V. I. Lenin

Pravda’s Anniversary (WORKERS’ SUPPORT FOR THE WORKING-CLASS NEWSPAPER)

Ayear has passed since the appearance of Pravda’s first issue. It originated as a workers’ newspaper, created by the
celebrated upswing of the working-class movement in Russia in April and May
1912.

Pravda has withstood incredible hardships and harassments and
has consolidated its positions (insofar as a workers’ newspaper can be
“consolidated” in modern Russia) through the support of the working
class. Pravda has been more than a workers’ newspaper in name : any newspaper can adopt a name. Pravda has been
a workers’ newspaper in fact , in its orientation, in its range of
readers from the working mass, and in its content in general, notably the
mass of reports from the workers (1,783 workers’ reports in the first
99 issues; a total of almost 5,000 ), and, finally, in the support “Pravda” has been given by workers in general and by
workers’ groups in particular.

Earlieron we pointed out in Pravda (see Nos. 80 and 103 for
1912) {1}

the exceptional importance of the data on support for Pravda
through cash contributions by workers groups. Their importance goes well
beyond the framework of financial assistance, although workers’ financial
assistance is extremely important and necessary to improve the newspaper at
all times.

Butcontributions from workers’ groups are equally, if not more,
important in their moral, educational and organisational significance for
all class-conscious workers and for the working class of Russia as a whole.

Bydeveloping the habit of giving regular support for their own working-class newspaper not only through subscriptions
and distribution but also through regular contributions, the workers are
rallied even closer around a newspaper of their own trend, the
workers are organised into some thing ideologically coherent, the
workers verify the progress of their awakening as they read reports about the contributions at a
neighbouring factory or one they know of. It is, therefore, impossible to
over-emphasise the need to extend and develop in every possible way the
custom of regular (it is better to have them small but regular ) contributions and collections by groups of workers for
the workers’ newspaper.

Thepublished reports showed that before Pravda came out over
4,000 rubles had been collected and sent in through the newspaper
Zvezda by 500 workers’ groups. From the day of our paper’s first
issue up to April 10, contributions totalling 3,932 rubles 42 kopeks were
received, only according to reports published in Pravda . Of them,
79.9 per cent came from proletarians of various categories, 20 per cent
from various groups of intellectuals, and 0.1 per cent from the
peasants. By districts the total is distributed as follows:
St. Petersburg—66.3 per cent (2,605 rubles 81 kopeks), of which only 10
per cent falls to the intelligentsia; Moscow, Vladimir and Kostroma—4.6
per cent, of which contributions from the intelligentsia occur only in
Moscow District (Let us explain at this point that apart from other
reasons, these three districts showed small participation in collections
for Pravda because they also made collections for the Moscow
paper. {2} The money sent only through our newspaper comes to more than
2,000 rubles, of which 70 per cent falls to these three districts and 25
per cent to St. Petersburg District. Once again the St. Petersburg workers
showed their political maturity: they also took an active part in setting
up the Moscow newspaper); the Urals, Siberia, the Baltic Area and
Poland—10.3 per cent; Kharkov and Yekaterinoslav districts—4.4
per cent; elsewhere (Finland, Western Europe, etc.)—14.5 per cent.

Thesefigures are sufficiently eloquent evidence of who is the owner of
the newspaper, who has kept Pravda going and how intimately it is
connected with the workers’ masses.

Inthis context, Pravda’s successes in the first year were
very great. To avoid tiring our readers with a lot of figures, we
shall not give the monthly but the quarterly (that is, three-month) figures
for workers’ group collections for Pravda .

| Years | Number of workers’ group collections |
| --- | --- |
| Pravda | Moscow workers’ newspaper |
| 1912, first quarter . . . . . . . | 108 | — |
| ” second quarter . . . . . . | 396 | — |
| ” third quarter . . . . . . . | 81 | — |
| ” fourth quarter . . . . . . | 35 | 5 |
| 1913, first quarter . . . . . . . | 309 | 129 |
| 1913, first 10 days of April . . . | 93 | 43 |
| Total | 1,022 | 177 |

Andso we find that in its first year, Pravda met with support
from more than 1,000 groups of workers and laid the foundation for
the workers’ paper of Russia’s main industrial area, namely, the Moscow Central Area.

Itgoes without saying that financial support for
Pravda from a thousand workers’ groups implies all kinds
of support from a much greater number of workers’ groups; it means that
tens of thousands of workers have rallied and united round
Pravda . There is no doubt at all that the number of groups making
cash contributions is only a small fraction of the groups of
Pravda readers and friends, who helped it by their letters and
reports, who helped to circulate the paper, to introduce it among new
workers, new sections of the working people, etc.

Theworking class has advanced a whole vanguard of “front-rankers”
who have given a start in the capital to their own , Marxist
workers’ newspaper which is hostile to liberal vacillation, and have
inaugurated a second workers’ newspaper in the heart of industrial
Russia. What the advanced, class-conscious workers have done for
Pravda and for the Moscow workers’ newspaper enables us to pass
unerring judgement on the sum total of the great work done by the workers
for the enlightenment and the organisation of their class. For, after all,
Pravda and the Moscow newspaper are only a part , even if
an important one, of this great cause.

Encouragedby the success of the first year of the workers’ newspaper,
the advanced workers will join forces in untiring, persistent effort to continue the great cause of enlightening and rallying
ever broader masses of the proletariat round the ideas of Marxism!

---
Notes:
{1}
See present edition, Vol. 18, pp. 187–202 and 299–301.— Ed .

{2}
A reference to the newspaper Nash Put (Our Path) published
from August 25 (September 7) to September 12 (25), 1913. Lenin took an
active part in the paper, sending In his articles simultaneously to
Pravda and Nash Put . Among the articles by Lenin published in Nash Put are: “The Russian Bourgeoisie and Russian
Reformism”, “The Role of Social Estates and Glasses in the Liberation
Movement”, “Class War in Dublin”, “A Week after the Dublin Massacre”,
“Questions of Principle in Politics”, and “Harry Quelch”.

Amongthose who contributed to Nash Put were Maxim Gorky,
Demyan Bedny, M. S. Olminsky, I. I. Skvortsov-Stepanov J. V. Stalin and the
Bolshevik deputies to the Fourth Duma, A. Y. Badayev, F. N. Samoilov and
N. R. Shagov. The paper enjoyed wide popularity among the workers; 395
workers’ groups made contributions to run the paper.

p. 279