Item #1443 [MAIN SOVIET PERIODICAL ON RADIO ENGINEERING] Radiofront [i.e. Radio Front] №21 for 1934
[MAIN SOVIET PERIODICAL ON RADIO ENGINEERING] Radiofront [i.e. Radio Front] №21 for 1934

[MAIN SOVIET PERIODICAL ON RADIO ENGINEERING] Radiofront [i.e. Radio Front] №21 for 1934

Moscow: Zhurgazob’edinenie, 1934. Item #1443

48 pp.: ill. 25x17 cm. In original illustrated wrappers. Spine chipped, tear of upper edge of front cover and following three leaves, water stain on upper edge of most pages, otherwise very good.

Issue of mass non-fiction magazine on radio engineering and amateur technics published under this title in 1930-1941. It continued a periodical ‘Radio for Everybody’ (1925-1930) and its successor ‘Radio’ has been coming out up to this day.
Its laconic design shows a two-color combination of a red silhouette of the Spasskaya Tower of the Kremlin and the large image of the Shukhov Tower as the symbols of old and new heights of Russian culture.
Just like cinema, radio became a mass medium and was being introduced everywhere. Radio became a symbol of the future, but it was understood differently. For instance, Lenin spoke about it as an advanced periodical, “newspaper without paper and distances”. Velimir Khlebnikov wrote, “radio will inaugurate new ways to cope with our endless undertakings and will unite all mankind” in his utopian manifesto ‘Radio of the Future’ (1921).
It truly connected rural areas with cities, was a tool of announcements, mass broadcasting and a powerful channel of culture and enlightenment. In kolkhozes, receivers for reading rooms were installed for free. Peasants were provided credits for purchase. Thanks to the Shukhov Tower completed in 1922, the first Soviet radio concerts were held in 1922. Popularity of everything related to radio increased.
In the 1920s, numerous volunteering societies were established, including the Society of Radio Friends (SRF) Leningrad. Its local branches and radio groups turned up at factories and educational institutions. Newspapers began publishing articles on the role of radio for the socialist society, radio engineering successes and failures in the Soviet Union and abroad. A widespread movement of radio enthusiasts gained government support. Originally, this periodical was considered a magazine of SRF, but later became an organ of the Committee for Radioification Assistance.
In the Soviet Union, radio equipment was produced by amateur radio engineers themselves and was made of both pre-existing materials and special details provided by the SRF. Schemes with instructions were printed in radio periodicals and books on this topic. When a receiver was ready, it was registered through a post or telegraph office. The process of domesticating the radio technique began, moving it to kitchens of communal apartments.
Contributors to this magazine solved frequently asked questions, published articles and news about, for example, radio equipment of icebreakers ‘Litke’ and ‘Krassin’. In 1933-1934, both vessels became Soviet propaganda icons for their polar voyages. One of the articles was devoted to the 1934 radio exhibition held in Nazi Germany and included three pictures of participants and showpieces. The issue also contains photographs of young radio enthusiasts in various Soviet republics, details of constructions and numerous schemes.
The immense popularity of radio engineering is indirectly shown by magazine printrun of 60 000 copies (as indicated). The back cover features advertisements for other journals.

Not found in Worldcat.

Price: $350.00

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