Vpered

Vpered

 

(1) First Bolshevik weekly newspaper, published in Geneva from Dec. 22, 1904 (Jan. 4, 1905) to May 5 (18), 1905. Organ of the first Bolshevik central organization—the Bureau of Committees of the Majority.

Vpered was founded after the Mensheviks seized control of the central organ of the RSDLP, Iskra. The decision to publish Vpered was made at a Bolshevik meeting on Nov. 29 (Dec. 12), 1904. The name of the newspaper was suggested by Lenin. A total of 18 issues were published. The members of the paper’s editorial board were V. I. Lenin, V. V. Vorovskii, A. V. Lunacharskii, and M. S. Ol’minskii, and the secretary of the editorial board was N. K. Krupskaia, who conducted all correspondence with Russia. Vpered revived the revolutionary tradition of Lenin’s Iskra, waging a struggle against opportunism and for strengthening the proletarian revolutionary party. Lenin contributed many leading articles to the paper, as well as a large number of notes on a variety of subjects, and he was closely involved in the editorial work—surviving manuscripts contain many of his corrections and additions. More than 40 articles by Lenin were published in the paper. The first issue alone contained “The Autocracy and the Proletariat” (an editorial), “On Good Demonstrations of Proletarians and Poor Arguments of Certain Intellectuals,” ’Time to Call a Halt,” and other articles by Lenin. He emphasized that “the line of the newspaper Vpered is the line of the old Iskra. In the name of the old Iskra, Vpered will resolutely combat the new Iskra” (Poln. sobr. soch., 5th ed., vol. 9, p. 236).

The significance of Vpered in the history of the CPSU is defined by the fact that the paper was an ideological-political organ abroad that cooperated with the practical organ in Russia—the Bureau of Committees of the Majority—to give political and organizational shape to Bolshevism. Vpered played an outstanding role in the struggle against Menshevism, the creation of a new kind of party, and the preparation of the Third Congress of the RSDLP. At its 22nd session, the Third Congress instructed the Central Committee to establish a new central organ of the party; it was to be called Proletarii. In a special resolution concerning Vpered, the congress took note of the paper’s role and significance and expressed its gratitude to the editorial board for its pioneering and energetic revolutionary activity (KPSS v rezoliutsiiakh ” , 7th ed., part 1, 1954, p. 86).

(2) A Bolshevik daily published legally in St. Petersburg and edited by Lenin from May 26 (June 8), 1906. It replaced the newspaper Volna, and 17 issues were published. Contributors included V. V. Vorovskii, A. V. Lunacharskii, and M. S. Ol’minskii. A number of articles by Lenin were published in the paper. It was closed by the police on July 14 (27), 1906. In place of Vpered, the Bolshevik daily Ekho was legally published from June 22 (July 5), 1906.