Barvinok (magazine)

Barvinok was a monthly literary, artistic, and general educational magazine for children of primary and secondary school age, which was published up to and including 2019.

The works of Natalia Zabila, Oksana Ivanenko, Oleksandr Kopylenko, Mykola Trublaini, Oles Donchenko, Volodymyr Vladko, and Maria Prygar developed the Ukrainian children's literature of that time.

Around 150-180 thousand were received monthly by the families of servicemen in the places where the Soviet troops were stationed at the time, German Democratic Republic, Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Mongolia.

However, as the researchers point out, Barvinok managed to avoid excessive politicization and skillfully appeal to the child's emotional world despite the strict ideological censorship.

In particular, the following children's writers were closely related to the magazine: Vsevolod Nestaiko, Bohdan Chalyi, Dmytro Bilous, Anatolii Kostetsky, and Halyna Malyk.

In 1979, Bohdan Chalyi and Vsevolody Nestaiko became the only Ukrainian writers honored with the prestigious international Hans Christian Andersen Award.

Some copies are given to Sunday schools in the United States (Detroit, Chicago, New Jersey), Canada, Australia, and new diaspora communities in Italy, Spain, Estonia, Georgia, and Turkey.

The magazine has gained the reputation of a "classic" publication that addresses children's requests for the most critical cognitive-educational and cultural information.

[1] The prominent editors of the magazine were famous writers: The magazine was awarded the Certificate of Honor of the Presidium of the Verkhovna Rada of the Ukrainian SSR (1978) and the Certificate of Honor of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine (2003), received greetings from the Presidents of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma and Viktor Yushchenko on the occasion of their anniversaries.