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The “Pravda” is 90!

In August 2019, the main publishing house of the USSR marks its 90th anniversary.

In our modern life, the print press has no longer such a grandiose significance as it did several decades ago. The XXI century dictates its conditions, and the most popular media have long been television and online media. But in the Soviet times, one of the main sources of reliable information was precisely the periodical press – newspapers and magazines.

In 1929, in Moscow, the largest newspaper and magazine Communist Party publishing house of the USSR, “Pravda”, was founded. It published all the newspapers of the Central Committee of the CPSU – “Pravda”, “Sovetskaya Rossiya”, “Selskaya Zhizn”, “Sovetskaya Kultura”, “Komsomolskaya Pravda”, “Za Rubezhom”, etc.

The “Pravda” published all the political journals of the Communist Party – “Kommunist”, “Partiynaya Zhizn”, “Agitator”, “Politicheskoye Samoobrazovaniye”; as well as journals and magazines of various thematic areas – “Voprosy Filosofii”, “Voprosy Istorii”, “Ogonyok”, “Rabotnitsa”, “Krestyanka”, “Zdorovye”, “Nauka i Zhizn”, “Krokodil”, and others.

In addition to newspapers and magazines, the Publishing House published books and brochures, postcards and reproductions. The Publishing House had its own printing company – the Printing House of the newspaper “Pravda” named after V.I. Lenin. To accelerate the delivery of central newspapers to the readers of the remote areas of the country, decentralization of printing was used: the newspaper pages were transmitted by photo telegraphy, in many cities the matrixes to print the newspapers by local printing houses were delivered by air.

Besides the USSR, the publications of the “Pravda” were distributed in 102 countries.

In December 2000, the successor of the “Pravda” Publishing House of the CPSU Central Committee was FSUE Publishing House “Pressa” of the Office of the President of the Russian Federation. Now the printing house is called “Media-Pressa”.

All the activities of the “Pravda” Publishing House were directly related to the publication of the newspaper “Pravda”, which for more than 70 years had been the main print edition of the Soviet Union and had huge circulations.

M.A. Sholokhov was inextricably linked with the “Pravda”; he was proud and cherished the title of a “pravdist”. For this title he was officially approved by the resolution of the newspaper’s editorial board of May 13, 1932, which stated: “To enlist Comrade Sholokhov as a permanent employee for the newspaper “Pravda”.

The newspaper “Pravda” published the chapters of the novels “And Quiet Flows the Don” and “Virgin Soil Upturned”, it was the first to publish the short stories “The Science of Hatred” and “The Fate of a Man”, many of Sholokhov’s essays and articles. During the years of the Great Patriotic War, Sholokhov was a war correspondent for the newspaper “Pravda”. He sent to the editorial board his exciting evidence of the courage of the people who had risen to fight. Each Sholokhov’s publication in the “Pravda” became an event.

The “Pravda” published Sholokhov’s talks at the Communist Party congresses and conferences, his speeches to voters during the elections to the USSR Supreme Soviet, speeches at the writers’ congresses, and talks with young people.

The writer’s friendship with the “Pravda” was strong and mutual. Each time coming to Moscow Sholokhov was sure to visit the editorial office. He usually brought something of his writings for publication. He easily and willingly started conversations, as an equal with equals, never letting anyone feel his exceptional position. Over the years of working for the “Pravda”, M.A. Sholokhov formed a warm and sometimes friendly relationship with many “pravdists”: Yu.B. Lukin, K.V. Potapov, L.E. Pishenina A.I. Navozov, A.A. Bakharev, V.I. Kuznetsov, and others.

When representatives of various newspapers asked Mikhail Alexandrovich for cooperation, he gave one and the same answer: “I write for the “Pravda”... All my literary life I have been connected with Lenin’s “Pravda”... I have always been and remain a “pravdist”!” 

Alla Tsytsura