Thick journal

Originating in the Russian Empire, a thick journal (Russian: толстый журнал, tolsty zhurnal) is a magazine format combining literary and journalistic work. The name comes from its size: a typical 19th-century issue of a thick journal was 300–400 pages long, and appeared quarterly or triannually (more rarely, bimonthly). Today they are usually over 200 pages long.

In the nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, more than half of each issue was devoted to literary works (including short stories, serialized novels, drama, poetry, and translations) and the remainder was devoted to journalism (including art criticism, literary criticism and music criticism; political, philosophical and socioreligious essays; and calendars of events). Literary reputations were fostered mainly through thick journals.

In the late Russian Empire they were a major vehicle of propagation of culture across the vast expanses of the country, as well as a major component of the cultural life of Russian emigres. Before the revolution, each thick journal represented one or another ideological position, including conservative, liberal and populist.

Notable examples of early thick journals include Vestnik Evropy (Вестник Европы), Moskovsiy Telegraf (Московский телеграф), Teleskop (Телескоп), Biblioteka Dlya Chteniya (Библиотека для чтения), Sovremennik (Современник), Otechestvennye Zapiski (Отечественные записки), Mir Bozhiy (Мир божий), Zhizn (Жизнь), Obrazovanye (Образование), and Sovremennaya Zhizn (Современная жизнь).