The content of IR is best captured under the heading ‘something for everyone’. First of all, the magazine consists of a very diverse mix of genres and media, such as news items, photographs, cartoons, artwork, literature (prose and poetry), memoirs and journalist portraits. Secondly, IR has a broad scope as it treats a wide array of topics, ranging from fine arts and literature to sports and politics. Furthermore, these items come from various spheres of interest. As mentioned earlier when discussing the editorial notes, not only émigré and Soviet topics are treated in, but also Western and prerevolutionary items appear in IR. Lastly, both highbrow culture (think of fine arts and high literature) and middlebrow culture (such as fashion, sports and more popular literature) are present.
A typical issue contains:
- a cover with an image, this can be a photography linked to topical events or simply depicting everyday life, but also a cartoon or a work of art;
- advertisements on the backside of the cover from both émigré and Western enterprises;
- a short story on the first pages of the issue, usually one or more additional short stories and sometimes even poems are printed in the issue;
- a cartoon, usually on the third page, by house cartoonist MAD;
- regularly recurring sections;
- stand-alone items: these can be photographs accompanying news items or simply depicting scenes from everyday life, but also more elaborate articles and memoirs;
- ‘dosuga’ (leisure): riddles, crossword puzzles etc. on one of the last pages just before the advertisements;
- advertisements on the last pages of the issue, again from both émigré and Western enterprises.
On the occasion of IR’s two-year jubilee, Sasha Chorny writes the poem Illustrated Russia in which he highlights and praises the journal’s mixed content:
As in Noah’s ark
You find everything in the journal:
A two-headed camel
A fashionable little hat for your aunt, A crime novella
Drenched in two-hundred liters of blood, And a science page –
“How do eyebrows grow…”25
The popular nature of IR’s content, thus, seems a conscious choice, as, according to Chorny, “the average man is power”26. However, although the general tenor of the journal is oriented toward mainstream culture, IR also vouches for highbrow content, Chorny claims:
But for this weekly
Next to fashion and a camel, For dessert you are served Also other selected dishes:
Now the clanking sound of the lyre,
25 “Словно в ноевом ковчеге / Все в журнале вы найдете: / Двухголового верблюда, / Шляпку модную для тети, / Уголовную новеллу / В двести двадцать литров крови, / И научную страничку – / "Как выращивают брови"...” IR 1926-21(54), p. 10.
26 “Обыватель – это сила”. Ibid.
Then exquisite prose27
According to Chorny, this marriage of highbrow and middlebrow content in IR is only natural, as
in the émigré garden
the onion grows side by side with the rose”28.
IR continues this recipe for success throughout its entire run.
Literature
From IR’s very inception, literature is a fixed value: apart from the short story on the first pages, most issues contain several other prose stories and sometimes even poems further on in the issue. Many works are accompanied by illustrations, occasionally also with a photograph of the author. The literature in IR is by Soviet, émigré and foreign authors, very rarely also prerevolutionary works are published. In IR’s early issues, the literary works often belong to household names, but they slowly disappear from the literary pages and give way to less prominent writers (both Russian and foreign), some of which even are unidentifiable today. Although IR thus initially prints high quality literature, it soon goes down a new, more popularizing path.
In addition to short stories of limited length (usually around four pages), IR also publishes serialized fiction, spread over multiple issues. Not only émigré novels are serialized, also Western and Soviet works are published.29 The first novel that appears in IR is King of the Cinema (Korol kinematografa, original title unknown) by French writer Gabriel Bernard, with illustrations by an unspecified artist. The story revolves around the adventures of the so-called “King of the Cinema” Timoleon Piff. The first part in 1926-1(34) comes with a brief introduction by the author himself, in which he states that this is his first work translated to Russian. Only a couple of months later, from 1926-36(96), the next serial publication starts, this time by émigré author Yevgeny Tarussky, and again accompanied by illustrations from an unspecified artist.
