English: Summary

…I cut with my knife upon a large post, in capital letters—and making it into a great cross, I set it up on the shore where I first landed—“I came on shore here on the 30th September 1659.” Having now brought my mind a little to relish my condition, and given over looking out to sea, to see if I could spy a ship—I say, giving over these things, I begun to apply myself to arrange my way of living, and to make things as easy to me as I could…

Daniel Defoe, “Robine Crusoe”

Seance is a black and white magazine for clever-clogs. It is thick (about 320 pages) and slow on the uptake (it comes out only a few times a year).

Its life story is chock full of unbelievable facts.

First, S?ance was started way back in the Soviet era (the 1980s).

Second, it survived the initial capital grab (the 1990s).

Third, it is still being published in the new millennium.

Our main goal: to think and grapple with our times, and to do our very best to understand and describe them. Another goal: not to succumb to the temptations of the world we live in, and not to make excuses for its cataclysms and abominations.

Our main challenge: to continue to publish “by the skin of our teeth,” treating every issue as if it were our last.

Our good fortune: Talented people have come to join us — and even more importantly, continue to come. An even bigger piece of luck: that they never (for the most part) leave us.