the greatest of the early Russian icon painters. See also: DIONISY; ICONS; RUBLEV, ANDREI
Cheremeteff, Maria. (1990). “The Transformation of the Russian Sanctuary Barrier and the Role of Theophanes the Greek.” In The Millennium: Christianity and Russia, A.D. 988-1988, ed. Albert Leong. Crest-wood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press.
A. DEAN MCKENZIE
(c. 1340-1410), renowned artist and philosopher.
Theophanes the Greek began his career as an artist in the Byzantine capital, Constantinople. He worked in the media of fresco, egg tempera for panel painting (icons), and tempera for book illustration. In the 1380s he immigrated to Russia, first of all to Novgorod. An important source for his life is a letter written by Hieromonk Ephiphanius to Cyril around 1415. He states that Theophanes was an artist, a sage, and a philosopher. The stone churches he decorated with frescoes include several in Constantinople, Chalcedon, Galata, and Caffa. Altogether, he painted frescoes in over forty churches. In Russia his most important surviving frescoes are to be found in the Church of the Savior of the Transfiguration, Novgorod (1378). He worked swiftly without the use of pattern books. Nor did he mind spectators. As his fame spread, he was invited to Moscow in the 1390s. Among other projects in the 1390s, he painted a panorama fresco of Moscow (nonextant) in the stone palace of Prince
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For more than two hundred years, Russian and Soviet “thick” journals (tolstye zhurnaly)-a term alluding to their usually 200-plus pages per issue -played the role of social and cultural trendsetters. Traditionally, prose works and poetry were first published in such journals and only later as books. Published among the literary works were nonfiction articles and essays on a large variety of topics. Literary reputations were fostered mainly through thick journals. Some, such as the twentieth century’s Novyi mir, were considered more prestigious than others.
Edited by Gerhard Friedrich Mueller of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, the first independent Russian journal was Ezhemesiachnye sochinenya, k pol’ze i uveselenyu sluzhashchie (Monthly Writings Serving Purpose and Enjoyment; 1755-1797). Inspired by the principles of the European Enlightenment, it was followed by an ever- increasing number of similar undertakings on different subjects, includENCYCLOPEDIA OF RUSSIAN HISTORY
THIN JOURNALS
ing literature. Nikolai Karamzin’s Moskovskii Zhurnal (Moscow Journal; 1791-1792) already could count Russia’s leading authors among its contributors.
The early nineteenth century saw another increase in the number of thick journals, most of which were short-lived. However, some boasted sizable circulations; the prestigious Vestnik Evropy (Messenger of Europe) had about 1,200 subscribers; Biblioteka dlia chteniya (Library for Reading) had 4,000; and Otech-estvennye zapiski (Notes of the Fatherland) had close to 4,000. Despite strictly enforced censorship, the leading thick journals managed to develop a recognizable aesthetic and ideological profile. For example, Sovre-mennik (The Contemporary; 1836-1866), founded by Alexander Pushkin, catered to the liberal public, whereas Russkaia beseda (Russian Conversation; 1856-1860) targeted Slavophile readers.
In the aftermath of the 1861 Reforms that included some censorship relief, hundreds of new thick journals emerged, providing a multifaceted forum for Russian public discourse. Most influential were Russkii vestnik (Russian Messenger), in which Ivan Turgenev, Leo Tolstoy, and Fyodor Dostoyevsky published major works, and Russkaia mysl’ (Russian Thought; 1880-1900), to which Vladimir Korolenko, Dimitri Mamin-Sibiriak, Nikolai Leskov, and Anton Chekhov contributed.
By the end of the nineteenth century, illustrated weekly journals outnumbered the thick monthlies. Then the 1917 Bolshevik coup destroyed this pluralistic journalistic scene in less than a year. The New Economic Policy (NEP) of the 1920s reconstituted some variety, but all within a framework of loyalty to the Soviet regime. Thus Krasnaya nov’ (Red New Soil; 1921-1942) in the 1920s was the forum of the less politicized poputchiki (fellow-travelers), whereas Kuznitsa (The Smithy; 1920-1922) belonged to militant proletarian writers.
No other period of Russian history increased- or inflated-the importance of thick journals more than Mkhail Gorbachev’s perestroika, which caused a veritable explosion in circulation, with several journals printing more than a million copies each month. Glasnost transformed decades-old, dogmatic publications into thought-provoking, open intellectual forums. In hindsight, the formation and formulation of diverse viewpoints would have been impossible without journals such as Novy mir (New World; 1925-), Druzhba narodov (People’s Friendship; 1939-), and Znamia (Banner; 1931) on the liberal side, and Nash sovremennik (Our Contemporary;
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RUSSIAN HISTORY
1964-) and Molodaia gvardiia (Young Guard; 1922-) on the conservative.
However, with the meltdown of the Soviet system, thick journals rapidly lost their significance. Despite the press law of August 1, 1990, which formally abolished censorship and gave these journals economic and legal independence, few of them survived commercial pressure, competition against electronic media, and overall cultural disintegration. See also: GLASNOST; INTELLIGENTSIA; JOURNALISM; NEW ECONOMIC POLICY; PERESTROIKA; THIN JOURNALS
Frankel, Edith Rogovin. (1981). Novy mir: A Case Study in the Politics of Literature, 1952-1958. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Ruud, Charles. (1982). Fighting Words: Imperial Censorship and the Russian Press, 1804-1906. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Whereas “thick” journals circulated among the intelligentsia and established a critical forum for political discussion among Russia’s elites, “thin” journals were marketed toward those developing a civic consciousness and awareness of the outside world in post-Great Reform society. Combining the journalistic tradition of specialized, entertaining journals such as the humorous Oskolki (Splinters) or Teatr i zhizn’ (The Theater and Life) for theatergoers with informative and educational features, thin journals helped to give the reading public a broad worldview.
The most successful of these journals was A. F. Marx’s Niva (The Cornfield), founded in 1870. Though Marx was aiming for a family audience, he quickly tapped into the expanding provincial audience, especially schoolteachers and those whom they educated, Russia’s burgeoning middle classes. Offering Russia’s literary classics as supplements, Niva enjoyed a circulation of 200,000 by the turn of the twentieth century. Readers who could not afford even its modest price could still find this and other thin journals in their village libraries.
Eventually, Niva faced competition from other journals that adapted its formula of combining di1541
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dactic and entertaining features. A. A. Kaspari’s Rodina (The Motherland), for example, founded in 1879, appealed specifically to members of the lower classes who desired self-improvement. Two preeminent newspaper publishers also entered the thin journal market, S. M. Propper and I. D. Sytin, both of whom lowered prices and increased the news component. Propper’s Ogonek (The Flame), founded in 1908, ultimately became the most widely circulated of these journals, reaching 700,000 subscribers by 1914. Sytin purchased Vokrug sveta (Around the World) in 1891, and though circulation never topped 50,000, the journal offered a vision of life beyond Russia’s borders. Both of these journals continued publication into the Soviet era, with modified editorial content.
Thin journals stimulated the voracious Russian reading appetite, which the subsequent Soviet government fed with its own variety of thin journals, from the satirical Krokodil (The Crocodile) to the informational Za Rubezhem (Abroad). Despite censorship, the tradition of thin journals helped many Russians develop interest and glean information about the world. See also: GLASNOST; INTELLIGENTSIA; JOURNALISM; NEW ECONOMIC POLICY; PERESTROIKA; THICK JOURNALS
BIBLIOGRAPHY
