Home – Home – Jornals – Humanitarian sciences in Siberia 2017 number

In the early 1990s traditional literary-art journals in Russia, after the phenomenal surge of popularity in late perestroika years, were in deep crisis. The publication of the “returned literature”, which brought fame to so-called “thick magazines”, began to decline, and their place was taken by dissimilar materials not of the highest artistic level. The economic situation of journals, which were previously subsidized by the state, was also critical. It was particularly noticeable in the provinces, especially in Siberia and the Far East. Traditional Siberian magazines (“Sibirskie ogni”, “Ogni Kuzbassa”, “Altay”, “Yenisei”, “Sibir’”) were on the verge of extinction. The existence of Russian literature that had relied on the journal tradition for many years was under threat. New literary-art magazines - the journals of a “new wave” - saved the situation. They relied on the prevailing Soviet underground and samizdat culture, and were an alternative to the official publications. The journals of the «new wave» managed to unite on their pages all the best being accumulated in informal and semi-formal literature, and brought the modern generation of talented writers in the literary field. These journals had an independent source of funding and existed primarily due to the energy of their creators. Therefore, when by the late 1990s, the position of the “classical” literary journals had stabilized, many journals of the “new wave” ceased to exist, and their authors and editors entered the staff of renowned journals with a rich tradition such as “Sibirskie ogni”. Some of the most vivid (“Den’ i noch’”, “Posle 12”) took place on a par with traditional journals, the other (“Mangazeya”, “Proza Sibiri”) remained in the past as notable manifestations of book culture of their time. Literary landscape leveled off and became more homogeneous, but the journals of the «new wave» had played a key role in shaping the modern map of Russian literature.