“Opening the era”: to the 100th anniversary of establishing Soviet weekly magazine "Ogonyok"
Authors:   Russian University of Transport, Tantsevova A. V. 
Published: June 2024

Introduction. One of the modern directions of historical science is the study of the transformation of public consciousness in the conditions of a transitional state of society, a reflection of which is the periodical press. The illustrated socio-political and literary and artistic weekly magazine of universal content “Ogonyok”, discussed in the article, on the one hand, can serve as an indicator of public consciousness, and on the other, acts as an instrument of its formation in the conditions of the formation of the official ideology of the Soviet state in the 1920s. A little studied period in the history of the magazine is the 1920s. The purpose of the article is to reconstruct, on the basis of various historical sources, the history of the creation and functioning of the Soviet weekly Ogonyok in the first post-revolutionary decade, to consider its role and place in the system of Soviet periodicals. Materials and methods. The study is based on the principles of historicism, objectivity, and comprehensiveness, the consistent application of which made it possible to analyze the history of the emergence and development of the Ogonyok magazine and determine its role in the socio-cultural life of the country. Historical-comparative methods of historical research were used, which made it possible to consider the magazine “Ogonyok” in comparison with other periodicals of the era; historical and genetic, trace changes in the content of the Ogonyok magazine at different stages of its existence. Historical and typological methods aimed at identifying the main genres of the magazine’s publications revealed the features of their evolution and the degree of influence on society as practices of transmitting new values. Sources of personal origin and critical reviews of contemporaries dedicated to the magazine “Ogonyok” are introduced into scientific circulation. Analysis. The article examines the stages of development of the mass Soviet weekly in the first post-revolutionary decade, analyzes its transformation into the largest publishing house of mass periodicals at the turn of the 1920s-1930s. The magazine "Ogonyok", revived during the NEP period, on the initiative of the Soviet journalist M.E. Koltsov combined the features of a daily newspaper and a thick monthly. This determined a special style and methods of work, requiring a change in the forms of presenting materials, genre and thematic diversity. All this was reflected in a carefully thought-out journal strategy, which consisted of searching for forms of presenting material and high demands on the genre characteristics of publications. “Ogonyok” became the first weekly publication on which pages a new genre appeared - photo essay. Visual genres were actively used, namely a photo report, a photogram, a photo note, a photo cover and a photo collage. Using a variety of text and visual genres, Ogonyok conveyed the new values of the Soviet state (patriotism, collectivism, atheism, social optimism, the cult of work, the cult of a healthy body) with the help of which a new model of human relations was formed. An integral feature of the magazine was the constant search for operational forms and methods of organizational and mass work of the editorial team, improvement of the publication distribution system (book supplements, libraries, contractors and distributors, communication with the editorial offices of local newspapers, etc.). Results. The conducted research allowed us to conclude that during the NEP period, the editorial board of the magazine was able, using legal and financial instruments, to carry out organizational changes, which resulted in the formation of the JointStock Publishing Company Ogonyok. The magazine became the basis for a new publishing house, whose differentiated approach was expressed in the production of accessible mass editions for various reader groups. The renaming of the Joint-Stock Publishing Company Ogonyok into Magazine and Newspaper Association in 1931 completed the long-standing process of expanding the publishing activities of Ogonyok, and also met the objectives of creating information and propaganda potential in the country.