A complete run of five issues in four fascicules of the Soviet political propaganda journal, 40, 48, 36, and 16 pp., scattered illustrations. Small quarto (10 x 6 5/8 inches). Original pictorial side-stapled wrappers. Some soiling, minor chipping, issue no. 3 with a small tear to front cover, light browning throughout, overall very good. Moscow: Krasnaia nov/Krest'ianskaia gazeta, 1924-1925. Together with: Svetovaia gazeta i diapozitivy dlia nee, by N. Petrov [Light Newspaper and Slides for It], published in Moscow in 1930.

Soviet "living newspapers", or zhivaya gazeta, began during the Russian Civil War when pro-Soviet newspapers were first read aloud, and then later performed, to factory workers and illiterate soldiers. They used a variety of devices and techniques such as lantern slides, songs, film segments, and newspaper readings to present the news and propaganda. According to an article on "living newspapers", "Performed by small bands of propagandists, the scripts for zhivaya gazeta were often pasted together from materials found in newspapers - though a high degree of improvisation was also encouraged - and were designed to provide illiterate audiences (such as workers or Red Army recruits) with details of campaigns, battles or other newsworthy events. Plays were performed on street corners or in other public spaces, with the aid of a handful of props and simple yet highly symbolic costumes. By the late 1920s, however, zhivaya gazeta were already being seen as passé by many dramatists in the Soviet Union, with all forms of 'revolutionary agitational art' becoming 'increasingly unwelcome'...Indeed, Stalin, disbanded the Blue Blouse Group, the main exponent of zhivaya gazeta, in 1928." ("The Sinification of Soviet Agitational Theatre: 'Living Newspapers' in Mao's China", Jeremy E. Taylor, Journal of the British Association for Chinese Studies, Vol. 2, July 2013)

Svetovaia gazeta, or "light newspapers", were the name given for political propaganda images which were projected on walls or other surfaces in provincial reading huts or workers' clubs. Periodicals such as this one were published together with a 'monthly newspaper of slides for the magic lantern', allowing the newspaper to be provided in a more visual format for the illiterate. These newspapers and slides also provided an alternative to radio broadcasting, when there was a shortage of radio receivers. They were produced by "Krest'ianskaia gazeta" [Peasant Newspaper].

This short-lived journal only ran for four issues, with a print run of 3000 copies for the first three issues but only 500 copies for the final issue. Two of the covers feature an illustration with a caption of "Light Newspaper is Carrying Light to the Village", with the light rays falling on a cooperative village with residents reading the "Krest'ianskaia gazeta". The issues contain texts to be read aloud by propagandists while slides are being projected. The topics include socialist agriculture, industrialization, Lenin, aviation, electrification, the chemical industry, and others. The additional booklet which accompanies this periodical contains instructions for creators of slides and those who operated projectors, including some helpful charts and diagrams.

Extremely scarce; as of March 2026, OCLC does not show any listings of the journal, and finds only a single holding worldwide of the 1930 manual.

Book ID: 53632

Price: $3,750.00