Pravda

Pravda (Russian: Правда, meaning “the truth”, pronunciation /ˈpravdə/) is the name of a newspaper founded in 1908 by Russian Social Democratic exiles in Vienna. Between 1912 and 1991, it was the official publication of the Communist Party. During Soviet times, it became one of the most prominent publications, whose content touched on topics such as science, politics, culture and economics. In Western countries he became very famous for his statements during the Cold War.

In 1991, Russian President Boris Yeltsin sold the newspaper to a Greek business group, entering Pravda into a period of decline and division of the editorial team. However, in 1997 the Communist Party of the Russian Federation acquired the newspaper and relaunched it as its official organ, although with a significantly smaller circulation than in Soviet times.

Soviet period

Pravda had been founded by Leon Trotsky in 1908 in Vienna. Subsequently, a series of debates began to adopt it as the official organ of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party, but the attempts failed, and the Bolsheviks ended up appropriating the name Pravda in 1912 for their own periodical publication, despite Trotsky's protests.

Pravda was closed due to the repression of the July Days of 1917, so during the last months of the Russian provisional government the Bolshevik organ was the Rabochi Put (The Workers' Way), in the first days of the October Revolution, once again took the name Pravda.

After its beginnings in Vienna and Saint Petersburg, the newspaper's offices, as well as the capital of Russia, were moved to Moscow on March 3, 1918. Pravda became an official publication, organ of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Pravda was the usual channel for announcing political guidelines and changes until 1991.

There were other newspapers that acted as official newspapers of state bodies. For example, Izvestia was the means of expression of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union, Trud (en:Trud (Russian newspaper)) that of the trade unions, Komsomolskaya Pravda for the Komsomol organization and Pionérskaya Pravda the magazine of the Young Pioneers, each specialized in a certain type of news: Izvestia in news from abroad, Trud in domestic news, as well as Komsomolskaya Pravda.

Since December 1917, the newspaper Pravda was directed by Nikolai Bukharin, the Soviet Marxist economist and philosopher, who as editor of the newspaper achieved a great reputation as a political theorist.

After Stalin's death in 1953 and the resulting power vacuum, the First Secretary of the CPSU Nikita Khrushchev used Pravda as a tool to gain power against Georgy Malenkov, the then Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR.

"Izvestia" and "Pravda" means in Russian "The news" and "The Truth", respectively, which is why a popular saying among Soviet dissidents was that "there is no news in "Izvestia" nor truth in "Pravda"". Although the content of Pravda was closely controlled by its editors, it was not impossible to discover the truth in the newspaper among the disinformation and propaganda articles, employing the skill called by the Soviets "reading between the lines" #3. 4; (читать между строк). Many readers became experts in the art of guessing the truth. The formulation of the articles was an important clue to understanding the message.

The most important news stories were often mentioned briefly and placed in dark sections. The back pages often contained more reliable information than the front pages. Instead of bad news in the USSR, the newspaper preferred to talk about a series of similar disasters in other countries.

Post-Soviet period

On August 22, 1991, through a decree signed by Russian President Boris Yeltsin, the Communist Party was out of legality and all its properties passed to the Russian State. This included Pravda. The newspaper's journalists did not fight for him or his story, and registered a new newspaper with the same title a few weeks later.

Weeks later, editor Gennadi Selezniov (now a member of the State Duma) sold Pravda to a family of Greek businessmen, the Yannikosis. The next editor-in-chief, Aleksandr Ilyín, handed over the Pravda masthead — the medals of the Order of Lenin — and the new registration certificate to the new owners.

At that time, there was a major division in the leadership of Pravda. More than 90% of the journalists who had worked for Pravda since 1991 left their jobs. They organized their own version of the newspaper, which was later closed due to government pressure. These same journalists, led by former Pravda editors Vadim Gorshenin and Viktor Línnik in January 1999, launched Pravda Online, the first Russian-language newspaper on the Internet, of which There are versions in English and Portuguese.

The new newspaper Pravda and Pravda Online have no relationship, although journalists from both publications maintain contact. The printed newspaper Pravda tends to analyze events from a leftist perspective, while the electronic newspaper often takes a nationalist approach. The newspaper is currently owned by the Communist Party of the Russian Federation.

Other Pravda in Russia

After the Russian Revolution, there have been other newspapers called Pravda, although their duration has been relatively short in relation to the genuine Pravda. Leon Trotsky published the precursor of the famous Pravda in Vienna and Geneva between October 3, 1908 and April 23, 1912. During the period it was published, the Pravda by Trotsky was the most popular revolutionary publication. Later, Lenin appropriated the name and popular style of Trotsky's Pravda as a Bolshevik newspaper.

The tsarist government followed the policy of closing these Pravda, but each time they were closed they were republished with a slight change of name (Authentic Pravda, Workers' Pravda, etc.).