Making New Readers in Late Imperial Russia: The Illustrated Magazine The Motherland (1879–1917)

This article explores some of the most prevalent reading practices among the semi-literate strata of late nineteenth-century Russian society. Visual culture, rooted in the circulation of lubki – popular prints combining images and brief captions – paved the way for the widespread emergence of illustrated weeklies, which, inspired by analogous European magazines, began to appear in the 1870s. These periodicals skilfully drew on their readers’ visual literacy, systematically integrating images with concise texts, and attracting new categories of readers through a rich array of illustrated supplements. Particular attention is given to the magazine The Motherland (1879–1917), which explicitly positioned itself as a tool of cultural mediation. The Motherland sought to prepare its readers for more sophisticated forms of reading, serving as a bridge between predominantly visual consumption and textual engagement. In this way, the magazine contributed both to the expansion of the reading public and to the transformation of reading practices, while also fostering a new sense of civic and cultural awareness among Russian working-class readers.