''Ogoniok'' ( rus, Огонёк, Ogonyok, t=Spark, p=ɐɡɐˈnʲɵk, a=Ru-огонёк.ogg; pre-reform orthography: Огонекъ) was one of the oldest weekly illustrated

magazine A magazine is a periodical literature, periodical publication, print or digital, produced on a regular schedule, that contains any of a variety of subject-oriented textual and visual content (media), content forms. Magazines are generally fin ...

s in

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

History and profile

''Ogoniok'' was first issued on (earlier a magazine with the same name was published in 1879–1883). It ceased to be published in 1918 and was re-established in the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

in 1923 by Mikhail Koltsov. The headquarters is in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

. In 1957 the circulation of the magazine was 850,000 copies. The colour magazine reached the pinnacle of its popularity in the

Perestroika ''Perestroika'' ( ; rus, перестройка, r=perestrojka, p=pʲɪrʲɪˈstrojkə, a=ru-perestroika.ogg, links=no) was a political reform movement within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) during the late 1980s, widely associ ...

years, when its editor-in-chief Vitaly Korotich "was guiding ''Ogoniok'' to a pro-American and pro-capitalist position". Those years are the subject matter of the book ''Small Fires: Letters From the Soviet People to Ogonyok Magazine 1987-1990'' (Summit Books, New York, 1990) selected and edited by Christopher Cerf, Marina Albee, and with an introduction by Korotich. The magazine sold 1.5 million copies in 1987 and 4.6 million copies in 1990. In the early 1990s, ''Ogoniok'' was owned by Boris Berezovsky, and its popularity started to decline. It sold 0.2 million copies in 1993. Viktor Loshak, the former editor of '' Moskovskiye Novosti'', took over as editor in 2003. , it was published by the Russian OVA-PRESS

publishing house Publishing is the activities of making information, literature, music, software, and other content, physical or digital, available to the public for sale or free of charge. Traditionally, the term publishing refers to the creation and distribu ...

. At the height of the 2008–2009 Russian financial crisis, in January 2009, the publication was suspended due to an ownership change. After a four-month break, publication of ''Ogoniok'' was resumed on 18 May 2009, by Kommersant Publishing Group. The first issue published by ''

Kommersant (, , ''The Businessman'' or Commerce Man, often shortened to Ъ) is a nationally distributed daily newspaper published in Russia mostly devoted to politics and business. The TNS Media and NRS Russia certified July 2013 circulation of the daily ...

'' is the 5079th ''Ogoniok'' since 1899. In December 2020, release of ''Ogoniok'' was suspended due to financial problems.

References

External links

*
Defunct official website
(archival version)
Archive 1945-1991
{{Authority control Magazines established in 1899 Defunct literary magazines published in Russia Defunct Russian-language magazines Literary magazines published in the Soviet Union Weekly magazines published in Russia 1899 establishments in the Russian Empire Defunct magazines published in Moscow

History and profile

See also

References

External links