“Biblioteka dlya Chteniya” - the first mass magazine in Russia

The article is devoted to the so-called “Smirdin period” in the development of the journal “Biblioteka dlya Chteniya” (“Library for reading”) (XIX century). This is a unique periodical that attracted the attention of many readers: in the first year of the existence of the “Library for Reading,” its circulation reached a colossal figure for that time of five thousand copies, then it reached seven thousand. At the same time, there were many reproaches that the magazine had chosen a commercial direction, preferring to print superficial, mediocre literary works in the interests of generating income. Publishers of the “Library for Reading” were the first among their colleagues to understand that journalism cannot remain aloof from the formation of capitalist relations, and the work of a journalist, as well as a writer, must be well paid. They paid tribute to the role of material incentive in the creative process, which in many respects predetermined the success of the magazine, its longevity.