The Russian Word (Russkoe Slovo)
TODAY’S GUEST POST IS FROM JANE MIKKELSON (FULL BIO BELOW)
One hundred years ago today … The Russian Word (Russkoe Slovo) brought the news to NYC Russophones. Founded in 1910, the newspaper garnered a wide enough American audience to turn a profit, allowing it to become a daily in 1913 (Karlowich,We Fall and Rise, 154). It subsequently ran until 2010: this makes it the longest-running Russian daily newspaper anywhere in the world (Zyla and Aycock, 485). Under the stewardship of editors Ivan Okuntsov (d.1934) and Leo Paslovsky (d.1953), The Russian Word ran stories in keeping with the anti-tsarist democratic leanings of the editors and their Russian émigré readership. After the 1917 Revolution, however, the newspaper became a beacon of anti-communist views. To mark this shift in political sympathies, it was renamed The New Russian Word (Novoe Russkoe Slovo) in 1920, two months after the June 29, 1920 issue.
Russkoe Slovo, 29 June 1920. The New York Public Library.
The June 29 headlines highlight various events around the world, relying on communications received via telegraph and mail. A main section is devoted to updates on the Polish-Soviet War (which would not end until October 1920). The stakes of this conflict were especially high for the Bolsheviks, who saw Poland as an obstacle to spreading the communist revolution into Western Europe–a deeply unsettling prospect for Britain and France:
War with Poland. A call for the blockade of Poland. Dispatch from Moscow: on June 7, a gathering of railroad and maritime transportation union leaders led to the drafting of a manifesto addressed to the workers of France, England, Italy, Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Holland, calling on all their unions to work together on a blockade of Poland, which shouldn't be allowed to receive any war equipment or other goods. The manifesto says, “Workers themselves have to take measures to systematically blockade Poland. With your help, the victory of the Russian proletariat over Poland will strengthen international solidarity.”
Russkoe Slovo, 29 June 1920, p.1.The New York Public Library.
Meanwhile, in Soviet Russia, an epidemic rages. This is likely louse-borne typhus: more than half a million people died of typhus between 1918 and 1922 in Russia. The section “At War with the Epidemic” states that “anyone arriving in Moscow, regardless of rank” must go immediately to a “disinfecting center.” Violating this decree comes with a 25-year hard labor sentence.
(This 1919 poster contains characteristically on-the-nose Soviet messaging during this “war on the epidemic” about the importance of upholding public hygiene.)
“The Louse and Death are Friends and Comrades. Destroy Lice that Carry Disease!” by O. Grin. Diletant Media.
Other events in the headlines include a boat carrying 2,000 war prisoners sinks in the Neva River (no reported deaths); Bolsheviks discuss ongoing progress in Siberia; Workers of Eastern Europe come together at a meeting in Omsk. Another section reports on the recent activities of exiled Russian academics in Berlin, several of whom have just formed a union. Among the figure listed in this story is the St. Petersburg criminologist V.D. Nabokov, Vladimir Nabokov’s father, who would be assassinated by a far-right terrorist in Berlin less than two years later.
Russkoe Slovo, 29 June 1920, p.1. The New York Public Library.
Events transpiring in the Near East are also discussed in this issue: “Turks mourn defeat of Kemal Pasha [Ataturk]; nationalists suffer great losses in Izmir area; Greeks in Constantinople elated; all Greeks of age are called into service.” Another section is devoted to current events in the United States, covering stories about elections–“[William Gibbs] McAdoo considered strongest candidate in San Francisco”–and the Democratic Convention, where urgent debates are unfolding on the topic of prohibition: “V.J. Brian introduces a resolution at the Convention to ban all alcoholic beverages above .05%,” is one view; on the other side, “another resolution urges against the strict implementation of the Volstead Act.” There are also details of Homer S. Cummings’ speech at the Convention, in which he proposes to go on the offensive against Republicans and calls for building a government on the foundations of justice.
A section titled “Work Life,” reports that a worker is killed in New Haven; one killed and eight injured in Finland during clashes between striking workers and strike-breakers; and brass factory workers in Waterbury, Connecticut, are still standing off against their employers.
Russkoe Slovo, 29 June 1920, p.1. The New York Public Library.
The Russian Word was headquartered at 31 E. 7th Street, in the heart of the Lower East Side where much of its readership would have lived. The price was 2 cents per issue, $9 for a yearly subscription.
The entire microfilm collection, housed at the New York Public Library, has been recently digitized.