Private Periodicals in the USSR in the 1920s

For citation: Babjuk M.I. (2020) K voprosu o chastnoj periodicheskoj pechati v SSSR v uslovijah 1920-h godov [Private Periodicals in the USSR in the 1920s]. Mediaskop 1. Available at: http://www.mediascope.ru/2597 

DOI: 10.30547/mediascope.1.2020.1

@ Maksim I. Babjuk

PhD in Philosophy, Associate Professor at the Chair of Media Theory and Economics, Faculty of Journalism, Lomonosov Moscow State University (Moscow, Russia), mbabyuk@yandex.ru

Abstract

The article considers the general features of the development of private periodicals in the USSR during the NEP period on the basis of archival data introduced into scientific circulation. Based on previously known as well as new data, the author argues that the private press was not completely liquidated after the Bolsheviks came to power in 1917, but continued to be published in small quantities during the years of War communism. After transition to NEP and permission of the state for private commercial activity, there was a rapid growth and distribution of private publishing houses and periodicals in Soviet Russia, and it is worth noting a wide variety and a large number of the released editions. At the same time, accurate data on the number of private publishers in the country and on the volume and nature of their products is not available, since the system of control and accounting was established in the early 1920s rather poorly.

Despite the fact that private publishing in the USSR of the NEP period was mainly associated with book production, an impressive number of private periodicals existed during this time. The peak of their development occurred in the first half of the 1920s, after which the Soviet authorities took a course to gradually reduce private activity in this area.  
  Nevertheless, private periodicals continued to play a fairly prominent role, especially in the country's major political centres, Moscow and Leningrad, until the late 1920s. At the same time, the periodical press also had a diverse character, including a wide range of thematic areas throughout the entire period.

Keywords: periodical press, private media, USSR, NEP.

Notes

Fogelevich L.G. (1927) Dejstvujushhee zakonodatel'stvo o pechati. Sistematicheskij sbornik [Current Press Legislation. Digest]. Moscow: NKJu RSFSR Publ.

Gazetnyj i knizhnyj mir. Spravochnaja kniga [World of Newspapers and Books. Reference Book]. Vol. 2. Part 1. Moscow: Dvigatel' Publ., 1925. Pp. 309‒310.

RGAE (Russian State Archives of Economics). F. 7927. Op.1: D. 35. L. 10, L. 11; D. 192. L. 21; D. 245. L. 49−120; L. 52, 54; L.49−56, 67−68, 76−120.

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