Article

Name: THE STORY OF ENLIGHTENMENT IN «TOMSK SPECTATOR» (1926–1927) IN THE ASPECT OF THE «NEW SPECTATOR» PROBLEM

Authors: E. N. Proskurina

Institute of Philology of the Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russian Federation

In the section

Abstract: The article investigates the history of now little known magazine «Tomsk Spectator» published in Tomsk in 1926–1927 and analyzes both the materials presented in the magazine and its avant-garde styling. The research discloses the versatile subject area of the magazine which concerned theatre and musical life of the region and the country in whole as well as the issues of the development of film industry in the USSR and abroad. However, the author observes that the magazine practically lacked critical articles, detailed professional polemics about theatre production, struggle between «right» and «left» movements. This peculiarity reveals the provincial nature of the periodical, its dependence on the readers and spectators’ audience where the majority belonged to so called «new», or inexperienced spectators. This circumstance helps to explain the general publishing principle of the magazine implying that the purpose of the spectators’ enlightenment prevailed over the purpose of their ideological education, open artistic propaganda, and agitation. The magazine viewed the situation in the Soviet film industry within the world context. «Tomsk Spectator» published short lists of foreign films and their annotations, the portraits of foreign film stars, curios events on shooting sites, friendly caricatures, etc. When speaking about the Soviet film industry, the magazine marked it as a unique phenomenon of the world level. In the first place, this concerned documentaries with «Battleship Potemkin» by S. Eisenstein as the standard sample. Referring to theatre and musical life of the region, the magazine published the itinerary of guest performances of theatres, symphony orchestras and the leading soloists, showed the educational orientation of theatre and musical companies. All the publications were in forms of short news stories since aimed at mass audience. Because of the same reason the significant volume of publications was devoted to theatre libretti. Thus, «Tomsk Spectator» was a noticeable event among the regional periodicals. No substitution was found after the edition’s closing. The short history of the magazine was to a certain extent compensated by the abundance of its publications. This could not help influencing on educating and enlightening «new spectators» which was one of the main cultural purposes in the USSR in the 1920s – 1930s.

Keywords: siberian periodicals, magazine «tomsk spectator», theatrical journalism of the 1920s, soviet newsreels of the 1920s, avant-garde poetics

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