27 “Но за то еженедельник / Рядом с модой и верблюдом, / На десерт вас угощает / И другим отборным блюдом: / То бряцаньем звонкой лири, / То изысканною прозой” Ibid.
28 “В огороде эмигрантском / Лук растет бок-о-бок с розой...” Ibid.
29IR does not indicate whether it serializes these novels itself, or whether it copies the episodes from
The adventure novel Legionary Smolich (Legioner Smolich) tells the story of a Russian émigré living in a French village in the Pyrenean mountains who is asked to help solve the mysterious suicide of a compatriot in a weather station high up the mountains.
From 1928-41(178) on, the first Soviet serial appears: A Bright Personality (Svetlaya Lichnost) by writers duo Ilya Ilf and Yevgeny Petrov, with illustrations by Soviet artists Boris Efimov, Konstantin Eliseev, Mikhail Cheremnyx and Vasily Svarog.
Apart from literature as such, IR also devotes pages to literary criticism and reviews. From 1924-8 until 1929-22(211), the section Knizhnaya polka (Book shelf) contains brief reviews of both literary and non-literary works from émigré, Soviet and Western writers, as well as other periodicals and new editions or translations from prerevolutionary works. When Knizhnaya polka disappears from the magazine’s pages, already in the next issue (1929-23(212)), the literary section Literaturnaya nedelya (Literary week) sees the light, written by poet, translator and literary critic Georgy Viktorivich Adamovich (1892-1972). Just as its forerunner, Literaturnaya nedelya discusses a diverse range of works by various authors. While Knizhnaya polka is limited to reviews, Adamovich also addresses broader, more philosophical questions, such as the place of (Soviet/Western/prerevolutionary) literature in emigration; think of Adamovich’s elaboration on the literary supplements cited above.
Humor and satire
Another large part of IR’s content was devoted to humor and satire. From the very outset, cartoons become a fixed value in the newsmagazine and remain so until IR’s final issue in 1939. A cartoon – or comic strip, if you like, as it usually involves a series of drawings – appears nearly weekly on a prominent place in the periodical (generally the third page) and sometimes on the cover as well. These cartoons are mostly made by house cartoonist MAD and tackle topical events or daily phenomena from émigré life, Soviet life and the Western world; from time to time also prerevolutionary Russia and its customs and habits are targeted. Cartoons are also included in the sections Inostranny yumor (Foreign humor) and Sovetsky yumor (Soviet humor). These pages are filled with jokes and drawings by respectively Western and Soviet artists.
Not only visual but also verbal humor in the form of jokes and funny anecdotes or parodies appears in IR. A special case is the section Bumerang. From its first appearance in issue 1925-9(18), Bumerang presents itself as an “Independent Biweekly of Satire and Humor”30. Bumerang indeed has the form of a self-contained magazine within the pages of IR. It consists of two or three pages with parodies of
typical periodical items such as telegrams, interviews, readers’ letters and advertisements. What is more, Bumerang even has its own editor, a certain professor Faddey Simeonovich Smyatkin. In reality, Smyatkin is a fictional character, invented by Sasha Chorny long before IR’s inception in the 1909 poem City tale (Gorodskaya skazka). In this satirical poem, philologist Faddey Simeonovich Smyatkin falls madly in love with a beautiful medical student whose horrible stories about corpses and autopsies quickly take away his interest in her. In issue 1926-45(78), Bumerang announces Smyatkin’s sudden death “in the backroom of the bistro ‘Au rendez-vous des apaches’ due to his systematic abuse of vodka russe and apéritif français”31. His place is taken by a certain Psoy Sysoyevich Kurtsapov de Laperuz, a “PhD in political education and skin diseases”32. These pseudonyms are not the only ones Chorny uses in IR; items signed as Sandro and Turdus (and possibly also others) also trace back to him (Ivashkin & Kirkman 2012: 76). From 1927-6(91) onward, Bumerang disappears from IR’s pages and reappears only once afterwards in 1928-1(138). This time Bumerang appears “under redaction of Leri”33, pseudonym of the writer and journalist Vladimir Vladimirovich Klopotovsky (1883-1944), who already contributed to Bumerang as early as 1926-1(34). Among the many other, still unidentified, pseudonyms in Bumerang are V. Lensky, Ivan Krolik (accompanied by the French translation ‘Jean Lapin’), Matematik, Inkognito, P. de Skriloff, Sol and Krab. Due to this large number of unidentified pseudonyms in Bumerang, it is hard to identity who else is involved in the section.
