned to solid publications readable by the intelligentsia, even tried to give them a predominantly literary character, but in the years preceding the revolutionary upheavals of 1917 this process “did not go.” During the period of class struggles, the First World War, revolutions, journalistic articles came to the fore. Theatrical and art reviews are leaving the thick magazine: the development of theater and fine arts, the complication of aesthetic disputes and in these areas contribute to the formation of special publications - theatrical, artistic, musical, etc.
The so-called "Thick Journals" are essentially literary monthly publications that regularly publish novelties of literature before being published as a separate volume. Many citizens collected entire subscriptions of such journals, creating collections from them.AT USSR such "thick" magazines should include: " Youth", "Don", "Star", "Ural", "Siberian Lights", "Foreign Literature", "Friendship of Peoples", "Our Contemporary", "Moscow", "Neva", "Banner", "October" , "New World". Also in the kiosks of "Soyuzpechat" one could find small-format "thick" magazines, such as: "Change", "Young Guard", "Aurora".
"Thick" magazines, perhaps not to be confused with other publications. Simple magazines in USSR was also enough: Soviet Union","Spark","Crocodile","Peasant Woman","Worker". They appeared on the shelves in different ways, either weekly or once a month.
AT USSR there were also a great many interest magazines for different ages: Journalist","Driving","Sports Games","Health","Chemistry and Life","Knowledge is Power","Technology of Youth","Science and Life","Science and Religion","Pioneer, Bonfire ", "Young naturalist", "Young technician", "Around the world".
Magazine "New World""under the editorship of Tvardovsky himself in 1962 In the year he published the wonderful story "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich", as well as three more stories by Solzhenitsyn - "The Incident at the Krechetkovka Station", "For the Good of the Cause", "Matryona Dvor".
In the magazine "October" Rybakov's novel "Heavy Sand" and Astafyev's story "The Sad Detective" were printed. The works of Mann, Andersen-Neksö, Dreiser, Barbusse, Rolland, Bredel, Feuchtwanger, Paustovsky, Gaidar, Prishvin, Zoshchenko, Olesha, Yesenin, Platonov, Mayakovsky were printed , Nagibin, Moritz, Iskander, Voznesensky, Vasiliev, Baklanov, Akhmadulina, Adamovich.
In "Znamya" magazine"The fall of Paris" by Ehrenburg, "In the trenches of Stalingrad" by Nekrasov, "Young Guard" by Fadeev, "Son" by Antokolsky, which later became a classic, was printed. Also the military prose of Kazakevich and Grossman. Poetic works of Voznesensky, Akhmatova and Pasternak.
In the first years of perestroika, the Znamya magazine began to publish previously banned works by Platonov, Bulgakov, Zamyatin. Sakharov's Memories began to be published.
In the magazine "Neva"The works of Bykov, Dudintsev, Kaverin, Konetsky, Chukovskaya, Gumilyov, Strugatsky, Granin were published.
It was in the "Neva" that readers got acquainted with such works as: "Blinding Darkness" by Arthur Koestler and Robert Conquest's novel "The Great Terror".
In the "thick" magazine "Moscow"The novel "Master and Margarita" by Bulgakov was published (from December to January 1966-1967).
When perestroika began, Karamzin's work "History of the Russian State" was published in this journal, which, remarkably, was not published during the years of Soviet power.
In the "thick" magazine "Youth"published works by Akhmadulina, Okudzhava, Voznesensky, Tikhonov, Yashin, Rozov, Gladilin, Aleksin, Rubin,
Aksenova.
In "Youth" Kuzntsov's novel "Babi Yar" saw the light of day for the first time.
Circulation of "thick" magazines
The so-called "thick" magazines in USSR it was possible to purchase only through a big connection. Despite the fact that, for example, the circulation of such a magazine as "Youth" exceeded 3 million pieces. In the kiosks of "Soyuzpechat", they were sorted out almost instantly.
Even in libraries, they could not be taken home, but were issued only in the reading rooms.
In our time, such problems cause only a smile. You can subscribe to any "thieves" magazine without any problems. The circulation of modern "thick" magazines has fallen by orders of magnitude when compared with circulation in the USSR. 7200 pieces, and the magazines "Znamya" and "October" have about 5000 pieces. The once popular magazine "Friendship of Peoples" has only 3000 things.
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Thick magazines (Znamya, Novy Mir, Inostranka, etc.) have been a special, traditionally necessary part of our culture for more than two centuries. In Soviet times, thick literary magazines, and. first of all - "New World", were the basis of the literary process, a kind of center around which all literary life revolved.
