Niva (magazine)

Beginning in 1891, as a free supplement to the magazine, collected works of famous Russian and foreign authors (usually classics, 12 books of literary applications per year in good design), as well as 12 books of the Niva Collection per year, oleography , fashion patterns (magazine - Paris Fashion app (12 issues per year), calendars and art albums. Due to the high level of printed works and the low subscription price (as of 1903, one issue - 25 kopecks without delivery, 30 with delivery), the magazine gained popularity and the highest circulation among all Russian magazines.

An annual subscription to the magazine in the 1900s, with all its applications, was unbelievably cheap for print media: in St. Petersburg - 5.50 a year, in Moscow - 6.25, in Odessa - 6.50, in Russia 7 rubles and abroad - 10 rubles .

From the first years of its existence, Niva was the most widespread illustrated publication. So already in 1870 the circulation of Niva amounted to 9 thousand copies, which is twice as much as the circulation of any popular “thick” monthly with solid experience in publishing, whether it be “ Fatherland Notes ”, “ Russian Herald ” or “ Herald of Europe ” . But these are obviously expensive editions. Niva has a different reader, and it outstrips the daily press even in the number of subscribers. So in 1875 18 thousand copies were sold, in 1877 - 30 thousand, in 1878 - 43 thousand, in 1882 - 70 thousand, in 1884 - 90 thousand, in 1886 - 102 thousand, in 1891 - 115 thousand, in 1893 - 120 thousand , and in 1894 the circulation reached already 170 thousand copies - this year Dostoevsky’s Collected Works was a free supplement to Niva.

For Russia, where up to the end of the 19th century, 1,000 subscribers were a common thing, it was an unheard of success. The apotheosis of Niva is the publication of Leo Tolstoy's novel Resurrection . It does not matter for the publisher that the reason for the publication of Leo Tolstoy, who had previously refused the right to print his works to almost all magazines, was Tolstoy’s commercial interest: the income from the publication was intended for transfer to the Canadian Doukhobors . In this ( 1899 ) year, the circulation of the magazine exceeded 200,000 copies. Surprisingly, numerous illustrated magazines, trying to repeat the commercial success of Niva, could not stand the competition. Such is the fate of “World Illustration” , “Twinkle” , “Picturesque Observation” , “North” , “Homeland” , “Novi” , “World Panorama” , etc.

Niva achieved a unique record of pre-revolutionary Russia in 1904 : in the last year of the life of its founder, A.F. Marx, it gained 275 thousand subscribers - this figure was surprising for the semi-literate country that Russia was at the beginning of the 20th century. None of the editions of former Russia was able to surpass the absolute record of popularity: the highest circulation of Gartenlaube magazine was 400,000 copies. accounted for 1875; in 1904, Niva was second only to Illustrated London News (formerly Penny Magazine ) in terms of subscribers. Prior to this, only a few illustrated magazines in England, Germany, France and the USA knew such success.

The years of the revolution made adjustments to reading habits, but Niva remained in its segment the most popular “illustration” until its closure by the new government in September 1918.

Such authors as A.K. Tolstoy , F.I. Tyutchev , P.A. Vyazemsky , D.V. Grigorovich , K.K. Sluchevsky , N.V. Uspensky , L.N. Tolstoy , N S. Leskov , G.P. Danilevsky , A.A. Fet , A.N. Maykov , A.P. Chekhov , Yakov Polonsky , Vladimir Solovyov , K.M. Stanyukovich , D.N. Mamin-Sibiryak , Mirra Lokhvitskaya , A.A. Sergei Gorodetsky , Georgy Chulkov , Kohn tantin Balmont , Konstantin Fofanov , Mikhail Kuzmin , Nikolai Minsky , Nikolai Klyuev , Boris Sadovsky , Fedor Sologub , Taffy , Alexander Green , Boris Savinkov (V. Ropshin), Nikolai Gumilev , Ilya Ehrenburg , SN Sergeev-Tsensky , Alexei Remizov , A.S. Serafimovich , Nicholas Roerich , I.E. Repin , Igor Grabar , A.F. Koni , V.R. Shchiglev .

But the circle of writers of Niva was not exhausted by the named authors. The main authors of the magazine were nevertheless writers who did not have big names, but were very popular among the specific readership of Niva: you. Nemirovich-Danchenko , V. G. Avseenko , F. N. Berg , M. N. Volkonsky , P. P. Gnedich , V. P. Klyushnikov , N. N. Karazin , V. V. Krestovsky , Vsevolod Solovyov , E A. Salias , D. I. Stakheev , I. N. Potapenko , I. I. Yasinsky , V. A. Tikhonov , A. A. Tikhonov , V. Ya. Svetlov .

The editors of Niva were V. P. Klyushnikov , F. N. Berg , M. N. Volkonsky , D. I. Stakheev , A. A. Tikhonov , R. I. Sementkovsky , V. Ya. Svetlov .

Among the artists of the magazine, N. N. Karazin , E. M. Boehm , S. S. Solomko , I. S. Izhakevich , V. A. Taburin , E. P. Samokish-Sudkovskaya , N. S. Samokish , were the most popular. I.N. Pavlov , I.E. Grabar , L.O. Pasternak , etc.

The Niva magazine was the favorite brainchild of A.F. Marx, who headed his publishing house until his death in 1904. In just 48 years of the magazine's existence, 2,500 issues and more than 50 million copies of free applications were published. Largely thanks to Niva, the works of many contemporary authors reached the most remote regions of Russia. “Niva” is one of the most widespread magazines of the pre-revolutionary era; from it one can compose a picture of its life, mores and traditions. It should be noted that contemporaries evaluated the magazine very ambiguously. So the poet Innokenty Annensky in a letter to N. P. Begicheva complained about the banality of romances, "similar to each other like beauties from Niva."

After the death of A.F. Marx, Niva did not remain unchanged. For many years, her editor becomes a ballet-writer, close to the circle of S.P. Diaghilev Valerian Yakovlevich Ivchenko , the literary pseudonym V. Ya. Svetlov . Perhaps thanks to him, all the major literary forces of the Silver Age are somehow presented on the pages of the magazine. The magazine regularly introduces the reader to the latest art exhibitions. Even the Chess review traditional for Niva in these years was carried out by such a significant figure of the “Silver Age” as E. A. Znosko-Borovsky , very much appreciated by V. V. Nabokov . Thus, the magazine, torn by the literary "aristocracy" in the 70-80s of the XIX century for its philistine, bourgeois audience (for example, M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin and the circle of "Domestic Notes" ), becomes quite an "elite" publication and certainly stands out from a multitude of undemanding thin magazines designed for the “motley” reader, that reader who could read it both in the library and in the train car.

In the mid -1960s there was an attempt to restore the issue of the journal with the same name and concept, but it did not last long.

• Zerr spiegel / Mirrors - an archive containing many articles and illustrations from the Niva on Central Asian topics
• Archive of issues of the Niva magazine from 1870 to 1918 on the Runiverse website
• Zhabreva Anna Ernestovna , The history of Russian costume from ancient times to the end of the XVIII century on the pages of the Niva magazine on the Runiverse website