Almanacs and Related Matters

The year 1988 was apparently the year when the journal boom peaked; worn out by subscription passions, the agitation quieted down, and the next year, 1989, looks like it will be remembered by us, its contemporaries, as the year of the almanac. Will the history of literature retain this "pseudonym" for it? Will the situation of the 1820s about which Pushkin spoke be repeated? "The almanacs have become the representatives of our literature," he wrote. "In time, it is they that people will use to judge its progress and achievements." I won't hazard a guess. But there is no question that it is precisely the almanacs, along with all kinds of semi- and completely commercial ventures, that are more adroit in realizing the idea of progress that is understood to have priority in free enterprise. And the reasons for this are fairly significant.