The first specialized editions meant for children appeared in the Russian Empire in the second half of the 18th century. It was the first magazine titled «Children's reading for soul and mind». The magazine was published through 1785–1789 as a weekly supplement to the «Moscow Vedomosti» newspaper. The magazine greatly influenced the further development of this kind of literature in Russia.
N. Dmitriev-Orenbur. Sketch of the cover of the “Children's Friend” magazine [zoom (56k)]
The children’s magazine, by the opinion of the founder of the first such magazine in Russia, N.I. Novikov, should «bring up good citizens», bring educational and pedagogical ideas into life, and cultivate honesty, magnanimity and nobleness in the young readers. Jokes, some considerations about the nature together with scientific articles, stories and fables were placed on the pages of these magazines.
After the first Novikov’s magazine, children’s periodicals one by one began to appear in the early 19th century: «The Friend of the Youth and of People of Any Age», «The Children’s Friend», «New Children’s Reading».
ôhe magazine «The Children’s Friend», published from 1807 to 1815 by N. Nevzorov, being close to the educational ideas of Novikov of «promoting the education of hearts and minds», was rather boring. The attitude of critics to the didactic orientation of «The New Children’s Reading» (1821–1824), published by a writer, Sergey Glinka, was ambiguous. The man thought that a perfect mean of the children’s education was the simple native language usage. His and his magazine merit was in the simplification of the Russian literary language. Together with working in the magazine, Glinka invented a new genre of the children’s literature, «the historical story». By publishing in his magazine «Russian Historical and Moralizing Stories» of his own composition Glinka presented true historical figures to the young readers. He brought to the youngsters the knowledge of the Russian patriarchal life and the events of the ancient past. After him, other authors successfully worked in this new genre in other children’s periodicals.
Magazines for girls, «The Asterisk» (1842–1863) and «The Beams» (1850–1860), were the first private periodicals. Their owner was Alexandra Osipovna Ishimova, who did a lot for the development of the children’s literature in Russia. The author of «History of Russia in Stories for the Children», Ishimova, became mostly popular in the 1840¬s years. Transforming «History of the Russian State» by N. Karamzin into a form easily perceived by the children, Ishimova combined entertaining character and seriousness of a historical study. Pushkin admired the writer: «I have unintentionally opened yours «History in Stories» and got involuntary involved in reading. This is how one must write!»
Cover of the “Zadushevnoye Slovo” (Cordial Word) magazine. St. Petersburg. 1884 [zoom (62k)]
The forms of narration of the new magazines were also new: conversation with the reader, conversation of children with their mother, correspondence of children and «The Traveler’s Daybook», which allowed travelers to share the impressions with the readers. Ishimova developed a precise structure of contents for the «Asterisk» magazine. Each issue contained the following sections: literature (stories, verses), science (sketches from history, geography), new books, and materials for the smallest readers. An overall objective of the Ishimova magazines was education of future mothers and housemistresses.
In 1869, «The Children’s Reading» magazine was published in St.Petersburg by A. Ostrogorsky. According to the critics, all the best features of the children’s periodicals of the past were concentrated in this magazine. Each issue contained a story, a sketch about the animal life and the nature, the advice to gardeners-beginners, the page for tutors and parents and the book review. The editor aspired to provide his readers a maximum of helpful information; also a number of games and riddles for the development of intelligence was presented in each issue.
The evolution of the children’s magazines passed a way from abstract reasoning about good and evil, from moral considerations to the real reflection of life, whether it was politics, science or art. íore than hundred magazines was issued in Russia for children of various ages over the period from the end of the 18th century till 1917, and all of them beared the idea of the first Russian publisher of such magazines N. Novikov — «to bring up good citizens».
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