''Ogoniok'' ( rus, Огонёк, 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 publication, generally published on a regular schedule (often weekly or monthly), containing a variety of content. They are generally financed by advertising, purchase price, prepaid subscriptions, or by a combinatio ...

s in

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-ei ...

History and profile

''Ogoniok'' has issued since . It was re-established in the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

in 1923 by Mikhail Koltsov. The headquarters is in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

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

Perestroika ''Perestroika'' (; russian: links=no, перестройка, p=pʲɪrʲɪˈstrojkə, a=ru-perestroika.ogg) was a political movement for reform within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) during the late 1980s widely associated wit ...

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 ''Moskovskiye Novosti'' (russian: Московские новости, ''Moscow News'') was a Russian-language daily newspaper in Russia relaunched in 2011. The paper - by then a 'youth-oriented' free sheet handed out at more than 850 places ar ...

'', took over as editor in 2003. , it was published by the Russian OVA-PRESS publishing house. At the height of the

2008–2009 Russian financial crisis The Great Recession in Russia was a crisis during 2008–2009 in the Russian financial markets as well as an economic recession that was compounded by political fears after the war with Georgia and by the plummeting price of Urals heavy crude o ...

, 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'' 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 Literary magazines published in Russia Russian-language magazines Literary magazines published in the Soviet Union Weekly magazines published in Russia 1899 establishments in the Russian Empire Magazines published in Moscow

History and profile

See also

References

External links