Reuters: 2012-05-13
One hundred years after its first edition appeared, the once mighty Pravda newspaper has gone back to its origins as a struggling opposition
newspaper, but is still defiantly urging the workers of the world to unite. The paper that for decades was the mouthpiece of the ruling Soviet
Communist Party, churning out propaganda that made a mockery of its title meaning "Truth", suffered a humiliating fall from grace as the
Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.
Banned by Russian President Boris Yeltsin in 1991, Pravda was later revived, then sold to a Greek family, engulfed by financial problems and finally
taken over in 1997 by the Russian Communist Party Central Committee.
Times are hard. But its editor says that battling hostile authorities, the threat of closure and financial problems is how Pravda spent its early years
after first appearing in St Petersburg on May 5, 1912, until the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution.
"In many respects our role and purpose has gone back to what it was before 1917," Boris Komotsky said in his office in Moscow's Pravda Street, a
huge photograph of Soviet state founder Vladimir Lenin reading Pravda on the wall behind him.
"We are the opposition's main organ, fighting for power, for policy changes. We've gone though so many problems. Now each of the workers here
is a hero. At times they've had to work without getting a paycheck."
The paper will celebrate its anniversary with a reception in central Moscow but otherwise says it allows itself no luxuries.
<a href="http://s1267.photobucket.com/albums/jj559/365Wildfire/?action=view&current=pb-120503-pravda-jb-01photoblog900.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1267.photobucket.com/albums/jj559/365Wildfire/pb-120503-pravda-jb-01photoblog900.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>
One hundred years after its first edition appeared, the once mighty Pravda newspaper has gone back to its origins as a struggling opposition
newspaper, but is still defiantly urging the workers of the world to unite. The paper that for decades was the mouthpiece of the ruling Soviet
Communist Party, churning out propaganda that made a mockery of its title meaning "Truth", suffered a humiliating fall from grace as the
Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.
Banned by Russian President Boris Yeltsin in 1991, Pravda was later revived, then sold to a Greek family, engulfed by financial problems and finally
taken over in 1997 by the Russian Communist Party Central Committee.
Times are hard. But its editor says that battling hostile authorities, the threat of closure and financial problems is how Pravda spent its early years
after first appearing in St Petersburg on May 5, 1912, until the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution.
"In many respects our role and purpose has gone back to what it was before 1917," Boris Komotsky said in his office in Moscow's Pravda Street, a
huge photograph of Soviet state founder Vladimir Lenin reading Pravda on the wall behind him.
"We are the opposition's main organ, fighting for power, for policy changes. We've gone though so many problems. Now each of the workers here
is a hero. At times they've had to work without getting a paycheck."
The paper will celebrate its anniversary with a reception in central Moscow but otherwise says it allows itself no luxuries.
<a href="http://s1267.photobucket.com/albums/jj559/365Wildfire/?action=view&current=pb-120503-pravda-jb-01photoblog900.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1267.photobucket.com/albums/jj559/365Wildfire/pb-120503-pravda-jb-01photoblog900.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>
