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The Pre-Revolutionary Pravda and Tsarist Censorship

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2017

Whitman Bassow
Whitman Bassow*
Affiliation:
Doctorat d'Universite from the Sorbonne
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Extract

At the Sixth Conference of the Russian Social-Democratic Labor Party held in Prague in January, 1912, the Bolsheviks, under Lenin's leadership, expelled the Mensheviks, arrogated the party name and organization to themselves and elected a Central Committee under their control. They also decided to publish a legal daily newspaper in Russia which was to be the chief vehicle for spreading Bolshevik propaganda among the workers and was intended to spearhead their campaign in the forthcoming Duma elections. When the paper appeared on the streets of St. Petersburg on April 22, 1912 (old style), it bore the name which has since become world-renowned: Pravda.

This first version of Pravda was published until July 8, 1914, when it was finally suppressed. At various times, its staff and contributors included Lenin, Ol'minskij, Molotov, Zinov'ev, Kamenev, Stalin, Bubnov, Sverdlov, Bukharin and many others who later became prominent in the Soviet Government. Lenin appears to have been the dominant figure on the paper. From Cracow, safe from the reaches of the Okhrana, he guided its destinies with an iron hand. His principal assistants were Zinov'ev and Kamenev, who left Paris to join him there.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Slavic and East European Review , Volume 13 , Issue 1 , February 1954 , pp. 47 - 65
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies 1954

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References

1 Pravda changed its name eight times before it was suppressed, but always remained the same paper. In order to avoid possible confusion, all eight are cited in the text under the name of Pravda. In the footnotes, the specific title is given: Rabočaja pravda, Za pravdu, etc.

2 A note on sources: The author was fortunate in being able to consult one of the rare files of the original edition of Pravda, with only nineteen issues missing out of 645. This file is available at the Bibliotheque de documentation internationale contemporaine, Paris.

The memoirs presented in this article were published after the Revolution and it is fairly certain that the writers were only too anxious to portray an unfavorable picture of the censorship system. They were also most certainly boastful of their own prowess in circumventing the censorship. In spite of this, these memoirs seem to have some historical value since they were published fairly soon after the event and before the Soviet Government began to falsify historical accounts in the grand manner of later years. This article is based on a chapter of a dissertation for which the author received a Doctorat d'Universite from the Sorbonne.

In regard to the police documents published in Krasnyj arkhiv and Proletarskaja revoljucija, there is always the possibility that these may have been altered to fit the needs of Soviet historiography. However, two of the three major sources were published in 1923 and 1925, long before the Soviets began to rewrite history. The third source, “Zvezda i Pravda i carskaja cenzura,” although published in 1937 after the rewriting campaign had started, appears authentic and has been checked by the author against corroborating evidence found in the statements on confiscation which Pravda was required by law to publish.

3 Decree No. 41988, dated April 6, 1865, Polnoe sobranie zakonov rossijskoj imperii, 2nd Collection, Vol. XL, Section I, 1865 (St. Petersburg, 1867), p. 396.

4 Article 1, “Ustav o cenzure i pečati, izdanie 1890 goda,” Svod zakonov rossijskoj imperii (St. Petersburg, 1903?), XIV, I.

5 Article 9, “Ustav o cenzure i pečati, izdanie 1890 goda,” Svod zakonov rossijskoj imperii, prodol~enie 1912 goda (St. Petersburg, 1912?), IX, I.

6 Pravda received License No. 3393, dated April 10, 1912. See text: “Zvezda i Pravda i carskaja cenzura,” Krasnyj arkhiv, II (1937), 53.

7 Article 10122, Uloženie o nakazanijakh, ugolovnykh i ispravitel'nykh, izdanie 1885 goda, so vključeniem statej po prodolženijam 1912, 1913, 1914 godov (Petrograd, 1916), p. 217.

8 Article 10342, Ugolovnoe uloženie (stati, vvedenija v dejstvie), izdanie 1909 goda, so vklujučeniem statej po prodolženijam 1912 i 1913 godov (Petrograd, 1916), p. 223.

9 Ibid., p. 492.

10 Ibid., p. 499.

11 Ibid., p. 502.

12 Ibid., p. 223.

13 G. Zinov'ev and L. Kamenev, in a letter to G. Levin dated March 24, 1912, Iz epokhy Zvezdy i Pravdy (Moscow-Leningrad, 1924), III, 180.

14 See “Žandarmy o Pravde,” Proletarskaja revoljucija, II (1923), 456. This is the text of a report written by a colonel in the St. Petersburg Okhrana dated June 30, 1914.

