The Iskra newspaper: Lenin's "favorite child"
On December 24, 1900, the first issue of the legendary revolutionary newspaper Iskra was published.
She was taken across the border in suitcases with a double bottom, in cleverly tailored waistcoats, in the soles of boots. In Vyborg it was delivered by the machinists and stokers of the Finland road, it entered Baku through Persia, into the western provinces through Lviv, Riga and Libava. The Black Sea ports of Russia received Iskra from Marseilles, Constantinople and Varna.
There was another way of transportation. "Iskra" was sent to Russia by ordinary mail to the addresses of "trustworthy" persons, so as not to call suspicion from the police, correspondence was sent from different points in packages of various formats and colors. "... The whole nail of our business now is transportation, transportation and transportation," Lenin wrote in the summer of 1901.
In Russia, Iskra was expected to rain in a drought. The small thin sheets of the newspaper were passed from hand to hand, they were read out to the holes. "The working people can now easily catch fire," the St. Petersburg weaver wrote in Iskra, "everything is already smoldering downstairs, only a spark is needed and there will be a fire ... Now just learn how to go to battle ..."
The plan for the publication of an all-Russian Marxist newspaper developed in Lenin's time in Siberian exile. With him, according to Ilyich himself, he "rushed, as with his beloved child, for many years." The newspaper was called upon to defend Marxism in the struggle against revisionism and "economists", to lay the ideological and organizational foundations of the proletarian party.
After serving the reference, Lenin immediately took up the implementation of his plan. At the very beginning of 1900 he came to Ufa, where he established contact with local Social Democrats. Moscow, St. Petersburg, Pskov, Nizhny Novgorod, Samara, Syzran, Podolsk, Riga, Smolensk - Lenin always agrees on the assistance of Iskra, so that then, already abroad, know who to lean on in Russia, from whom to receive correspondence for the newspaper, to whom it should be sent for distribution. There were few such people at first - a dozen, but over time the network of Iskra agents expanded significantly. Lenin personally supervised their work, taught conspiracy, gave precise instructions.
Arriving in Switzerland in the summer of 1900, Lenin began negotiations on joint work with the group "Emancipation of Labor". After long disputes, an agreement was reached. The editorial board of the future newspaper included Lenin, Plekhanov, Martov, Axelrod, Zasulich and Potresov.
The first issue of Iskra came from the walls of a tiny printing plant located in the suburb of Leipzig. Ten days stayed here. Lenin, reading fresh newspaper pages. Here it is, the long-awaited Iskra is a spark from which the flame will kindle. She saw the light on the eve of the new, 20th century.
Lenin was the ideological and practical leader of Iskra, the author of dozens of important program articles, a demanding editor. He strictly followed that all the materials of the newspaper were topical, connected with the revolutionary struggle of the working class. Particular attention to Vladimir Ilyich turned to working correspondence. The pages of the newspaper consistently printed letters from factories and factories reflecting the mood of the workers.
Iskra's agents Babushkin , Bauman , Radchenko, Stasova, Krzhizhanovsky, Kalinin, Knipovich, Krasin, MI Ulyanova and others maintained constant correspondence with the editorial staff. Up to 300 letters a month came here from Russia. Giant work on their decoding fell on the shoulders of the permanent secretary of the newspaper NK Krupskaya . Most often she wrote and answers to them. Vladimir Ilyich looked through every letter, made the necessary corrections and additions. We received more than 50 autograph letters from Lenin to Iskra agents.
The demand for Iskra was so great that even well-organized transportation from abroad could not satisfy it. VI Lenin set the task: to organize a reprint of the newspaper in Russia. In the spring of 1901 the underground Chisinau printing house ("Akim") began its work, and in September - Baku ("Nina"). It was created by the Iskra-ists VZ Ketskhoveli and LB Krasin. Samples of their products were sent to Lenin. In addition to Chisinau and Baku, separate issues of the newspaper were reprinted in Moscow, Ukraine and Siberia. "We must at least once try to saturate the whole of Russia," Lenin demanded.
A year after the release of the first issue of Iskra, in January 1902, a congress of its supporters was held in Samara. The Bureau of the Russian organization Iskra was established under the leadership of GM Krzhizhanovsky. Representatives of the bureau traveled to all parts of the country to get solidarity with the position of Iskra from local committees. Having learned about the Samara congress, Lenin wrote: "Your initiative terribly made us happy. Hooray! Exactly! Get more out! ". During 1902, Iskra recognized as its governing body the Social Democratic committees of Russia's largest industrial centers.
Iskra led the preparations for the convocation of the Second Congress. In number 21 the program of the Marxist proletarian party was published. The Congress expressed its gratitude to the editorial board of Iskra for its activities. The newspaper was declared the central organ of the RSDLP. But Plekhanov, in spite of the Congress's decision on the composition of the editorial board, introduced three Mensheviks into it. In the autumn of 1903, Lenin left the editorial office. From the 52nd issue, Iskra became Menshevik. The banner of the old, Leninist Iskra was accepted and carried further by the Bolshevik newspaper Vperyod.
Lenin's Iskra fulfilled its historical mission of the militant organ of revolutionary Marxism, laying the foundation for the creation of the Bolshevik Party.
Подробнее: http://comstol.info/2013/12/politika/8314
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