Komsomolskaya Pravda

Komsomolskaya Pravda
Front page on 29 December 2010
Type Daily newspaper
Format Tabloid
Owner(s) Media Partner
Publisher Izdatelsky Dom Komsomolskaya Pravda
Editor Vladimir Sungorkin
Founded 24 May 1925 (1925-05-24)
Language Russian
Headquarters Moscow, Stary Petrovsko-Razumovsky Proezd 1/23, Building 1
Circulation 660,000 (March 2008)
ISSN 0233-433X
Website kp.ru

Komsomolskaya Pravda (Russian: Комсомо́льская пра́вда; lit. "Komsomol Truth") is a daily Russian tabloid newspaper,[1] founded on 13 March 1925.

History and profile

The issue of 23 May 1930
USSR postage stamp commemorating 50 years of Komsomolskaya Pravda

During the Soviet era, Komsomolskaya Pravda was an all-union newspaper of the Soviet Union and an official organ of the Central Committee of the Komsomol. Established in accordance with a decision of the 13th Congress of the Russian Communist Party (b), it first appeared on 24 May 1925[2] in an edition of 31,000 copies.

Komsomolskaya Pravda began as the official organ of the Communist Union of Youth, or Komsomol, the youth wing of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. As such, it targeted the same 14 to 28 demographic as its parent organization, focusing initially on popular science and adventure articles while teaching the values of the CPSU. During this period, it was twice awarded the Order of Red Banner of Labour (in 1950 and 1957), and was also the recipient of the Order of Lenin (in 1930), of the Order of the October Revolution (in 1975), and of the Order of the Patriotic War (in 1945).

As the Soviet Union started to collapse, on 1 December 1990 the paper shifted from serving as a Komsomol mouthpiece to become a Russian nationwide daily tabloid newspaper. During the 1991 August Putsch, the paper was banned by the State Committee of the State of Emergency, or "Gang of Eight", and did not publish from 19 to 20 August - the first time in its history that it failed to appear on schedule. Nevertheless, on 21 August the newspaper published a complete chronicle of the coup as a historical document.

The paper is owned by Media Partner, which in turn is owned by ESN Group (Russian: Евросевернефть), an energy company led by Grigory Berezkin, who has close links to Gazprom. In December 2000 the Norwegian media company A-Pressen bought 25 percent plus one share of the paper.[3] It is published in tabloid format by "Izdatelsky Dom Komsomolskaya Pravda" (Komsomolskaya Pravda Publishing House).[4]

Komsomolskaya Pravda reached its highest circulation in 1990 when it sold almost 22 million daily copies.[5] In 2001 it was the ninth-top European newspaper with a circulation of 785,000 copies.[4] It was the top-selling newspaper in Russia in 2006 with daily circulation ranging from 700,000 to 3.1 million copies.[1] Its March 2008 circulation, certified by the NCS, was 660,000 copies[6] and it was the most read paper in the country based on the findings by the TNS Gallup Media.[7] In the same year the online version of the paper was also the most visited news website.[7]

In January 2015 a front-page article in Komsomolskaya Pravda suggested that the United States had orchestrated the Charlie Hebdo shooting.[8]

In May 2017, columnist Alisa Titko went viral for writing that the English city of Manchester was "full of fat people" and that she found the sight of same-sex love "disgusting".[9][10][11]

Editors in chief of Komsomolskaya Pravda

The newspaper's editors in chief, in reverse chronological order, have been:

  • From 1997 - Vladimir Nikolayevich Sungorkin
  • 1995-1997 - Vladimir Petrovich Simonov
  • 1988-1995 - Vladislav Aleksandrovich Fronin[12]
  • 1981-1988 - Gennadiy Nikolayevich Seleznyov
  • 1978-1980 - Valeriy Nikolayevich Ganichev
  • 1973-1978 - Lev Konstantinovich Korneshov[13]
  • 1965-1973 - Boris Dmitriyevich Pankin
  • 1959-1965 - Yuriy Petrovich Voronov
  • 1957-1959 - Aleksey Ivanovich Adzhubey
  • 1950-1957 - Dmitriy Petrovich Goryunov
  • 1948-1950 - Anatoly Blatin
  • 1941-1948 - Boris Sergeyevich Burkov
  • 1937-1938 - Nikolay Aleksandrovich Mikhaylov
  • 1932-1937 - Vladimir Mikhaylovich Bubekin (1904-1937)[14]
  • 1925-1928 - Taras Kostrov (Aleksandr Sergeyevich Martynovskiy)

A "European" edition (Komsomolskaya Pravda v Evrope), aimed in particular at the Russian diaspora in Germany, as well as Russian-speaking tourists on the Croatian Adriatic coast, is distributed in several EU countries, while a special Baltic-region edition is also available in Latvia, Estonia, and Finland.[15]

A number of similar, but independently owned, newspapers can be found in other member or associate-member states of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS):

See also

Notes

  1. 1 2 "Gazprom Snaps Up Best-Selling Tabloid". The Moscow Times. 22 November 2006. Retrieved 22 October 2008.
  2. ↑ Entry on Komsomolskaya Pravda Archived 26 November 2007 at the Wayback Machine. in the 3rd ed. of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia.
  3. ↑ Andrei Zolotov Jr. (20 June 2001). "Norwegians Sign Deal for $10M Press". The Moscow Times. Retrieved 26 December 2014.
  4. 1 2 Adam Smith (15 November 2002). "Europe's Top Papers". campaign. Retrieved 5 February 2015.
  5. ↑ "The Press in Russia". BBC Monitoring. 16 May 2008. Retrieved 16 May 2008.
  6. ↑ "Main papers". BBC. 16 May 2008. Retrieved 6 October 2013.
  7. 1 2 Cecilia von Feilitzen; Peter Petrov (2011). "Some Comments on Media Typology, Media Preferences and Cultural Identity in Stockholm and St. Petersburg". In Cecilia von Feilitzen; Peter Petrov. Use and Views of Media in Sweden & Russia. Södertörns högskola. ISBN 978-91-86069-26-1. Retrieved 28 January 2015.
  8. ↑ Roland Oliphant (12 January 2015). "'Did the Americans plan the Paris terror attacks?' asks leading Russian tabloid". The Daily Telegraph.
  9. ↑ Graham, Chris (5 May 2017). "Manchester 'full of fat people', says Russian columnist in homophobic rant". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 7 May 2017.
  10. ↑ Dearden, Lizzie (5 May 2017). "Russia's biggest newspaper attacks Manchester over 'disgusting' gay couples and 'many fat people'". The Independent. Retrieved 7 May 2017.
  11. ↑ Rucki, Alexandra (5 May 2017). "A Russian columnist said Manchester is full of 'fat people' and 'homosexuals', and M.E.N. readers are having none of it". Manchester Evening News. Retrieved 7 May 2017.
  12. ↑ Атлас медиаменеджеров - Фронин Владислав Александрович (in Russian). Медиа Атлас. Retrieved 3 December 2011.
  13. ↑ Лев Константинович Корнешов (in Russian). Pseudology.org. Retrieved 15 September 2011.
  14. ↑ Владимир Михайлович Бубекин (in Russian). Pseudology.org. Retrieved 3 December 2011.
  15. ↑ Komsomolskaya Pravda Baltiya
  16. ↑ Komsomolskaya Pravda in Ukraine newspaper renamed under 'decommunization' law, Interfax-Ukraine (12 January 2016)
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