To date, the main task of these publications is the same as two hundred years ago: so that the writer is not left without a platform for expression, and the reader - without literature.
A thick magazine is not a uniquely Russian phenomenon, but nowhere, except in Russia, did it have so many additional functions. In tsarist Russia, in the absence of other public tribunes, a literary journal became a proto-parliament, a spokesman for political and social ideas, and formed an environment. In the post-Stalin years in the USSR, magazines were a channel "for the release of steam" - in the form of a "permitted opposition" magazines could write about what was not talked about on TV and did not write in Pravda. Magazines were catalysts for changes in society: let us recall the Zhdanov decree "On the magazines Zvezda and Leningrad" of 1946, which began the persecution of writers and composers, or the release of "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" in the "New World", which became a symbol thaw.
The circulation of all literary magazines is now very low - in the "New World" 7200 copies, in "October" and "Znamya" less than 5000, in "Friendship of Peoples" - 3000. Compared to what it was before, this is very small. Today, most newsrooms remember with envy the millions of copies in the 1980s. However, the current seclusion has its advantages. The editor-in-chief of October, Irina Barmetova, says: "We are not needed, they don't notice us? Well, they don't. But we are honest with the reader and with ourselves, we are not subjected to either ideological or market censorship - this is already quite a lot." This thesis can be developed: did millions of readers leave? - But the most devoted, real ones remained. Few people read? - On the other hand, authors should not make humiliating compromises: simplify, flirt with the reader, "write clearly and concisely."
On the site "Journal Hall", which contains all the online versions of magazines, they are read by 8 thousand people a day, 240 thousand a month, this is not so little.
As a rule, thick magazines have three main sources of income. The main one is a subscription, and not only in Russia. They are signed by the largest libraries, philological departments and faculties of Slavic studies all over the world. The second is state subsidies: as a rule, they make up 20 percent of the journal's budget. In recent years, the Ministry of Communications has given money not for the magazine at all, but for the support of "socially significant topics." In the provinces, a thick magazine often exists entirely at the expense of the state - for example, the magazine "Ural" is financed from the budget of the Sverdlovsk region.
The third source is own funds and private funds. Contrary to popular belief, fat magazines do not have sponsors or benefactors. With rare exceptions: "Foreigner" is helped by the Yeltsin Foundation, "Friendship of Peoples" - "interstate fund "Humanitarian Cooperation"". The rest of the money the magazines earn themselves. The practice of special numbers is widespread: for example, "Foreigner" issues issues entirely devoted to the literature of a particular country - it also buys out part of the circulation. Special editions of "Friendship of Peoples" dedicated to the literature of Georgia, the Baltic states and Ukraine were purchased by diasporas and cultural centers at the embassies. The magazine "Moskva" practices special issues dedicated to the writers' organizations of the province, which pay for them.
The main paradox of thick journals today is that, despite their "invisible", underground existence, they still have a major influence on literature and society in Russia. Often - the very fact of its almost mythical existence. This is a unique experience of uncensored life, a kind of alternative to market culture. They proved their loyalty to literature by sacrificing fame and comfort in order to do what they love. In a broad sense, they abandoned the temptations of modernity - once again proving that literature in Russia is more valuable than money. A rare, almost impossible case in our time. To be published in "thick" is still very prestigious even for a circulation author: it is a kind of blessing of the caste of professionals, a pass to great literature. Today everyone can print a book - but not everyone can get published in Novy Mir or Znamya, or at least be reviewed.
Now a thick literary magazine is perhaps the most optimal means of delivering the latest Russian literature to a reader who lives far from Moscow. Especially if we talk about a middle-aged reader who does not use the Internet. Only from thick magazines does he learn what is really happening now in prose, poetry, literary criticism.
If you imagine that literary magazines have disappeared, it will turn out to be a real cultural disaster. Of course, at the first moment, society will not feel this, but for literature it will be a complete collapse, because genres that are absolutely necessary for it will disappear. Well, imagine that only novels will remain ... but what about essays, stories, essays?
The Central City Library subscribes to the magazines "New World", "October", "Znamya", "Roman-gazeta".
Alexander Ebonaidze, editor-in-chief of Friendship of Peoples, commented on literary magazines: "Just as the human body needs a grain of silver, without which it could not exist, so society needs thick magazines - even if society does not notice them - as a guarantee against degradation."
