Filed Under: Topic > Intelligentsia > "Program and Charter of the Leningrad Club of Friends of 'Ogonek'"
"Program and Charter of the Leningrad Club of Friends of 'Ogonek'"
A July 1988 issue of "Ogonek" with the headline: "What have you given to perestroika?"
PROGRAM AND CHARTER
of the Leningrad Club of Friends of "Ogonyok" (KDO)
The Leningrad Club of Friends of "Ogonyok" is a public organization whose purpose is to activate the political consciousness of citizens and unite actively thinking members of society who work in the interests of perestroika.
Objectives:
- Organizing meetings between "Ogonyok" readers and its correspondents, progressive writers, public figures, lawyers, and scientists. These meetings should serve the main purpose - broad discussion of our society's problems and the search for solutions. Meetings should teach the culture of discussion, help overcome fear, teach uncompromising yet evidence-based defense of one's viewpoint. When raising sensitive issues about our life at such meetings, it is necessary to remember that they should not be sensationalistic in any way, and the purpose of the meeting is not merely to satisfy curiosity. Each meeting should have a concrete result, which could take the form of: a letter to "Ogonyok" summarizing the discussion; a decision by those gathered about the necessity of their participation in a specific matter discussed at the meeting, etc.
- Enriching "Ogonyok's" mail with information about positive aspects of perestroika. Letters are needed that show how people in their specific roles are fighting for perestroika, the forms of this struggle, obstacles, and ways to overcome them. If perestroika is not supported from below, which M.S. Gorbachev consistently emphasizes in practically every speech, it will falter. A moment has arrived when the avalanche of negative information, having ceased to be a "breathtaking" new phenomenon in our life, frightens people and creates an impression of anarchy and hopelessness. It is obvious that only by analyzing shortcomings and highlighting them in the press can we move forward, but it is also obvious that information about positive aspects of the struggle is extremely important at present. So: in my specific position, in my specific work, what have I (each of us) achieved on this path.
- Active position of KDO members regarding the journal's stance, writing substantiated rebuttals to magazines and newspapers that oppose "Ogonyok," to the editorial office of "Ogonyok" itself, and discussing these issues at club member meetings.
- Summarizing reader letters published by the journal by topic, with specialists responding to these summarized questions in the journal itself. Within the KDO framework, collectives of such specialists with experience fighting the shortcomings of our life that "Ogonyok" readers write about can be created. Thus: KDO members provide feedback: reader → journal → reader, thereby uniting progressive, active citizens in the struggle for perestroika on specific issues.
- Informing the editorial office of "Ogonyok" about the most interesting events in the public life of Leningrad.
- Uniting within the Leningrad KDO all journal readers from Leningrad and, importantly, the Leningrad region who contact the journal with letters and specific proposals regarding perestroika, as the processes of political activation of the masses and democratization proceed significantly slower in peripheral areas than in major centers.
- Mutual information exchange among KDO members about political and social events in the country's life.
Organizational Foundations of the Club
- Anyone can become a member of the club who: 1.1. Actively participates in the perestroika of the country's public and state life; 1.2. Accepts the Club Charter and Work Program; 1.3. Personally participates in the Club's work; 1.4. Is ready to financially support the Club's work. Admission to Club membership is done by the general assembly upon recommendation of 2 Club members. Club membership is formalized by entry into the membership list and completion of a questionnaire.
- A Club member has the right to: 2.1. Participate in all events conducted by the Club; 2.2. Participate in elections to the Club council and be elected to it; 2.3. Submit proposals to all Club bodies on improving its activities; 2.4. Use the Club's information resources; 2.5. Be a member of another socio-political club whose charter and program do not conflict with KDO activities.
- Club members whose activities diverge from the Club's goals and objectives or damage its interests may be excluded from its membership by a majority vote at a Club meeting.
- The Club welcomes participation in its work by all interested individuals alongside Club members. The procedure for this participation is determined by the Club council.
- The highest body of the Club is its assembly. Club decisions are made by a simple majority vote (at least 2/3 of Club members).
- The general assembly elects a Club council to guide the Club's activities, which may, if necessary, co-opt new members by a qualified majority vote (at least 2/3 of council members).
- Only the Club council or persons directly authorized by it may represent the Club in all external relations and speak on its behalf.
- The general assembly of the Club is convened as necessary, but not less than once a month.
- The Club council is elected by the general assembly for a term of 1 year. The Program and Charter of the Club were adopted at the founding meeting on April 26, 1988.
In April 1988, Leningrad residents and active readers of the popular glossy magazine Ogonek came together to form the Leningrad Club of Friends of Ogonek. The organization, popularly organized and led, illuminates the social life around perestroika-era periodicals and the largely (though not entirely) new grassroots support media outlets received from readers, viewers, and listeners. The growing importance of print media during perestroika was inseparable from increased print runs. The circulation of Ogonek, for example, grew from 1.5 million copies in 1987 to 4.6 million copies in 1990. Greater availability of the periodical permitted a larger readership.
The “Program and Statutes of the Leningrad Club of Friends of Ogonek” shows the extent to which ordinary readers saw themselves as part of the process of creating and editing the journal. The tasks they set before themselves included organizing meetings with members of the magazine’s staff; writing summaries of letters published in the journal; and informing the editors of Ogonek about “the more interesting” events unfolding in Leningrad, among other things. This organization, one of many readers’ clubs that took off during perestroika, demonstrates the deep connection Soviet citizens felt toward mass media during this period.
The “Program and Statutes” also reveals how politicized state media had become during perestroika. Ogonek was published by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, alongside many other publications like Pravda, Sovetskaia Rossiia, or Izvestia, and yet its publisher did not determine its political bent—editors and readers did. This group of Leningraders saw supporting perestroika as the core of their group’s agenda, and in fact, doing so was the first requirement for membership in the group. This goal differed from other state-run periodicals like the newspaper Sovetskaia Rossiia, which, with its publication of Nina Andreeva’s critique of perestroika in March 1988, made clear its own position that reformers had taken perestroika in the wrong direction.