TL;DR
In an interview published by Meduza on Oct. 22, writer Linor Goralik described how ROAR, an antiwar literary almanac she founded after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, has continued publishing, and how she later started News 26 for teenagers in Russia. Goralik said ROAR has reached issue 24, while audience reach is difficult to measure and both projects have operated largely through volunteer work.
Writer Linor Goralik has described how her antiwar literary almanac ROAR and teen-focused outlet News 26 have continued operating during Russia’s war against Ukraine, in an interview published by Meduza on Oct. 22. ROAR, founded shortly after Russia’s full-scale invasion, has published 24 issues, according to the interview; Goralik said the projects provide a place for work and information that could be difficult to publish inside Russia.
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Goralik said ROAR publishes online every two months and aims to feature people speaking against the Russian government and the war. Its contents include essays, poetry, audio works and art. She recalled expecting the project to last two or three issues when it began. In the interview, she said it had reached issue 22; Meduza’s accompanying note says ROAR has since released issue 24.
Submissions go to an email address, and Goralik said she decides which pieces to accept based on their literary quality and political message. She described a wider team handling editing, translation, proofreading and publication. At its peak, she said, ROAR had about 200 team members, excluding authors, though not everyone worked on each issue.
A few months after starting ROAR, Goralik launched News 26, an independent media outlet aimed at teenagers in Russia. She said the name was chosen for marketing reasons, with explanations later attached to the number: 16-year-olds in 2022 would be able to vote in 2026, and the original target audience was ages 12 to 14. Goralik said neither project had generated revenue and that News 26 had received two small grants, one in the previous year and another in 2026.
Keeping Antiwar Writing in Circulation
ROAR’s continued publication offers a documented example of writers and editors trying to maintain antiwar literary work despite the risks Goralik associates with speaking openly in Russia. The almanac is not primarily a record of arrests or repression, she said; its stated focus is literary expression. That distinction matters because the project seeks to preserve poems, essays and other creative work alongside the reporting produced by other groups.
News 26 extends Goralik’s work to a younger audience. Its focus on teenagers makes the outlet distinct from ROAR, though the interview provides limited detail about its coverage, reach or day-to-day operations. Both projects rely heavily on labor and support that Goralik describes as volunteer-based, leaving questions about their long-term resources.
Goralik also said the projects’ readership is hard to establish. ROAR has about 2,500 Telegram subscribers, but she said VPN use makes it difficult for the team to know who is reading. The figure is a subscriber count, not a measure of total readership or of readers located in Russia.
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From Invasion to Two Publications
Goralik founded ROAR shortly after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. She said she believed writers opposing the war would need a safer place to publish, even though others had told her the idea was unwise. The project’s publication schedule and its 24 issues show that it continued beyond her original expectation of two or three.
In discussing the Soviet dissident publication A Chronicle of Current Events, known as Khronika, Goralik said ROAR has a different purpose. She recalled interviewing Khronika founder Natalya Gorbanevskaya and said the older publication focused on informing readers about repression. ROAR, she said, is part of a broader effort to keep literary work in circulation. Meduza’s interview was conducted in English by Sarah Chatta and translated into Russian by Ksenia Mironova as part of a Pulitzer Center-supported series on resistance to literary censorship in Russia.
“We’re a magazine that wants to shut down. We want to stop.”
— Linor Goralik, speaking to Meduza about ROAR
Audience and Funding Remain Unclear
The interview does not establish how many people read ROAR or News 26, how much of their audience is inside Russia, or how the outlets’ readership has changed over time. Goralik cited about 2,500 Telegram subscribers for ROAR but said VPN use prevents the team from understanding who reads it. No comparable audience figure for News 26 is given.
Financial details are also limited. Goralik said News 26 received two small grants and that its team gets some compensation, but she did not disclose the amounts. The interview does not specify the grants’ duration, the outlets’ operating costs, or how their work will be funded in the future. It also does not provide a detailed account of security arrangements or the number of team members based in Russia.
The Publications Continue Publishing
Goralik said ROAR is published every two months, and Meduza reported that it has released its 24th issue. The next issue or publication date was not specified in the interview. News 26’s future schedule and grant plans were also not detailed.
For now, the projects’ next steps depend on their editors, translators, contributors and other team members, as well as available funding. Further information about upcoming issues, News 26’s audience and the grants supporting it has not been provided.
Key Questions
What is ROAR?
ROAR, or the Resistance and Opposition Arts Review, is an online literary almanac founded by Linor Goralik shortly after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. It publishes antiwar essays, poetry, audio works and art.
How many issues has ROAR published?
Goralik said in the interview that ROAR had reached issue 22. Meduza’s note says the almanac has since released issue 24.
What is News 26?
News 26 is an independent media outlet Goralik created for teenagers in Russia a few months after launching ROAR. She said its original target audience was ages 12 to 14.
How are the projects funded?
Goralik said the projects had generated no revenue and had relied on volunteer work. News 26 received two small grants, one in the previous year and another in 2026; the amounts were not disclosed.
How large is ROAR’s readership?
Goralik cited about 2,500 subscribers to ROAR’s Telegram channel. She said the team cannot reliably determine its readership or where readers are located, partly because of VPN use.
Source: rss