The financier Dmitry, having read Russian literature of the 19th century and obsessed with a passion for power and greed, like a negative prototype of a gentleman from Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, or even Nekrasov, bought a plot of land one hundred and fifty kilometers from the capital and built a luxurious house with outbuildings, a kennel, a barn, a stable, and twenty-five hastily put together huts. He hired serfs in the surrounding collective farms. They signed a contract printed on a laser printer. The whole way of life on his estate corresponded to the original of the middle of the last century, plus an annual remuneration to employees - two thousand dollars for each family member. Already on the second day of the new era, the lordly mayhem begins in the village. "His wild amusements largely followed the historical tradition, subtracted from the great Russian literature, which had a detrimental effect on Dmitry's non-standard psyche." By "wild fun" is meant the flogging of the guilty peasants, and the unlimited violence of the master and his wife over the yard girls, and the home theater with the only play "Woe from Wit" ... But now, according to the canons, St. George's Day is coming. The new Russian gentleman arranges a folk festival: three buckets of vodka for peasants, two buckets of port wine for women, songs, dances. According to the granary book, he calls out the peasants and pays by the capitation. The next morning, it turns out that all the serfs have extended their contracts for another year. And three years later, the serfs formed a "new self-consciousness" and they began to treat master Dmitry as a father - strict, but fair ...
After such a plot, a documentary essay by Boris Ekimov on a similar topic called "Near the Old Graves" with quoting extracts from the protocol of the board of the collective farm "Victory of October" dated July 7, 1997 is perceived almost as a parody of reality: "... winter wheat has almost disappeared completely...", "there is no fuel...", "to ask the district administration to defer debt repayment"...
Let's skip Elmira Kotlyar's poems and read two stories by Grigory Petrov. One about the swamp priest. Another, more fun, is about the unemployed Shishigin and his wife, who went to the circus...
Poems by Jan Holtzman.
In the section "Far - Close" - continuation of the publication of fragments from the diaries of literary critic, publicist and culturologist Alexander Vasilyevich Dedkov (1934-1994). "Desalted Time" is a rather boring story about the writer's life in Soviet times.
Under the heading "Publications and communications" - the next chapters of Vitaly Shentalinsky's book "Slaves of Freedom". In particular, "Shards of the Silver Age" is devoted to a conscientious analysis of the relationship between the philosopher Berdyaev and the Soviet authorities.
Let the lovers of literary criticism enjoy the studies of M. Butov and D. Bak, or at least get acquainted with their reflections on two modern examples of "super-narration", which are the "Alexandria Quartet" by the Englishman Lawrence Darrell and the camp saga of our compatriot Yevgeny Fedorov.
In my favorite for some time now heading "Reviews and Reviews" are published:
Dmitry Bavilsky's review of Oleg Ermakov's novel "The Trans-Siberian Pastoral";
Olga Ivanova's review of a good book of poems "Sky in subtitles" by poetess Yulia Skorodumova.
Vitaly Kalpidi will soon read a review of his collection of poetry "Eyelashes", written by his countryman Vladimir Abashev. Will it comfort him? After all, the Apollon Grigoriev Prize ended up in the hands of his colleague in the shop ...
The issue ends with a list of 1997 literary magazine award winners. And below, in a box, - "From the annals of the Novy Mir": 70 years ago in # 5 for 1928, the publication of the second part of Maxim Gorky's "Life of Klim Samgin" began.
"Our Contemporary"
On the cover of the magazine - its emblem, the image of the main symbol of civil insubordination - a monument to Minin and Pozharsky. Let me remind you that the editor-in-chief of the magazine is Stanislav Kunyaev. The circulation of the publication is 14,000 copies, which is quite a lot.
The May issue opens with poems by war participant Viktor Kochetkov and continues with the second book of Mikhail Alekseev's novel "My Stalingrad". The author recently turned eighty years old.
Alexander Kuznetsov also wrote about the war. But about the recent war, the Chechen one, in which he participated. In the photo - a man in a black robe.
We've been betrayed again, folks! / Again we abandoned our own. / Throwing machine guns over his shoulders, / let's remember for three!
The war is over. She was forgotten, / As my country forgets everything. / Who became a general, who was killed, / Who drank away all the orders on an empty stomach. /
A selection of poems by Gleb Gorbovsky. The continuation of Ernst Safonov's novel "Get Out of the Circle" begins with the phrase: "Avdonin returned home from the district executive committee at eleven o'clock, and although it was late, his father-in-law appeared right there, with a large bag in his hands." Ending in the next issue.
