The Contemporary (Russian journal)

The Contemporary (Russian journal) is a long-running Russian literary and political periodical established in the early Soviet era that has published fiction, criticism, essays, and polemics by prominent figures from the Russian Empire, Soviet Union, and Russian Federation. It served as a forum for novelists, poets, playwrights, and intellectuals associated with varying political currents including Slavophiles, Marxists, Bolsheviks, dissidents, and post-Soviet publicists, featuring works connected to major cultural institutions and literary movements. The journal engaged with debates surrounding authorship, censorship, and cultural policy, fostering dialogues with publishing houses, theaters, academies, and literary prizes.

History

Founded in the aftermath of the Russian Civil War alongside publications linked to Lenin, Bolsheviks, and the emerging Soviet press landscape, the journal traced a trajectory through the 1920s debates involving figures connected to Maxim Gorky, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Alexander Blok, and Ivan Bunin. During the 1930s it navigated the constraints of policies influenced by Joseph Stalin and institutions such as the Union of Soviet Writers while intersecting with cultural directives from bodies like the People's Commissariat for Education and the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. In the postwar period it published material related to authors entwined with events such as the Zhdanov Doctrine and controversies featuring personalities linked to Andrei Zhdanov, Boris Pasternak, Anna Akhmatova, and Marina Tsvetaeva. The Khrushchev Thaw connected the journal to debates tied to the 20th Party Congress, and writers associated with Nikita Khrushchev, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Iosif Brodsky, and Andrei Sakharov appeared in or were discussed in its pages. During perestroika the periodical engaged with reformers linked to Mikhail Gorbachev, Alexander Yakovlev, Boris Yeltsin, and cultural institutions such as the Gorbachev Foundation. In post-Soviet Russia it encountered new publishing realities involving media groups, legal frameworks like the 1993 Constitution of the Russian Federation, and intellectual networks around Vladimir Putin, Dmitry Medvedev, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, and various regional cultural centers.

Editorial Profile and Mission

The editorial line combined literary criticism, creative writing, and commentary by contributors associated with institutions including the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow State University, Saint Petersburg State University, and theatrical venues such as the Maly Theatre and Bolshoi Theatre. Its mission claimed to balance perspectives linked to schools represented by Russian Formalism, Socialist Realism, Acmeism, and later Postmodernism while responding to directives originating from organs like the Soviet Ministry of Culture and later ministries of the Russian Federation. Editors and editorial boards often included figures connected to the Institute of World Literature (IMLI), literary unions such as the Writers' Union of Russia, and cultural councils tied to municipal administrations in Moscow and Saint Petersburg. The periodical maintained relationships with publishers comparable to Pravda, Izvestia, and independent presses, and engaged with awards including the State Prize of the Russian Federation and the Bunin Prize through critical discussion and coverage.

Notable Contributors and Works

Across decades the journal printed fiction, essays, and criticism by writers and intellectuals linked to famous names: authors related to Fyodor Dostoevsky's legacy, commentators on Leo Tolstoy, poets engaged with the traditions of Alexander Pushkin and Mikhail Lermontov, and modernists in the orbit of Vladimir Nabokov. Contributors included personalities associated with Maxim Gorky, Boris Pasternak, Anna Akhmatova, Marina Tsvetaeva, Osip Mandelstam, Nikolai Berdyaev, Daniil Kharms, and Andrei Bely. Later decades featured essays and excerpts connected to Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Varlam Shalamov, Joseph Brodsky, Viktor Shklovsky, Yevgeny Zamyatin, Isaac Babel, Andrei Platonov, and critics or editors tied to Dmitry Likhachyov, Mikhail Bakhtin, Tatyana Tolstaya, Vladimir Voinovich, and Vasily Grossman. The journal serialized or reviewed works associated with novels, plays, and poems linked to institutions like the Moscow Art Theatre and publishers such as Progress Publishers and featured cultural reportage concerning exhibitions at the Tretyakov Gallery, performances at the Mariinsky Theatre, and film criticism referencing directors tied to Sergei Eisenstein and Andrei Tarkovsky.

Political and Cultural Influence

The periodical functioned as a crossroads for debates involving politicians and intellectuals connected to Leninist-era policy, Stalinist cultural programming, and later reformist platforms tied to Perestroika and Glasnost. It frequently intersected with dissident networks associated with Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Andrei Sakharov, Lyudmila Alexeyeva, and human-rights organizations such as Memorial. During transitional moments it published commentary tied to electoral politics involving figures like Boris Yeltsin, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, Gennady Zyuganov, and Grigory Yavlinsky, and engaged in public debates over legislation such as the 1993 Constitution of the Russian Federation and state cultural funding. Cultural influence extended to the shaping of canon debates that implicated institutions like the Russian Academy of Sciences, literary prizes including the Andrei Bely Prize, and festival circuits such as events curated by the Moscow International Film Festival and the White Nights Festival in Saint Petersburg.

Publication Details and Distribution

Published on a monthly schedule, the journal's production involved editorial offices in cultural capitals linked to Moscow and sporadically Leningrad/Saint Petersburg, with distribution networks that passed through state-controlled outlets such as Goskomizdat in Soviet times and commercial distributors, bookstores like those associated with Znanie and private retail chains in post-Soviet markets. Circulation varied from Soviet-era subscriptions managed by trade unions and educational institutions such as Moscow State Pedagogical University to market-driven sales involving media conglomerates and online platforms administered by cultural foundations like the Gorbachev Foundation. It engaged in translation exchanges and reprints via foreign publishers connected to Foreign Languages Publishing House and cooperated with diasporic journals produced by émigré communities in cities such as Paris, Berlin, and New York.

Category:Russian literary magazines Category:Russian-language periodicals Category:Magazines established in 1922