In the spirit of Bumerang, other “independent newspapers” appear in IR, such as Vyedennoe yaytso (Eaten out egg)34, a “yearly newspaper”35 that appears in four consecutive Easter issues: in 1929-19(208) and 1930-17(258) it appears “under editorship of Vladimir Azov”, and in issues 1931-15(308) and 1932-18(364) “under editorship of Nikodim Shtuchkin”, most likely also a pseudonym but it is not clear of whom. This Nikodim Shtuchkin is also in charge of the riddles section Vechera u Deda-Vseveda (Evenings with Grandfather Know-it-all) and the jokes page Chero i pernila (a mix-up of the words pero-pen and chernila-ink). Another example is the stand-alone
“summer newspaper”36 Akh, kak zharko! (Ah, how hot!) in the 1928 special summer issue, again by Vladimir Azov. In the vein of Bumerang, these “independent
34 The name refers to the Russian phrase "Vyedennogo yaytsa ne stoit", said about something or someone that is not worthy of attention or believe; thus alluding to the humorous content of the section.
35 “Ежегодная газета”. IR 1929-19(208), p. 12.
newspapers” consist of parodied periodical content such as editorial notes, telegrams and advertisements.
Starting from issue 1928-22(159), a new humorist section appears in IR, called Satirikon. It is no coincidence that this section shares its name with the famous prerevolutionary journal of satire and humor that was published in Saint-Petersburg from 1908 until 1914, and the split off journal Novy satirikon, also published in Saint-Petersburg from 1913 until 1918. In the introductory note to the new section, IR states that it “allots Vladimir Aleksandrovich Azov a special page for satire and humor. In memory of the unforgettable Arkady Timofeevich Averchenko and the best Russian satirical journal that was killed by the Bolsheviks, this page will appear under the name Satirikon”37. Also Satirikon takes on the form of a self-contained periodical, treating fictionalized news items from Soviet Russia, the emigration and the west.
Finally, other long-lasting humorist sections are Klyaksy pera (Blots of the pen, from 1924-3 until 1926-7(40)) and Govoryat, chto… (They say that; from 1926-15(48) until 1926-52(85) and returning from 1931-29(322) onward), whose pages are filled with short jokes and anecdotes on various contemporary topics and persons, not only émigré, but also Soviet and Western.
Memoirs and journalist portraits
An important part of IR’s content consists of journalist writings that cover personal accounts of past events (memoirs) or portray past and present-day phenomena (‘ocherki’, which I translate as journalist portraits). These items present various degrees of seriality. Some articles stand on their own and appear only once (although sometimes spread over two or more issues), while other texts form part of a series.
Undoubtedly the most popular memoir series in IR is Memoirs of the Russian Sherlock Holmes (Vospominaniya russkogo Sherloka Kholmsa) by Arkady Frantsevich Koshko (1867-1928), former head of the criminal investigation department of the Moscow police. These recollections are stand-alone stories, sometimes spread over two or more issues, about “the investigation of major criminal offenses, which were sensational at the time in the whole of Russia”38. The series initially ends in issue
3(36), but “considering the interest shown by the public to these memories”39, IR decides to start a second series already in issue 1926-15(48). Koshko’s memoirs remain highly popular and a third and even fourth series follow. By the start of the fourth series, later labelled as the “posthumous series” (posmertnaya seriya), Koshko is dangerously ill and dies only two days later, on December 24 1928. The final episode of his memoirs is published in issue 1929-28(217). Over the course of the second series in 1926, Koshko’s recollections are also published as a book. IR ultimately prints eighty-three episodes of Koshko’s recollections.
