Before the Russian Revolution, about 300 children’s and youth magazines were published in the Russian Empire, mainly in St. Petersburg and Moscow. Some of them were published for decades, others ceased to exist after the first issue. Above all, this was due to the fact that publishers did not have enough funds, and sometimes a new magazine did not find its readership.

The magazine “Children’s Reading for the Heart and Mind” became the first magazine for children in Russia. It was founded by the publisher, journalist and writer Nikolai Ivanovich Novikov in 1785 and was educational in nature. “Children’s Reading for the Heart and Mind” was published for four years as a weekly free supplement to the newspaper “Moskovskie Vedomosti”. The magazine was republished twice from 1799 to 1804 and in 1819. According to Novikov, this magazine was supposed to raise good citizens and to explain to young readers from an early age the laws of virtue, nobility, honesty, and generosity.

The copy presented in the collection of the Apartment-Museum is an issue of the magazine called “Children’s Reading”. This monthly illustrated magazine was published in St. Petersburg from 1869, initially by the publishing house “Russian Book Trade”. From 1871 to 1885, a “Pedagogical leaflet for parents and educators” was published alongside the “Children’s Reading”. Its first editor, until 1877, was General of the Russian Imperial Army, military educator and publicist Alexei Nikolaevich Ostrogorsky.

The magazine “Children’s Reading’ was published for 35 years, and then it was renamed “Young Russia”. In one of its issues in 1906, readers were informed,