Zvezda (magazine)
Zvezda () is a Russian literary magazine published in Saint Petersburg since 1924. It began as a bimonthly, but has been monthly since 1927. History The first issue of Zvezda appeared in January 1924, with Ivan Maisky as editor-in-chief. Katerina Clark writes, in a discussion of the new journals founded at this time:Unlike Moscow, Petrograd was given only one "thick" journal, the Star (Zvezda), which was less important and had a smaller circulation than its Moscow counterparts, which were thus able to lure away the more successful or acceptable Petrograd writers.... [Zvezda] functioned as a medium through which fringe figures on the left (proletarian extremists) and the right (such as Pilnyak, Pasternak, and Mandelshtam) could publish. While this situation afforded Petrograd the role of the more honorable, less compromised city, to some it seemed the town of the has-beens. Aside from the authors mentioned by Clark, in its early years Zvezda published Maxim Gorky, Nikolay Zabolotsky, Mikhail Zoshchenko, Veniamin Kaverin, Nikolai Klyuev, Boris Lavrenyov, Konstantin Fedin, Vladislav Khodasevich, and Yury Tynyanov, among others. It survived the difficult circumstances of the Siege of Leningrad, and after the war published works by such writers as Vera Panova, Daniil Granin, Vsevolod Kochetov, and Yury German. However, it was severely criticized during the Zhdanovschina cultural attacks of 1946 for publishing Zoshchenko and Anna Akhmatova. Today it is collectively owned by its editorial staff. Its regular sections are "Russia and the Caucasus," "Philosophical commentary," "Memoirs of the 20th century," "People and fate," and "Prose and verse." Once a year it publishes a special issue dedicated to a prominent author or phenomenon. Editors-in-chief 1924 — Ivan Maisky 1925-1926 — Georgy Gorbachev 1926-1928 — Petr Petrovsky 1929-1937 — Yury Libedinsky 1939-1940 — Georgy Kholopov 1945-1946 — Vissarion Sayanov 1946-1947 — Aleksandr Egolin 1947-1957 — Valery Druzin 1957-1989 — Georgy Kholopov 1989-1991 — Gennady Nikolaev 1992- — Yakov Gordin and Andrey Aryev Circulation 1927 — 5,000 1954 — 60,000 1975-1983 — about 115,000 1987 — 140,000 1989 — 190,000 1990 — 344,000 1991 — 141,000 2005 — 4,300 2006 — 3,400 References External links (in Russian) 1924 establishments in the Soviet Union Bi-monthly magazines Magazines established in 1924 Magazines published in Saint Petersburg Russian-language magazines Literary magazines published in Russia Monthly magazines published in Russia Literary magazines published in the Soviet Union