Belarusian-language humor magazine deprived of state support. Is this the end?
Photo: Vozhyk magazine pages in 2018
The magazine Vozhyk has been removed from the list of publications financed by the state. The oldest Belarusian-language satirical magazine is in for sensitive times. However, Vozhyk is under no threat, deputy editor-in-chief Alyaksandr Karshakevich says. It simply means that the state no longer recommends officials and public servants to subscribe to it:
"Vozhyk used to be on the list of ‘recommended’ publications. Now it isn’t. Being on that list does help. Vozhyk has always been in somebody’s way and not everybody likes subscribing to it. I do not think that it is that bad since the magazine has been paying its way for a long time."
Vozhyk’s current circulation is 875 copies, according to Karshakevich. Most of the subscribers are libraries but there are devoted readers too. Can such a small number of copies make the magazine sustainable?
"It means that we have lost our additional promotion channel," Karshakevich said. "If a publication is ‘recommended‘, it does not mean support, it is a way to advertise it, to remind people about its existence. The main support is the fact that the magazine exists altogether."
The only Belarusian-language satirical magazine Vozhyk first came out in 1945. People’s poets Ryhor Baradulin and Nil Hilevich used to work there.
