Collection of “Sovetskoe Photo” – 455 issues in PDF!

Click  on photo to download the collection of Sovetskoe Photo from 1926 till 2000s in PDF

“Sovetskoe foto” was monthly illustrated magazine, published by the Union of Journalists of the USSR. It was founded in 1926 by Soviet journalist Mikhail Koltsov, with the help of former journalists, editors of the Photographic News magazine, published in the period from 1906 to 1918 in St. Petersburg, scientists and professors Nikolai Yermilov and Vyacheslav Izmailovich Sreznevsky. End in 1997.
The publication of the magazine began in Moscow under the auspices of journal Ogonyok organized by him, which was transformed in 1931 into the Journal and Newspaper Association. The publication was interrupted in 1942-1956.
The magazine was designed for amateurs and professionals of photography and cinematography. On its pages were published the works of Soviet and foreign photographers, as well as articles on the theory, practice and history of photography. In 1976 the circulation of the magazine reached 240 thousand copies. In the same year he was awarded the Order of the Badge of Honor. By 1981, the number of editorial staff was 25 people, circulation in the early 1980s reached 245 thousand. Then the circulation began to decline – to 100 thousand by the beginning of the 1990s.
At the end of 1990, having replaced O. V. Suslova, G. M. Chudakov became the chief editor of the magazine, who had worked until that moment as deputy editor-in-chief. He remained in this position until the discontinuation of the magazine in 1997. Since 1992 the magazine has been renamed “Photography”. In February 1996, a fire broke out in the editorial office, in which the archives, library, laboratory and works prepared for the anniversary exhibition in honor of the 70th anniversary of the magazine were destroyed. After the fire, the editorial staff of the magazine moved from Malaya Lubyanka to the House on the Embankment, where the House of the Russian Press was located at that time.
In the last years of its existence, the circulation was significantly reduced (to 5 thousand in 1997) and the editorial staff, despite the design, layout and transition to high-quality printing on coated paper, updated in 1996. After downsizing, the few remaining journalists published articles under multiple pseudonyms.