Humanities & Social Sciences 5 (2016 9) 1249-1255 ~ ~ ~ УДК 070.1 The ‘Thick Journal’ in Russia: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow Leonid P. Bykov* Ural Federal University named after the B.N. Yeltsin 19 Mira Str., Ekaterinburg, 620002, Russia Received 28.12.2015, received in revised form 24.01.2016, accepted 20.04.2016 The article analyzes the role of ‘the thick journal’ in the national literary process and, in a wider sense, the spiritual life of the Russian society. <...> At the same time in modern conditions ‘the thick journal’ in Russia as it is reasoned in the paper, seeks to uphold the ideals of culture in accordance with the traditions of national literature. <...> National literature of any country with common all-human intentions, has its pantheon and its canon. <...> It is no coincidence that Khlestakov in Gogol’s novel advertised his creative talent not only “being friends with Pushkin” but also by “publishing his works in journals”. <...> The history of the Russian literature of the two last centuries has taught both the public and the writers that everything signifi cant, bright, talented, interesting and open for discussion (maybe with the exception of a number of plays) that has appeared in the Russian literature, has been published, fi rst of all, on the pages of periodical publications. <...> A quarter of a century ago, V. Makanin’s statement made in one of his interviews, sounded axiomatic: “. an author who publishes a book in the Soviet Union without fi rst publishing it in a journal, in fact does not publish anything – neither readers, nor critics will notice Leonid P. Bykov. <...> Journals are the way to hold literature in the view of the society and to manipulate it at the same time. <.> . <...> Critics write about the ‘sunset’ of the journal era in the national literature, in solidarity with sociologists who keep talking about the end of the monopoly of the journal in organizing the literary environment. <...> In particular, B. Dubin stating in the article of 2004 the decrease of the capital journal circulation by 25 times, offered the following analogy: “Imagine that in a city with a one million population only 40 thousand people are left” (Dubin, 172). <...> A decade later, in 2015, at the meeting in Ekaterinburg, S. Chuprinin, the editor in chief of Znamya journal reminding that in April the 1001st issue of their journal was published (which <...>