Legendary children's magazine Murzilka turns 95

The first issue of the legendary children's illustrated magazine Murzilka came out on May 16, 1924. It is published on a monthly basis for almost a whole century. The Presidential Library’s digital collections contain copies of the rare Murzilka issues from 1930 to 1942. They are available on the institution's portal.  

Such writers as Samuel Marshak, Sergey Mikhalkov, Agniya Barto, Nikolay Nosov, Boris Zahoder, Elena Blaginina and many others started their creative way and worked at the editorial board of the magazine in different years. At all times the edition strictly adhered to a high level: it concerns both texts, and illustrations. Over the course of a century, the most recent information, stories, and household tips are presented in a fascinating form for children. Murzilka can be called the face of an era: turning over the pages of the issues, it is of interest to find out how our country lived and what worried its little citizens.

Let us turn to the issue of the journal in 1930, the full electronic version of which is available on the Presidential Library’s portal. On the pages of the issue we mainly read about how the new, Soviet state was built. For example, a letter from a young reader Zoya Bakastova, where a girl tells how she spent her summer holidays: “I was in a large collective farm. There for peasants they build large houses for common apartments with a radio, a reading room and a school. Everywhere is electricity. Soon the village will be like a city”.

It should be said that Murzilka not only prints the works of adult authors, but also encourages creative endeavors of its subscribers. Often, through stories and poems, the guys in the pages of their favorite magazine communicate with each other. So, in the same issue of 1930, 8-year-old Irusya Goryushkina decided to help her friend, as they say, to clean up her friend’s head.

It is interesting to note that at the turn of the 1930–1940s, Murzilka set aside a considerable place for the political education of children: in an easy accessible form, the editorial board helps the reader understand how the state in which he lives is arranged. “All the riches of our country: fields, plants, forests, mountains, parks, ponds - everything in our country belongs to people. The people are masters of our country. And the people themselves choose such people who can be trusted with the economy of our country, our cities, our villages. Only in our Soviet country, all the people themselves choose those whom they want to see in power. And the people will choose people in local councils... they love their homeland, their city, their village and will be able to warmly care for the working people to live well, culturally, satisfyingly and cheerfully”, - according to issue 11/12 (1939).

The authors of the magazine report the main achievements of the country: “This year the largest icebreaker of the Arctic fleet entered the Arctic. "Joseph Stalin" is written on board the new ship. It passed through the ice of the entire Arctic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. All the way - through the five polar seas, through ice barriers and storms - ¬ "Joseph Stalin" passed in a very short time".

Whatever the journalists of Murzilka write about, it has always been imbued with kindness, care for their little readers. When the Great Patriotic War broke out, bright cheerful illustrations were replaced by drawings that reflected the terrible realities of that time, but even here Murzilka, as befits a real friend, tried to support its reader. On the pages, stories about the great Russian commanders began to appear more often, who invariably smashed the enemy, liberated the Motherland, and therefore set an example. “The difficult thing is war. You need to be strong, not to get tired. You need to be brave, so as not to be afraid of. Bring up, my friend, be strong!”, - journalists in issue 3/4 of 1942 instruct, the electronic version of which is available on the Presidential Library’s portal.

The authors of the magazine constantly remind: even in the most difficult days, a person, regardless of age, must remain human and help those who are in trouble. In the aforementioned issue, the editorial board appealed to the children to shelter their peers, whom the war had made orphans: “In our country, there are many children now - your comrades, your peers, who have experienced great sorrow, serious trouble. Fascist bandits, like wild beasts, kill, torture and maim our Soviet children. Thousands of children who have no home or parents left are saved by the caring fighters of the Red Army. These guys will not grow orphans. The Soviet country will take care of them... Glorious citizens of our homeland take many of the children into their families... Maybe the guys and your parents will also bring a new brother or sister into your home. Take them affectionately, like the most dear ones. You are the children of a great nation, and in our Soviet country, people do not leave each other in trouble and misfortune”.  

In a special collection of the Presidential Library “National Periodicals in the Presidential Library’s collections”, a special place is taken by children's and youth magazines and newspapers. In total, the collection includes 140 journal titles and 178 newspapers. And the total number of rare text, audio and video materials exceeds 650 thousand. You can get familiar with them through the Presidential Library’s portal, as well as in an extensive network of remote access centers. At the moment, there are about 1000 of them. They are located in all 85 regions of Russia and abroad.

The Presidential Library actively interacts with the youth audience. In 2018, Senate Square, 3 hosted a round table on the prospects for the development of children's media. The final stage of the business game among senior pupils “Your Choice”, devoted to electoral law in Russia, took place. The Presidential Library has become a platform for one of the main stages of the annual city contest “Journalist Marathon”, where more than a hundred representatives of the editorial boards of school media in St. Petersburg participated.