The vast success of Koshko’s recollections inspire IR to launch its French counterpart, Memoirs of the French Sherlock Holmes (Vospominaniya frantsuzskogo Sherloka Kholmsa), written by the French police inspector and writer Marie-François Goron (1874-1933):
The protection of the public order, the fight against the criminal world, the methods of this battle, used on both sides, all this always caused a strong, completely understandable public interest.
The talented essays of A.F. Koshko, published in IR, were devoted mainly to the description of the criminal world of Russia and the ways to combat it. The essays of the famous head of the Parisian Investigation Police, Goron, once the terror of the criminal world of not only France, but of all of Europe, are of undoubted interest, both with their fascinating content and liveliness, and with their purely French manner of presentation.40
This series runs from 1928-20(157) until 1928-45(182) and returns a single time afterwards in issue 1929-32(221). The French original is translated by A. Vladin.
Remaining more or less within the same topic is the memoir series by French spy and writer Charles Lucieto on France’s counterintelligence during the First World War.
The series, called Voyna Umov (War of the Minds, original title La Guerre des cerveaux) and published in IR during the first half of 1927, is originally published by Parisian
publishing house Berger-Levrault, which grants IR the exclusive rights to the material, as it mentions explicitly in the introduction to the first episode.
Two shorter memoir series are From the memoirs of a lawyer (Iz vospominaniy advokata, consisting of five episodes published between 1924-3 and 1925-3(12)), in which Russian advocate Nikolay Platonovich Karabchevsky (1851-1925) looks back on some of his most interesting cases, and Theater memoirs (Teatralnye vospominaniya, consisting of nine episodes published between 1926-10(43) and 1927-1(86)), devoted to the accounts of Baron Nikolay Vasilevich Drizen (1868-1935) of his time in the theater world in prerevolutionary Russia.
Throughout its entire run IR also prints a lot of stand-alone memoirs, some of which are very extensive and are divided over a number of issues. Many of these ‘loose’
memoirs are related to political and/or military events in Russia during the Revolution and the Civil War. A few striking examples are the three-part memoirs of Grand Duchess Mariya Pavlovna on the turbulent times on the eve of the Revolution (from 1930-29(270) until 1930-30(272), taken from the American Saturday Evening Post as IR indicates); the six-part account of general Wrangel on the topic of the Civil War (from 1930-15(256) until 1930-20(261), followed by the answer of general Denikin (from 1930-22(263) until 1930-24(265)); six portraits on the Soviet secret police organization VChK41 by former Bolshevik Fyodor Drugov entitled With Dzerzhinsky in the VChK (S Dzerzhinskim v VChK, 1931-6(299) until 1931-10(303));
and the controversial account of former member of the VChka Yevgeny Vasilevich Dumbadze, called The confession of a member of the Cheka (Ispoved chekista, 1929-13(202) until 1929-16(205). An absolute minority of these loose memoirs discusses Western topics, such as the accounts of a stunt double in the cinematographic world (with the sensational title “How I was a hired suicide committer”, 1931-28(231)), or the Dreyfus affair (1930-27(268)).
The journalist portraits usually are stand-alone articles, although there also are a number of series. The 1926 series How x lives and works (Kak zhivet i rabotayet) by A.
Vladin paints a portrait of prominent émigré figures such as writers I. A. Bunin and A.
I. Kuprin or politician P. N. Milyukov in their daily and professional lives. Mid-1926 Aleksandr Yablonovsky devotes a number of portraits to particular aspects of the French Revolution, called Matters of long gone days (Dela davno minuvshikh dney).
And finally, throughout 1931 there is an untitled series of articles by journalist Yu.
