In 1944, the United States Department of State began circulating 10,000 copies of
Amerika in the Soviet Union. The magazine was instantly popular and sold out virtually overnight. In June 1947, the Soviet Union authorized an increase to 50,000 copies. By the late 1940s, the State Department began to feel that radio and the
Voice of America would be more effective propaganda tools and publication of
Amerika was suspended in 1952. Four years later, however, the American and Soviet governments agreed to exchange magazines;
Amerika was reborn and published in return for distribution of
The USSR in the United States. The magazine was again an immediate success, selling out quickly. The goal, as explained in the first issue, was that "the Soviet reader could see the many-sided American life, reflected in it." In his study of the propaganda of the era,
University of Akron history professor Walter L. Hixson writes that
Amerika was wildly popular among Soviet readers and notes that long lines would form when the magazine went on sale. Because the magazine sparked discussion among the Soviet intelligentsia and because each issue was widely shared,
Amerika had impact and influence beyond its circulation of 50,000. The U.S. government felt that the magazine made a valuable contribution to better understanding of the United States by the Soviet people and was an effective counterpart to Soviet propaganda. Sample articles published in
Amerika include: • A Skyscraper's Walls Built in One Day, a photo-story showing how the walls of a tower block on Park Avenue, New York were completed in a period of just 10 hours • A Young Farmer Harvests 1,165 Poods (1
pood = approx 36 lbs) of Corn from One Hectare of Land • Examples of Cheap Furniture, showing home furnishings all of which were cheaper than $25 • Supermarkets – A New Era in Shopping • The Automobile – Inside and Outside • The War on Polio • A November, 1970 feature on brand-new children's TV show
Sesame Street, written by
Elinor Lander Horwitz, with behind-the-scenes photos from the show's very first season by
David Attie; Abrams published Attie's photos from this shoot as the 2021 book "The Unseen Photos of Street Gang." • A Prosthetic Surgeon • A School Where Children Learn the Science of Life • A School in the Open Air • How to Make a Dress Simply in One Day • How to Score Points in Basketball • America's 1956 Automobiles • A March 1972 cover photo of soon-to-be U.S. chess champion
Bobby Fischer in the run-up to
his world championship match, taken by photographer
David Attie • Fashions Under Twenty Dollars • Best Dressed College Girls • Television for the Millions • Facts About the U.S.: The Negro Today • Numerous articles about African-American jazz musicians • Numerous articles about American artists The magazine also published the translations of American literature into Russian, in particular the American poetry translated for it by such famous poets of the second wave of Russian emigration as
Ivan Elagin and
Nikolai Morshen. The magazine ceased publication in October 1994.
Amerika is housed at many major
research libraries in the U.S. Full runs of the Russian-language editions, as well as translations of the articles and records related to their distribution, are available at the
National Archives and Records Administration's Archives II facility in College Park, Maryland. ==Notable contributors==