My personal impressions of the magazine for 6 5 seasons of its existence. There is a moderate amount of criticism of Murzilka and Merry Pictures in the article, so it might be better for fiery apologists for the legendary Soviet publications to refrain from reading this article.
All thumbnails under the cut are links to full-size images of the corresponding magazine pages.
1990: Golden period
By the end of the 80s, a total and unstoppable demand for an ideology-free alternative to traditional socialist propaganda was formed in Soviet society. This also applies to periodicals of all directions. Creating a strong competitor in the line of children's magazines was on the agenda. The Tramway project received high state support and immediately started with a two-million circulation. The magazine at the same time justified the resources invested in it, immediately becoming popular.
What is so hooked on the new magazine? What was in it that was not in the sore Soviet children's publications?
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Pattern break
Compared to the elegant but insipid “Funny Pictures” and the frankly faded “Murzilka”, creativity gushed from every page.
Non-standard and non-format were manifested both at the level of images and at the level of texts. At the same time, a creative approach was combined with a moderate systematic approach, when pages on a certain topic in the same style are repeated several numbers in a row (and then you even note with some sadness that the series is completed and is no longer present in new issues).
Here, for example, is a thematic line about proverbs and sayings dedicated to topics related to certain parts of the body. Artist Baldin creates awesome illustrations that you want to look at for a long time, studying every detail. The combination of a kind of humor in the Kharmsian spirit with a mind-blowing art style.
By the way, the frequent use of "serial" themes throughout the year, or at least in several issues in a row, very favorably distinguished "Tram". This was also the case in Soviet magazines (for example, stories about the exploits of Hercules in every issue of VK for 1984), but this was more the exception than the rule.
scientific knowledge
While the pictures were just rubbish, all the text is aimed at thoughtful children and thoughtful parents (who made the decision to buy the magazine). Although extraordinary images visually dominated the text, often the words were more important and more interesting.
Great emphasis in the magazine was placed on providing children with modern scientific knowledge, and the content was clothed in the proprietary non-standard of Tram. About the four-dimensional space, the Möbius strip, the Esperanto language, the family tree of the Rurik family, optical illusions, sleep phases and other interesting things were explained in such a way that it was clear that it was a child and an adult.
Subtle irony and outright banter
When selecting material, the editorial board completely abandoned the “lisping”, which is characteristic of the same “Funny Pictures”, replacing it with a playfully critical attitude of the children themselves both to the world of adults and to themselves.
It is no coincidence that on the pages of the magazine one could meet such "ironic" poets as Igor Irteniev, Grigory Oster and even, God forgive me, Viktor Shenderovich. Appropriate black humor and paradoxicality in the style of Harms were dosed in the magazine (as, indeed, Harms himself).
Grades and exemplary behavior are not the main thing for a child
"Tram" fundamentally abandoned the moralizing characteristic of Soviet children's magazines. Children were accepted as they are. The desire for knowledge was encouraged, but it was not imposed at the same time. High grades and exemplary behavior were not presented as mandatory attributes of a “correct” child. Moreover, good girls and good boys were ridiculed in the pages of the magazine. Some of the humorous content, as it were, approved of hooligans and C-Ds, but in fact, the idea was that formal academic performance was not the main thing.
Tramvay magazine bribed by recognizing the right of any child to simply be himself, without imposing the desire to be the “ideal Soviet schoolboy”.
Rejection of permanent characters
A good decision was that the magazine, in fact, abandoned the total use of any branded character (or group of those) like Murzilka or the Club of Funny Men.
The problem with Murzilka and Merry Men is that magazines are oversaturated with them. They are corny annoying with their annoying presence on every cover, in all comics, in most riddles and stories. Children have long been "overfed" by them.
Of course, some recurring characters were also present in "Tram", but they were used infrequently, not in every issue, and somewhere on the last pages. For example, there were rare comics about the detective Bertram Weiss and his assistant dog Composter. However, you cannot call them the “face” of the magazine. The detective storyboards about them were just a kind of mystery.
The main characters on the pages were not cartoons, but the children themselves. If "Funny Pictures" and "Murzilka" were magazines for children, then "Tram" - about children.
desktops
Non-standard games were a strong point. In games from "Funny Pictures" from decade to decade, a few annoying motifs are repeated, as a rule, in the simplest execution - "go through the maze from point A to point B", "determine which item belongs to which owner", etc.
In "Tram" the level of games was an order of magnitude higher. Even if this is moving through a maze, then with some complicating non-standard conditions in which you have to solve unusual tasks for logic. Frequent guests of the magazine are unusual games of the chess and checkers type. And almost always these are games not for one, but for two or more participants, even if these are the notorious labyrinths.