Delevsky on science and progress (such as inventions, submarines, robots etc.) but
41 Vserossiyskaya Chrezvychaynaya Komissiya (All-Russian Extraordinary Commission, 1917-1922), abbreviated as VChK but commonly known as Cheka. It was the first Soviet secret police organization and was led by Feliks Dzerzhinsky (1827-1927). The VChK was succeeded by the GPU (Gosudarstvennoe
also on rather bizarre Zeitgeist matters (think of Spiritism or marriage with Siamese twins).
Many of the stand-alone journalist portraits are dedicated to either prerevolutionary or Soviet Russia. Prerevolutionary Russia is mainly evoked in the so-called Pushkin issues, the yearly special in honor of Den russkoy kultury (Day of Russian culture). These portraits discuss the life of the poet in specific, and of his era in general. The portraits of Soviet Russia, on the other hand are far more numerous and mainly focus on the harrowing circumstance of everyday Soviet life, ranging from alcohol abuse and hooliganism to homeless children.
“Specialized” sections
As is customary for periodicals, IR includes a number of sections that regularly appear during a longer period of time. Through time, these sections are subject to change:
some of the initial sections continue to exist, whereas others disappear and give way for new ones. If we look at IR’s recurring sections, a lot of them can be referred to as
“specialized” sections, targeting different types of readers, such as women and children, or art lovers and sport adepts. Generally these sections appear in the second half of the issue.
As soon as the fourth issue, there is a weekly children’s page (Stranichka dlya detey) with stories and poems, sometimes also riddles. Although this children’s page is originally quite traditionally oriented and includes Slavic folklore and fairytales, it soon shifts into more general amusement. The children’s page exists throughout IR’s entire run, but becomes less frequent over time (more on this in chapter 3).
Another fixed value in IR’s content is the weekly fashion page Parizhskye mody (Parisian fashion), which reports on the trends and novelties in Parisian fashion houses. This section, which is written by a certain Dedd and afterwards by a contributor called Jenny, first appears in issue 1924-2 and remains an integral part of IR until the final volume. Although this page generally discusses women’s clothing, from time to time also children’s and men’s wear is covered.
Another section targeting women is the weekly Zhenskaya stranichka (Women’s page), which first appears early 1929 and continues until 1939. The section mainly consists of a brief discussion of a question or problem relating to women in emigration or in Western societies in general, called Koe-chto koe o chem (Something about something). The discussions vary from innocent questions, such as how to address a woman (‘madam’ or ‘mademoiselle’?), and emancipatory topics, such as women’s voting rights or women in certain jobs and positions, to more pressing questions for the émigré community such as children’s education and intercultural marriage.
Generally speaking, these ‘émigré questions’ concern the straddle between
preservation and integration/assimilation. Other items in Zhenskaya stranichka are answers to readers’ letters and pictures of women (both émigré and other) who recently made the news.
IR also caters to the interests of sports fans. From time to time a sports section is included, aptly called Sport, publishing news and photographs of recent events. After a few years, from 1930 onward, IR also includes mind sports in the sections Bridzh (Bridge) and Shakhmaty (Chess).
Finally also art lovers find something to their liking in IR. From the very first issue the section Teatr i iskusstvo (Theatre and art) reports on performing arts in the Russian emigration and discusses past and upcoming performances. Although the main focus remains on émigré circles, over time also Western productions are discussed. From early 1927, a new arts section appears, called Kino, which is devoted to film and is succeeded by Mirvoy ekran (World screen) in 1929. Despite a continuous attention to Russian actors and topics (such as films on Russian life or adaptations of Russian literary classics), Western productions are at the heart of these sections.
Finally, fine arts are discussed in Russkoye iskusstvo za granitsey (Russian art abroad).
In this section, writer and art critic Lolly Ivanovich Lvov (1888-1967) devotes essays to Russian émigré painters and their exhibitions; generally small reprints of some of
In this section, writer and art critic Lolly Ivanovich Lvov (1888-1967) devotes essays to Russian émigré painters and their exhibitions; generally small reprints of some of