15 V. M. Molotov, “Iz prošlogo Pravdy,” Pravda, May 5, 1927.

16 The St. Petersburg regulations were not available to the author. A description of them, however, was found in “Žandarmy o Pravde” pp. 461 ff.

17 A. Gertik, “Rasprostranenie gazety Pravda,” Pravda, May 5, 1922. Gertik was on the staff of Pravda.

18 “Žandarmy o Pravde,” p. 462.

19 Ibid., p. 464.

20 “Zvezda i Pravda i carskaja cenzura,” Krasnyj arkhiv, II (1937), pp. 34–104.

21 Pravda, April 28, 1912.

22 Report of the St. Petersburg Committee on Press Affairs to the Chief Administration of Press Affairs, April 28, 1912, “Zvezda i Pravda i carskaja cenzura,” p. 54.

23 Pravda, October 27, 1912.

24 Report of the Committee on Press Affairs, November 3, 1912, “Zvezda i Pravda i carskaja cenzura,” p. 56.

25 Pravda, June 5, 1913. This speech was written by Lenin. See his Sočinenija (2nd ed.), XVI, 409.

26 Report of the Committee on Press Affairs, June 17, 1913, “Zvezda i Pravda i carskaja cenzura,” p. 62.

27 Za pravdu, October 6, 1913.

28 Ibid.

29 Report of the Committee on Press Affairs, October 6, 1913, “Zvezda i Pravda i carskaja cenzura,” p. 77.

30 Ugolovnoe uloženie, p. 502.

31 Pravda, April 24, 1912.

32 Report of the Committee on Press Affairs, April 24, 1912, “Zvezda i Pravda i carskaja cenzura,” p. 54.

33 Ibid.

34 Pravda, January 19, 1913.

35 Ibid.

36 Report of the Committee on Press Affairs, January 19, 1913, “Zvezda i Pravda i carskaja cenzura,” p. 57.

37 Ugolovnoe uloženie, p. 223.

38 Pravda, May 23, 1913.

39 Report of the Committee on Press Affairs, June 4, 1913, “Zvezda i Pravda i carskaja cenzura,” p. 60.

40 Report of the Committee on Press Affairs, December 7, 1913, “Zvezda i Pravda i carskaja cenzura,” p. 86.

41 Poljanskij, V., introd., “Pamjatnaja zapiska o rabočikh gazetakh v Peterburge (1913),” Krasnyj arkhiv, X (1925), 292 Google Scholar.

42 S. Danilov, “Sudebno-policejskie presledovanija Pravdy,” Pravda, May 6, 1927.

43 B. Ivanov, “K 15-letiju Pravdy,” Pravda, May 6, 1927.

44 A. E. Badaev, “Pravda v gody carizma,” Pravda, May 5, 1927.

45 A. Gertik, loc. cit.

46 Ibid.

47 Zinov'ev, G., Istorija rossijskoj kommunističeskoj partii (Moscow-Leningrad, 1923), p. 259 Google Scholar.

48 Decree of the Examining Magistrate, 3rd district, St. Petersburg, July 30, 1913, “Zvezda i Pravda i carskaja cenzura,” p. 65.

49 Ibid., p. 64.

50 Decision of the St. Petersburg District Court, July 31, 1913, “Zvezda i Pravda i carskaja cenzura,” p. 65.

51 “Žandarmy o Pravde,” p. 460.

52 V. Poljanskij, loc. cit., p. 299.

63 “Žandarmy o Pravde, p. 460.

54 Ibid., p. 460.

55 Kalinin, M. I., Pečat’v rukakh bol'ševikov (Moscow, 1938), p. 8.Google Scholar

56 A. Gertik, loc. cit.

57 I. Čerpenin, “Za Pravdu,” Pravda, May 5, 1922.

58 “Zvezda i Pravda i carskaja cenzura,” p. 37 (Soviet figures). V. Poljanskij, loc. cit., p. 292 (Okhrana figures). Pravda sources: Put’ pravdy, April 22, 1914; Istorija rabočej pečati v Rossii, published as a special supplement to Put pravdy, April 22, 1914, p. 24.

59 “Žandarmy o Pravde,” pp. 454 ff.

60 Ibid., p. 463. Circulation figures given as of June 30, 1914: Trudovaja pravda—40,000; Naša rabočaja gazeta—15,000–17,000; Živaja mysl' truda—10,000–12,000.

61 “Žandarmy o Pravde,” p. 454.

62 Ibid., p. 454.

63 Ibid., p. 455.

64 Ibid., p. 463.

65 Ibid., p. 456.

66 Ibid.

67 Ibid., p. 457.

68 Ibid.

69 Ibid., p. 458.

70 V. Poljanskij, loc. cit., p. 290.