The first festival of literary magazines was held in Yekaterinburg
Text: Ksenia Dubicheva/RG, Yekaterinburg
Photo from Facebook by Sergei Kostyrko. From left to right: Yekaterinburg writer, deputy of the Sverdlovsk Regional Duma Yevgeny Kasimov, deputy editor-in-chief of the Ural magazine Sergey Belyakov, editor-in-chief of the Oktyabr magazine Irina Barmetova, editor-in-chief of the Znamya magazine, independent Yekaterinburg publisher
In Yekaterinburg, at the festival "Fat Men in the Urals", the leaders of ten thick literary magazines in Russia met. The program of the representative meeting - to discuss the complexities of today's life of "fat men" - was more than completed, but the eternal question "what to do?" I didn't get a clear answer this time either. The combined forces of the editors-in-chief did not resolve the issue of the further fate of the "fat men".
“The once mighty sumo wrestlers, as they depicted the “fat men” on the festival booklets, have long turned into dystrophics who only care about not dying in the Year of Literature. Such sarcasm is redundant,” says Alexander Ebanoidze, editor-in-chief of the Friendship of Peoples magazine.
At the round table "Thick Magazines in the Skinny Years," the leaders of literary magazines noted a catastrophic drop in circulation. But to remedy the situation, methods were proposed, as if drawn from Gogol's Manilov.
“If St. Petersburg magazines were given the salary of at least one second-choice, Zenit player, then these millions of euros would probably be enough to publish the magazine until the end of the century,” calculates Alexander Kazintsev, deputy editor-in-chief of Nashe Sovremennik. - They will tell me that football is a spectacle, and no one reads thick magazines. So they don't watch football very much!
The curator of the Journal Hall, Sergei Kostyrko, explained “on the fingers” how much the fees of writers had fallen:
— In Soviet times, Literary Review paid 400 rubles per sheet (25 typewritten pages or 40,000 characters with spaces. — Note. ed.). If we translate the fee into the price of a loaf of bread, then now this amount is equivalent to 2.5 thousand dollars. No magazine can afford such wages. Therefore, now, in order to get high-quality texts, editors are looking for any motivation - except for financial ones.
Sergei Chuprinin has been running Znamya since 1993, during which time the circulation of the magazine has fallen 400 times. And the reason for this, the editor-in-chief believes, lies not in the quality of literature, not in the effectiveness of management, but in the fact that the reader has changed.
“The country prefers to write rather than read,” says Chuprinin. - Once upon a time, there were ten thousand writers, members of the Union, in the entire Soviet Union. Now the texts of 685,712 poets have been published on the site Poetry.ru. If each of them bought at least one book or magazine - what circulations, royalties and social prestige it would be! And it does not require special sacrifices: the magazine costs as much as three cups of coffee or a pound of sausages.
In his opinion, the reader is in no hurry to change sausages for literature because of the migration from thick magazines to TV or social networks:
- Short, capacious texts of easier perception in the networks are published instantly, and not after four months, as in the "Banner". They can be commented on, deleted, edited - in a word, they can be disposed of. Here's the thing: now the reader becomes the steward of the cultural space.
“A reader and a writer can live without a magazine,” summed up literary critic Leonid Bykov, moderator of the round table. But literature will not survive without a magazine.
It should be noted that the reader has not lost interest in the Great Literature. The festival diagnosed a shortage, if not hunger, for literary events in Yekaterinburg. The halls filled to capacity, where the festival events took place, cannot be called anything other than a “fireman's nightmare”. Let's say that the creative evening of the poet Olga Sedakova was crowded with spectators three times more than the hall can accommodate (there was no scandal, intelligent poetry lovers meekly stood in the stuffy hall for two hours shoulder to shoulder). In the same way, fans of Veniamin Smekhov, who were ready to endure inconvenience for the sake of Russian poetry, “kept watch” in the aisles of the auditorium. So from the point of view of the public, the festival was certainly a success.
Professional meetings did not go so smoothly. The point is, first of all, in the fundamentally different financial models of the activities of magazines in the capital and provincial. The latter exist exclusively on a budgetary basis, at the expense of regional funding, the amount of which depends on the human factor, on the preferences of the regional authorities. So, for example, the content of the magazine "Ural" costs the budget of the Sverdlovsk region eight million rubles annually. In addition, in two tranches this year and next, the journal will receive an additional 4.5 million to increase fees, provide libraries with journals, etc.
The basis of funding for the journals of the capital is made up of grants, which provide, if I may say so, a great deal of freedom of maneuver. Therefore, the proposal to seek firm state guarantees for publications did not find understanding among the metropolitan "fat men".
Next year Yekaterinburg is planning to hold the second festival of thick literary magazines.
