Molodaia Gvardiia

(Young Guard), a literary and sociopolitical monthly of the Central Committee of the All-Union Lenin Communist Youth League. It has been published in Moscow since 1922, with the exception of an interval between 1942 and 1947; from 1947 to 1957 it appeared as a miscellany of works by young writers. The magazine publishes Soviet and foreign works, primarily those written for young people, publicistic writings, and literary criticism. Circulation, 590,000 (1974). The journal was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor in 1972.

(Young Guard), the book and magazine publishing house of the Central Committee of the All-Union Lenin Communist Youth League, which publishes fiction, sociopolitical works, and popular-science literature for young people. It was established in Moscow in 1922 by a resolution of the Fifth Congress of the Komsomol. Between 1922 and 1972 Molodaia Gvardiia published about 15,000 titles totaling more than 800 million copies. In 1974 the publishing house had 15 editorial offices. It publishes 14 magazines, including Molodoi kommunist(Young Communist), Komsomol’skaia zhizn’ (Komsomol Life), Molodaia gvardiia (Young Guard), Rovesnik (Peers), Studencheskii meridian (Student Meridian), Vozhatyi (Leader), lunyi tekhnik (Young Technician), lunyi naturalist (Young Naturalist), Vokrug sveta (Around the World), Veselye kartinki (Merry Pictures), and Murzilka. Molodaia Gvardiia also publishes the miscellanies Podvig (Feat), Prometei (Prometheus), and Evrika (Eureka) and the newspaper Pionerskaia pravda (Pioneer Pravda). In 1973, 360 book titles were published, totaling more than 43 million copies, and 25.9 million copies of magazines (single-issue circulation).

Molodaia Gvardiia publishes works on many different subjects. The series Zhizn’ zamechatelnykh liudei (Lives of Out-standing People), Tebe v dorogu, romantik (For You, Romantic Traveler), and Molodezh ’, revoliutsiia, progress Youth, Revolution, Progress) have become very popular. A number of works that have influenced the intellectual development of Soviet youth were first published by Molodaia Gvardiia, notably How the Steel Was Tempered by N. Ostrovskii, The Young Guard by A. Fadeev, and works by A. Gaidar, K. Fedin and A. Zharov. In the postwar years more than 100 works issued by the publishing house were awarded Lenin and State prizes and prizes of the Lenin Komsomol and the Union of Journalists of the USSR. Among the prize-winning works were The Russian Forest by L. Leonov, Brest Fortress by S. Smirnov, Tronka by O. Gon-char, Walking on the Dew by V. Peskov, Four Lessons From Lenin by M. Shaginian, and books by Ch. Aitmatov and R. Gamzatov. The publishing house seeks to encourage young authors.

Molodaia Gvardiia maintains close ties with publishing houses in the other socialist countries, putting out editions jointly with publishing houses in the German Democratic Republic, the Polish People’s Republic, the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, and the Hungarian People’s Republic. The Soviet-Bulgarian miscellany Druzhba (Friendship) has appeared since 1971. Molodaia Gvardiia was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor in 1969.