Press Day

Press Day 

a traditional holiday of the Bolshevik Party-Soviet press, observed annually on May 5, to commemorate the publication of the first issue of the newspaper Pravda (Apr. 22 [May 5], 1912).

The first Press Day was held on Pravda’s second anniversary in 1914; its immediate goal was to rally the support of the broad working masses around the central Bolshevik newspaper and to increase its financial fund.Pravda (issue 67, bearing the name “Prut’ Pravdy”) came out in an edition of 130,000 copies, and its fund received over 16,000 rubles from workers. Summarizing the results of the workers’ Press Day, V. I. Lenin remarked: “The second anniversary of the newspaper Pravda became a day of reviewing the Marxist forces. . . . Four-fifths of the class-conscious workers support the positions of Pravda” (Poln. sobr. soch., 5th ed., vol. 25, pp. 418, 420).

On May 5, 1922, the tenth anniversary of Pravda, a Party-Soviet Press Day was held by decision of the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party (Bolshevik) and on approval of the Eleventh Party Congress.Pravda printed V. I. Lenin’s article “For the Tenth Anniversary of Pravda” and articles and reminiscences of E. M. Iaroslavskii, , G. I. Petrovskii, M. S. Ol’minskii, and other prominent party publicists.

Since 1922, Press Day has been held annually to review the achievements of the Soviet press and publishing industry. Meetings, reports to readers from editorial offices, exhibitions, contests, reviews, and book sales are organized on Press Day. Special issues of periodicals are published, and the journalists who have published the most significant works are awarded prizes.