Chronotope of Siberia in the materials
of the magazine “Nastoyashchee” (1928–1930)

The paper deals with the Novosibirsk magazine “Nastoyashchee” (The Present) (1928–1930).
“Nastoyashchee” was oriented to the “fact literature”: the theory of new revolutionary literature developed by the LEF (Left Art Front) group, which emphasized the importance
of the reflection of the truth of life. Hence, the importance of journalism increases, with
feuilleton and essay becoming the most important genres. Such an attitude to the fact
literature orients materials of the magazine to the local context understood rather broadly – as
the context of Siberia and even the entire Asian part of the USSR. This understanding
is considered on the example of all types of magazine materials: prose, poetry, folklore,
illustrations, photography. It should be noted that the magazine’s attitude to the poetry was
ambivalent: not only did it publish the poetry but also the articles with requests to stop writing
poetry. Most significant was the literature of a quick response conforming to the current tasks
of the proletariat. It is for this reason that most of the materials related to the fact literature
had no ethnographic component, and the local was interesting not as exotic, but as correlating
with USSR political context (the link between the city and the countryside, the organization
of communes, the fight against the kulaks). The decisive role in writing is found to be
inevitably assigned to sorting out the necessary facts illuminating life from the authors’ side
of interest, making “Nastoyashchee” similar to the LEF group with their selecting and editing
“facts-friends” and criticism of “facts-enemies.”