The Character of Our Newspapers

Lenin’s article on Soviet Newspapers in the period of War Communism. It was written in September 1918, and first published in Pravda issue No.202 on September 20,1918. The Chinese translation is included in Vol. 35 of the second revised edition of the Complete Works of Lenin.

In the autumn of 1918, Britain, United States and France, after defeating Germany, deployed their troops to attack Soviet Russia. In order to mobilize all people and material resources to defend the country, the Soviet Union announced that it had adopted a series of extraordinary measures which were later called “Wartime Communism Policy”. The “Wartime Communism” policies did not only greatly determined the economic life, but also became prevalent in the political and cultural life of the country. Lenin expected the newspapers to become a powerful assistant and supervisor during the implementation of the “Wartime Communism” policies.

First of all, Lenin argued that the newspapers of the Soviets should meet the requirements of the war communism period of Russia. The functions of a newspaper should cater to the needs of the historical environment and change accordingly. We must write about these things and note every new fact in this sphere, but we did not need to write long articles and repeat old arguments. What is needed is to condemn in just a few lines, “in telegraphic style”, the latest manifestation of the old, known and already evaluated politics. The bourgeois press never mentioned the “holy of holies”—the conditions in privately-owned factories, in the private enterprises. We must radically break with it. We must change the situation that newspapers talked too much about politics and too little on the construction of new life. So far such style of newspapers in the Soviet land has not changed to meet the demands of a society which is in transition from capitalism to socialism.

Secondly, Lenin stressed that we should speak “less about politics and more about economics”. Lenin pointed out that politics has been “elucidated” fully and reduced to a struggle between the two camps: the insurrectionary proletariat and the handful of capitalist slave owners. We must speak very briefly about these politics. Lenin pointed out that we must talk “more about economics”. By economics he meant the gathering, careful checking and study of the facts of the actual organisation of the new life. A “black list” should be set up to expose the typical examples of disorder, disintegration, dirt, hooliganism and parasitism in some factories. We could not be silent about bad regiments or just sticked to the stereotyped, official way.

Thirdly, Lenin argued that the newspaper’s attitude towards war should also adapt to the change of the main tasks during transition. Newspapers should harass cowardly or inefficient officers, denounce the bad regiments, remove those who are useless, neglect their duties and delay military planes. We should wage an effective, ruthless and truly revolutionary war against the specific wrongdoers. We should educate the people by living, concrete examples and models taken from all spheres of life. We should give special attention to the everyday life inside the factories, in the villages and in the regiments where, more than anywhere else, the new was being built, where attention, publicity, public criticism, condemnation of what was bad and appealed to learn from the good were needed most.

Finally, Lenin reiterated that less political ballyhoo and more closer-to-life reports were the main tasks of newspapers during the transitional period. More attention should be paid to the way in which the workers and peasants were actually building the new in their everyday work, and more verification so as to ascertain the extent to which the new is communistic.

Lenin wrote on the character of Soviet newspapers in September 1918. It can be seen that Lenin attached great importance to the correct guidance of the Party to the concerns of Soviet newspapers during the difficult beginning period of the Soviets. It has a guiding role for proletarian parties to use mass media to publicize the Party’s principles and policies and serve the Party’s central work.