Osip Senkovsky to edit it, for unusually high salary of 15 thousand rubles a year. For the first time in the history of Russian journalism Smirdin maintained the distinction between the publisher and editor and fixed the royalties schedule (200 rubles per list a minimum, 1000 rubles for famous authors). Biblioteka Dlya Chteniya became the first ever best-selling magazine in Russia to appeal to the wide middle-class readership, not just the intellectual elite.

The magazine had several regular