Leon Trotsky: What are the Tasks of the ‘Peasant Newspaper’?1

[Published on 17 November 1924 in ,Крестьянская Газета‘ [Krest’yanskaya Gazeta, Peasant Newspaper] No. 51. My own translation of the Russian reprint, published in Сочинения. Том 21. Москва-Ленинград, 1927. Проблемы культуры. Культура переходного периода {Sochineniya, Tom 21, Moskva-Leningrad, 1927. Problemy kul’tury. Kul’tura perekhodnogo perioda, Works, Volume 21, Moscow-Leningrad 1927. Problems of culture. Culture of the transition period}]

The first task is to give the peasant the opportunity to see not only what is happening in his village, but also what is happening in the country as a whole.

The second task is to give the peasant the opportunity to tell, through his newspaper, what his needs are, how he sees the situation, what measures he proposes.

The peasantry forms the overwhelming majority of the population of our Union. But the peasantry lives a dispersed life. Many difficulties and misunderstandings would be removed if there were a constant, living and unbroken link between the peasantry scattered in villages and hamlets and the centres where the laws are enacted and from which all important state measures emanate. Only a newspaper can establish such a connection. The constant development and consolidation of such a connection is the main reason for the existence of the Peasant Newspaper. It already achieved a great deal in its first year. In the second year of its existence, the newspaper must find a wider distribution in the villages, penetrate deeper into peasant life and reflect it more completely. The ‘Peasant Newspaper’ is the most necessary means for the proper influence of the peasantry on the whole life of the state.

Let us help the ‘Peasant Newspaper’, let us support it, let us expand it and let it gain a firm foothold!

1 The ‘Peasant Newspaper’ was founded on the decision of the XII Party Congress. It has been published in Moscow since November 1923 under the editorship of Comrade A. Yakovlev. Designed for the broad peasant masses in terms of both price and content, the newspaper achieved a circulation of 1 million in the first two years. During this time, the number of rural correspondents rose to 5,000 (by 1 January 1927 there were already 8,800). The ‘Peasant Newspaper’ had great political and cultural significance, connecting the broad masses of the million-strong peasantry with the proletariat.