Children are collaborators
A strong move was the wide representation on the pages of the children themselves.
In each issue, a significant number of poems, drawings, stories, jokes, riddles were published, sent by the little readers themselves.
This noticeably brought the children closer to the magazine, they were not only its readers, but creators.
1991: Already Orthodox, but so far excellent
The following year, the magazine also held a high standard of quality. Of the features of this year, one can note the indispensable riddles encrypted in the image of the number on the cover.
A noticeable innovation in 1991, which looks controversial today, is the indispensable presence of an Orthodox page (or even two) in each issue of the magazine. However, in those days, even the Komsomol “Vesyolyye Kartinki” began to sin like this, now they timely tell when Christmas and Easter will be.
Tramvay magazine will keep the Orthodox trend to the very end. However, this did not affect the style, content and quality of the rest of the material. Instead of piety, the magazine still preferred science, instead of humility, it still encouraged children to be themselves.
Along with this, I would subjectively note a little more criticism of the Soviet regime in the whole apolitical magazine. In the previous year, this criticism was extremely rare and very fragmentary, at the level of short jokes. This year, politics in the magazine was also at a minimum, but it stood out clearly.
Here, for example, is an excerpt from the August issue (the State Emergency Committee will take place only at the end of this month):
1992: Period of non-existence
The first wake-up call was the absence of the last, 12th issue for 1991. The following year, 1992, the magazine was not published at all.
After the collapse of the USSR, the Soviet Children's Fund named after V. I. Lenin (to which the magazine "Tram" was assigned) was reorganized into the Russian Children's Fund. There was no money to finance "Tram", and the magazine with a two-million circulation, it would seem, abruptly and forever ceased to exist.
However, the creators of the magazine did not give up. A general sponsor was found (now a long-defunct bank from Kuzbass) and the next year the publication of the popular edition resumed. True, with a circulation that is 20 times smaller than it was before. The free market has regulated that 100 copies is the maximum that makes sense to print.
It is worth noting that Murzilka and Veselye Kartinki (which, like the legends of Soviet periodicals, continued to be financed by the state), also did not keep their multi-million figures. Literally a few years later they fell to 100-200 thousand copies per month, and at present the circulation does not exceed 50 thousand.
1993: Beginning of the end
The forced annual leave did not benefit the magazine. It seems to me subjectively that this year "Tram" has sharply become boring. Illustrations and texts seem to have lost the magic of originality, the content has become somehow inexpressive, or something ordinary. The magazine lost its former hooligan enthusiasm somewhere.
Cross-cutting themes penetrating several issues have ceased to be used. A bad sign was that instead of illustrations, photographs began to be used more. The layout has become simpler, almost primitive. For example, if it was a set of short texts (jokes, riddles, small poems), then in the best years it was often randomly scattered all over the page mixed with psychedelic illustrations - then it looked great. Now everything has become neatly arranged in two boring columns, without illustrations, but with plain dull fills.
Orthodox inserts began to occupy sometimes several pages. Instead of ironic jokes, ordinary anecdotes began to be printed. And yes, the humor has become unfunny. Young readers have almost ceased to send their work. Instead, a strange section a la “meet me” appeared, where children briefly write about their hobbies, indicate their age and leave their full home address for correspondence. The rebellious magazine at some points began to resemble free advertising newspapers (with jokes and dating ads on the last page) for average housewives.
1994: Dinosaurs and programming
This year, the magazine seems to have begun to return to the right track.
First, we returned to the idea of an annual theme. This time it was the dinosaurs. Each issue told in detail about one of the species of extinct lizards, jokes and stories were built around them.
Of course, the idea was obviously secondary (a year earlier, Spielberg's Jurassic Park came out, powerfully setting the world's fashion for deadly reptiles), but it was already good that the magazine was not just serving another issue, but was trying to systematically create content.
This year is also interesting with a series of educational stories dedicated to programming (Editor-in-Chief Tim Sobakin is a programmer by education and first profession, by the way).
I do not consider these stories successful for middle school children (a lot of long dry discussions, no pictures), but perhaps this was one of the first attempts in Russia to systematically talk about programming on the pages of a children's magazine.
Despite these small positive changes, a fatal thing happened to the Tramway magazine - it finally ceased to be unusual children's magazine.
1995: Final
And this year, the miracle did not happen. It was obvious that the publication would not return to the level of 1990-91. When “double” issues began to appear in February-March (to be more precise, just not monthly, but once every two months), it became clear that the magazine did not have much time left. And so it happened, the June issue (only the fourth in a row this year) was the last.
Source: habr.com