Biblioteka Dlia Chteniia

(Library for Reading), a monthly journal of “literature, the sciences, decorative arts, news and fashions” published in St. Petersburg during the years 1834–65. The journal’s publisher was A. F. Smirdin, and its editor was O. I. Senkovskii (until 1856; for the first two years, jointly with N. I. Grech). In the journal Senkovskii printed his own numerous works (for the most part, under the pseudonym Baron Brambeus). During the 1830’s the journal enjoyed great popularity (its circulation reached 7,000). The following works were printed in its pages: A. S. Pushkin’s “Queen of Spades,” M. Iu. Lermontov’s “Hadji Abrek,” A. A. Marlinskii’s “Caucasian Sketches,” as well as translations of H. de Balzac, George Sand, W. Thackeray, and others. In 1836 the journal, from a conservative point of view, began to conduct a polemic against Pushkin’s Sovremennik; it also attacked V. G. Belinskii and N. V. Gogol. During the 1850’s and 1860’s it episodically printed the work of L. N. Tolstoy, A. N. Ostrovskii, I. A. Goncharov, A. A. Fet, and others. In 1856 A. V. Druzhinin and others became its editors.