for soviet readers, "vokrug sveta" represented a rare source of authentic, fully illustrated information about foreign cultural attractions. this is despite the insistence of soviet officials that the magazine should cover domestic tourist attractions, rather than those situated outside the ussr. in the 1960s and 1970s, the magazine continued to grow in popularity and increased the circulation to 2,300,000 copies by 1971. a television subsidiary was also popular, particularly in the early 1990s. as of 2007, "vokrug sveta" ranks third among russia's popular monthlies, with a circulation hovering around 250,000. the free archives of past issues (starting from 1970) are available on their website.