The Magazine Niva. 1899, the publication of Tolstoy's novel " Resurrection ".

The Magazine Niva. 1899, the publication of Tolstoy's novel " Resurrection ".
№ 9 - 15, 17 - 30, 32, 36 - 40. Most issues contain parts of the first publication of Tolstoy's novel Sunday. Many issues are incomplete, magazines are mostly scattered pages. Otherwise good condition. T

Niva is a popular Russian weekly magazine of the mid-XIX-early XX century with appendices.

It was published for 48 years, from the end of 1869 to September 1918 in the publishing house of A. F. Marx in St. Petersburg.

The magazine positioned itself as a magazine for family reading and was aimed at a wide range of readers. The publication published literary works, historical, popular science and various anniversary essays, reproductions and engravings of paintings by contemporary artists. Materials of political and social content were given in a "well-intentioned" spirit and were accompanied by numerous illustrations - until the beginning of the XX century, usually engravings, then photographic reviews.

The pages of Niva publications, including the magazine and appendices, were numbered end-to-end for the subsequent binding of annual sets, the covers of which were sent out by the editorial office. Thus, magazine number one had page 1, and magazine number 51 or 52 (the last of the year) had page 1200.

From the first years of its existence, "Niva" was the most widely distributed illustrated publication. So in 1870, the circulation of "Niva "was 9 thousand copies, which is twice more than the circulation of any popular" Tolstoy "monthly with a solid publication experience, whether it is" Domestic notes", " Russian Bulletin "or"Bulletin of Europe". But these are obviously expensive publications. Niva has a different readership, and it is ahead of even the daily press in terms 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 170 thousand copies — this year the free Supplement to the "Field" was a Collection of works by Dostoevsky.

For Russia, where up to the end of the XIX century 1 thousand subscribers — a common thing, this was an unheard-of success. The apotheosis of " Niva "is the publication of Leo Tolstoy's novel"Resurrection". For the publisher, it does not matter that the background of the publication by Leo Tolstoy, who had previously denied almost all magazines the right to print their works, was in Tolstoy's commercial interest: the revenue from the publication was intended to be transferred to the canadian doukhobors. In this (1899) year, the magazine's circulation exceeded 200,000 copies. It is surprising that numerous illustrated magazines that tried to repeat the commercial success of "Niva" could not stand the competition. This is the fate of the "world illustration", "Ogonka", "Pictorial review", "Severa", "Rodina", "Novi", "world panorama" , etc.

A peculiar record of pre-revolutionary Russia was won by "Niva" 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 XX century. The absolute record of popularity has not been surpassed by any publication of the former Russia: the highest circulation of the magazine "Gartenlaube" in 400,000 copies. the year was 1875; in 1904, the Niva was second only to the Illustrated London News (ex. «Penny Magazine»). Before that, only a few illustrated magazines in England, Germany, France, and the United States had known such success.

The years of the revolution made adjustments to the reader's preferences, but " Niva "still remained in its segment the most popular" illustration " until its closure by the new government in September 1918.