first edition
1959-61 · Moscow
by [CHILDREN'S PERIODICALS - SOVIET UNION] Various editors and authors
Moscow: Leninist Communist Youth Union [i.e. Komsomol], 1959-61. Thirty-four original issues of this long-running Soviet children's magazine, comprising a nearly unbroken run for these years, lacking only the February and September issues for 1961. Each issue quarto (25cm) in original pictorial thick-paper wrappers, 64pp per issue; heavily illustrated. Each issue with ink stamp of the American Committee for Liberation Research, but no other institutional markings. Light soil and evidence of use throughout, but overall complete and Very Good. Text entirely in Russian cyrillic.
Kostër, founded in 1936 and still extant, was the longest-running and most popular children's journal of the Soviet period; it is notable for having continued publication even during the Siege of Leningrad. Directed towards primary and middle-school aged readers, and especially to members of the communist youth organization Young Pioneers, the magazine featured brightly-illustrated covers, poetry, fiction, sports articles, puzzles and art by many of the best-known Socialist-Realist painters and illustrators of the period (many of whom, like Vladimir Lebedev and Vladimir Konashevich, had been groundbreaking avant-gardists before their 'rehabilitation' in the Stalin era). The current group of issues, produced at the height of Soviet cold-war rivalry with the West, are especially interesting from the standpoint of juvenile propaganda; the military, athletic, economic and scientific potential of Soviet youth are celebrated in every issue, with the Soviet aeronautical and space programs taking center stage – appropriately so, in an era when the USSR led the world in extra-orbital accomplishments. Unlike some other Soviet children's journals of the period, no version of Kostër was exported to the West. As a result the magazine is somewhat uncommon outside of Russia and the former Soviet bloc; substantial runs of issues, even from this late period, are infrequently offered in the U.S. (Inventory #: 81715)
Kostër, founded in 1936 and still extant, was the longest-running and most popular children's journal of the Soviet period; it is notable for having continued publication even during the Siege of Leningrad. Directed towards primary and middle-school aged readers, and especially to members of the communist youth organization Young Pioneers, the magazine featured brightly-illustrated covers, poetry, fiction, sports articles, puzzles and art by many of the best-known Socialist-Realist painters and illustrators of the period (many of whom, like Vladimir Lebedev and Vladimir Konashevich, had been groundbreaking avant-gardists before their 'rehabilitation' in the Stalin era). The current group of issues, produced at the height of Soviet cold-war rivalry with the West, are especially interesting from the standpoint of juvenile propaganda; the military, athletic, economic and scientific potential of Soviet youth are celebrated in every issue, with the Soviet aeronautical and space programs taking center stage – appropriately so, in an era when the USSR led the world in extra-orbital accomplishments. Unlike some other Soviet children's journals of the period, no version of Kostër was exported to the West. As a result the magazine is somewhat uncommon outside of Russia and the former Soviet bloc; substantial runs of issues, even from this late period, are infrequently offered in the U.S. (Inventory #: 81715)
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