Soviet Life; January, 1985 No. 1 (340)

Washington DC: Embassy of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, 1985. Presumed First Edition, First printing this issue. Wraps. Format is approximately 10.5 inches by 14 inches. 64 pages, plus covers. Illustrations (some with color). In this issue there is are articles in which: USSR Pilot-Cosmonaut Alexander Ivanchenkov tell Vladimir Sudakov about everyday life in outer space; Karl Hallmae visits the Elluses on their farm in Estonia, Van Baiburt describes the Transcaucasus Highway; Dmitri Volfbert explains with the new Energy Program means for the USSR; Theater critic Natalya Kazmina profiles the men behind Georgian Theater, and there is an article on The Battle of Moscow--the first in a series of articles marking the fortieth anniversary of the end of World War II. Russian Life, previously known as The USSR and Soviet Life, is a 64-page color bimonthly magazine of Russian culture. It celebrated its 60th birthday in October 2016. The magazine is written and edited by American and Russian staffers and freelancers. While its distant heritage is as a "polite propaganda" tool of the Soviet and Russian government, since 1995 it has been privately owned and published by a US company, Storyworkz, Inc. In October 1956, a new English language magazine, The USSR, appeared on newsstands in major US cities. Given the level of anti-communist sentiment at the time, it would hardly have seemed an auspicious name under which to launch such a magazine title. The publication was edited by Enver Mamedov (born 1923), a polyglot native of Baku, who had the distinction of being one of the youngest Soviet diplomats when he was appointed the press secretary of the Soviet Embassy in Italy in 1943, and who had been the handler of the Soviet prosecutors' star witness, Friedrich Paulus, at the Nuremberg trials. Meanwhile, at newsstands in Moscow, Leningrad, Kiev and other Soviet cities, Amerika magazine made its second debut. Amerika had been inaugurated in 1944, but in late 1940s the State Department began to feel that radio and the Voice of America would be more effective propaganda tools and, in 1952, publication of Amerika was suspended. However, in 1956, the American and Soviet governments agreed to exchange magazines and Amerika was reborn and published in return for distribution of The USSR in the United States. The simultaneous appearance of these magazines was the result of an intergovernmental agreement, one among several cross-cultural agreements designed to sow trust amidst the rancor of international politics. Still, there was never any question in anyone's mind that each magazine was intended as a propaganda tool for the government issuing and publishing it. A few years later, The USSR changed its name to Soviet Life. While never a blatant Soviet propaganda tool, Soviet Life did hew to the government line. Yet it sought to present an informed view of Russian culture, history, scientific achievements and the various peoples inhabiting the Soviet Union. Condition: Good / No dust jacket issued.

Keywords: USSR, Outer Space, Cosmonaut, Alexander Ivanchenkov, Estonia, Transcaucasus Highway, Energy Program Georgian Theater, Battle of Moscow, Karl Hallmae, Van Baiburt, Dmitri Volfbert, Natalya Kazmina

[Book #85072]

Price: $25.00

See all items by