Pages of children's periodicals. The Presidential Library marking the Day of Russian Press

The Day of Russian Press is celebrated on January 13. It was on this day in 1703 that the issue of the first Russian printed newspaper Vedomosti was published in Moscow by decree of Peter the Great. Initially, the newspaper did not have a permanent headline and bore different names - sometimes Vedomosti Moskovskie, then Rossiiskie vedomosti, and its first issue was called Vedomosti about military and other matters worthy of knowledge and memory that happened in the Moscow state and in other neighboring countries. Peter himself took part in the publication of the newspaper, personally selecting materials for publication, and sometimes even writing texts. At that time, the newspaper did not yet differ in the frequency of publication, and was printed as the material accumulated. The structure of each issue was vague, the headings we were accustomed to were not yet, and the very content of the newspaper was very diverse - information about military operations, the development of industry and trade, successes in science.

If "adult" periodicals appeared at the time of Peter's reforms, then children's periodicals was originated during the reign of Catherine the Great. The first Russian edition for children was published on January 14, 1785; it was a magazine called Children's Reading for the Heart and Mind, created by the Russian educator, journalist and publisher Nikolai Novikov. This magazine was published weekly as a free supplement to Moskovskiye Vedomosti in 1785-1789. The content of the magazine was very diverse, there were published stories, instructive stories, plays, fables, riddles, scientific and educational articles and, of course, fairy tales especially loved by children. The Children's Reading for Heart and Mind published not only the works of Russian authors, but also the best Western European literary works translated by Nikolai Karamzin and other famous writers of that time. Texts for young readers were presented in a lively and entertaining way. And despite the outward modesty of the magazine, as well as the absence of poems and pictures in it, it was popular with children. Even after the journal was closed in 1789, over the course of several decades, many publications and whole issues were repeatedly republished in collections. The famous literary critic Vissarion Belinsky, evaluating the later children's magazines, wrote: “Poor children! We were happier than you: we had Novikov's "Children's reading!", thereby emphasizing the importance and success of the first children's publication in Russia.

After the journal Children's Reading for Heart and Mind, other similar publications began to be published: Friend of Youth (1807-1815), Friend of Children (1809), New Children's Reading (1821-1824) and many others. Their main task remained unchanged - to educate the younger generation of readers.

The next milestone in the history of children's journalism is the post-revolutionary period of the 20th century. Serious upheavals in all spheres of public life could not but affect the development of journalism, in particular for children. The subject matter of the editions has changed, an ideological orientation has appeared. The period of the Soviet period can be called the heyday of children's journalism, which gave the best examples of magazines: Murzilka, Pioneer, Kostyor. The electronic copies of the issues of these publications are available in the electronic collection Domestic periodicals in the Presidential Library’s collections. For example, the magazine Kostyor, familiar to every Soviet schoolchildren, begins its history in 1936, when, on the initiative of the famous children's writer Samuil Marshak, its first issue was published in Leningrad. Since then, the magazine has not ceased to follow its wonderful motto - "To surprise and delight". A retrospective of the Kostyor magazine for middle-aged and older children (1936-1947) is presented on the Presidential Library's portal. The issues of this period published stories, essays and articles on the development of the Soviet state in the first two decades of the 20th century, the geography of the country, the Red Army and the Navy, and the history of the city of Leningrad. During the war years, the magazine became the only children's publication that continued its work in besieged Leningrad.

In the new 2022 year, marked by the 350th anniversary of the birth of Peter I, the Presidential Library, together with the Kostyor magazine, is holding a competition My Peter I dedicated to the first Russian emperor, who laid the foundation for periodicals in Russia.

More information about the competition is available in the regulations at the link https://www.prlib.ru/sites/default/files/u535/polozhenie_o_konkurse_moy_petr_i.pdf.