MIA: Encyclopedia of Marxism: Glossary of Periodicals


Ko


 

Kolokol

Revolutionary-democratic Russian newspaper published by Alexander Herzen and Nikolai Ogaryov.

 

Kommunist

1. A magazine founded by Lenin and published by the Editorial Board of Sotsial-Demokrat jointly with G. L. Pyatakov and E. B. Bosch, who financed it; Bukharin was one of the editors. Only one (double) issue was published. It carried, apart from the article "The Honest Voice of a French Socialist", two other articles by Lenin: "The Collapse of the Second International" and "Imperialism and Socialism in Italy".

The publication plan was worked out by Lenin in the spring of 1915. The organisational meeting of the editorial board was held under his guidance. Lenin planned to make Kommunist an international organ of the Left-wing Social-Democrats, but it soon transpired that there were grave contradictions between the Editorial Board and Bukharin, Pyatakov and Bosch, which were aggravated after the No. 1-2 issue. The Bukharin-Pyatakov-Bosch took at variance with the Bolsheviks on a number of points of principle in the Party's Programme and tactics-the right of nations to self-determination, the role of democratic demands and the minimum programme in general, etc.–and tried to make use of the magazine for factional purposes. On the Editorial Board Lenin fought the Bukharin-Pyatakov-Bosch group, exposed their anti-Bolshevik views and factional activites, and sharply criticised the concilatory attitude to the group on the part of G. Y. Zinoviev and A. G. Shlyapnikov.

In view of the groups anti-Party attitude, the Sotsial-Demokrat Editorial Board declared, on Lenin's proposal, that it concidered it impossible to continue publication. Lenin wrote the draft resolution of the R.S.D.L.P. Central Committee terminating the publication of the Kommunist. The Central Committee Bureau in Russia, having heard a report on the contradictions on the Kommunist Editorial Board, declared its full solidarity with the Editorial Board of the Central Organ, Sotsial-Demokrat, ad expressed the wish that "all publications of the Central Committee should be edited on lines strictly in conformity with the Central Committee's policy and adopted before the outbreak of the war". From October 1916, the Editorial Board of Sotsial-Demokrat began publication of Sbornik Sotsial-Demokrata.

2. A daily newspaper issued by the “Left-Communists” in Petrograd from March 5 to March 19, 1918 as the “organ of the St. Petersburg Committee and the St. Petersburg Area Committee of the R.S.D.L.P.” Only eleven issues appeared. It reflected the attitude of N. Bukharin and others on the Bolshevik Central Committee opposed to the negotiations with the Germans at Brest-Litovsk, whose delegation from the Soviets was headed Leon Trotsky. Kommunist, advocated “Revolutionary War” against the German Army as a way of fomenting revolution in Germany. The Left Communists regarded this as a principal, as did many Left-Socialist Revolutionaries. Publication of Kommunist, was ceased by decision of the Petrograd City Party Conference of March 20, 1918. The conference stated that the policy of the Petrograd Committee, as expressed in the newspaper Kommunist, was deeply erroneous, and that it completely failed to reflect the attitude of the Petrograd organisation of the Communist Party. The conference declared Petrogradskaya Pravda to be the organ of the Petrograd Party organisation in place of Kommunist.