This post is a the second in a two-part series chronicling Soviet media coverage of WWII victory anniversaries. The first part includes covers from two magazines, Soviet Life and Советский Союз. This post includes covers and inside pages from issues of Огонёк (a.k.a. Ogonyok, Ogoniok, Ogonek) magazine, which has been in print since 1899 and is still going strong.
They recycled the famous image of the Soviet flag over the Reichstag (Siberian Light recently had an interesting post about the history of that photo) every five years from 1965 to 1975, but strangely they turned the flag around in 1965 (see the first picture below). Aside from that, I found the emphasis on the liberation of Czechoslovakia to be a bit unusual, but perhaps someone with a more in-depth knowledge of Ogonyok's publishing agenda during the Brezhnev years can enlighten me. Many of the magazines of earlier years were filled with beautiful (and some not so beautiful) paintings and photos; the Ioganson painting which I scanned in from one of the 1965 issues was repeated a number of times, as one might expect.
Glory to the Victorious People!May 1965 Ogonyok
B. Ioganson, Victory CelebrationMay 1965 (and several other years) Ogonyok
No. 19 (back cover)
If you enlarge this inside spread, you'll see the interesting notice laid
inside many Soviet publications distributed in the US at the time:
I believe this notice was required by the terms of the agreement
reached about cultural exchanges in the second half of the 1950s.
The absence of such an agreement explains why I don't have any
magazine covers from 1955 in this collection.
"May 9th marks 30 years since the liberation
of Czechoslovakia from the fascist invaders"
No mention of the Prague Spring, obviously...
1980
No. 19 (May 1980)
No. 20 (May 1980): "35 years since the liberation
of Czechoslovakia from the fascist invaders"
Just look at those happy children!
The preceding issue (No. 18, May 1990) looks like
it was the first one to solicit for commercial ads in
the magazine (above is the back cover).
By 1995, ads have taken over the back cover for good...
And the 2000 V-day cover is available online.
PS - Sadly, the library doesn't have any covers from the 1985 40th
anniversary celebrations. I can assure you they were momentous -
one indicative, if odd, recollection I have is that the first Soviet sticker
(наклейка) I ever saw was with the orange 40 лет победы logo.
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