The first edition of Iskra

Iskra (Russian: ññ) means Spark, was a political newspaper of Russian socialist emigrants established as the official organ of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. The first edition was published in Stuttgart on December 1, 1900. Other editions were published in Munich, London, and Geneva. Initially it was managed by Vladimir Lenin. In 1903, after the split of the RSDLP, Lenin left the staff (after his initial proposal to reduce the editorial board to three - himself, Martov and Plekhanov - was vehemently opposed),^[1] the newspaper was seized by Mensheviks and was published under the control of Plekhanov until 1905. The average circulation was 8,000.

Iskra's motto was " ñññ ññññ ¿»ñ" ("From a spark a fire will flare up") – a line from the reply [1] Vladimir Odoevsky wrote to the poem [2] by Pushkin addressed to the anti-tsar Dekabrists imprisoned in Siberia.

Some of the staff were later involved in the Bolshevik revolution of October 1917.

Initial staff members:

• Vladimir Lenin (Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov)
• Dmitri Ilyich Ulyanov, his younger brother
• Georgi Plekhanov
• Vera Zasulich
• Pavel Axelrod (Pinchas Borutsch)
• Julius Martov (Ilija Cederbaum)
• Aleksandr Potresov

Later:

• Leon Trotsky (Lev Davidovich Bronstein)

Printing: Blumenfeld.

One of the people who financed the paper was Savva Morozov

[edit] Sources

• L. Trotsky "My Life"
• Soviet Encyclopedical Dictionary
• E.H.Carr, The Bolshevik Revolution 1917-1923 vol.1

[edit] References

1. ^ The Prophet Armed Isaac Deutscher (1957)

[edit] See also

• Pravda