“Prostor” is the oldest literary-artsitic journal of Kazakhstan in the Russian language. It is the print organ of the Writers’ union of Kazakhstan. It is published in Kazakhstan from 1960.

   The thematics: verses, prose, publicist, fiction works of the writers of Kazakhstan.

   The predecessors of “Prostor” were the collection “Kazakhstan” (1933), the magazines “The Soviet literature of Kazakhstan” (1934), “Literary Kazakhstan” (1935-1939) and “Literature and art of Kazakhstan” (1939- 1941), the almanac “Kazakhstan” (1946), the magazine “Soviet Kazakhstan” (1953-1959).

    In the 1960-s – the beginning of the 1970-s the magazine was widely known in the USSR.

   At this time it was headed by the prominent writer I.P.Shukhov (1906-1977). He managed to attract to the editorial board and to the cooperation with the magazine many talented prosaics, publicists and poets (V.Petrov, Yu.Gert, V.Antonov, N.Rovenskiy, G.Chernogolovina, I.Shchegolikhin, M.Simashko, R.Tamarina and others).

   There upon the pages of “Prostor” were published for the first time the verses of the semi-prohibited in those times Anna Akhmatova, Marina Tsvetayeva, Osip Mandelshtam, the unknown works of Platonov and Pasternak. “Prostor” returned from oblivion the names of Pavel Vasilyev and Anton Sorokin. There upon the pages of the magazine appeared the first materials in Bulgakov-studies.

   Also there were prepared for the press the verses of another “enemy of the people” – Magzhan Zhumabayev. Today Magzhan is a classic, “Kazakh Pushkin”.

   In 1970 “Prostor” published the novel of Iliyas Esenberlin “Khan Kene”, about the historical figure prohibited to be mentioned, the last Kazakh khan Kenesary, whose insurrection was defeated by the Russian empire. This novel later on entered the famous trilogy “The nomads”.

   The circulation of the magazine in those years exceeded 50 000 copies. At the end of the 1980-s because of the publication of the novel by V.D.Uspenskiy “The secret councilor of the leader”, the circulation of the magazine grew to 160 thousand copies. At the present time the circulation is 2 thousand copies.

   The chief editor:

1961- 1963, Snegin, Dmitriy Feodorovich

1963- 1974, Shukhov, Ivan Petrovich

1975- 1985, Veniamin Ivanovich Larin

1985- 1992, Tolmachev, Gennadiy Ivanovich

1992- 1996, Petrov, Rostislav Viktorovich

1996- 1997, Kiktenko, Vyacheslav Vyacheslavovich

2000- 2003, Petrov, Rostislav Viktorovich

2003- up to the present time Mikhailov Valeriy Feodorovich