Pravda and Izvestia.
They were the only Soviet newspapers that most Americans knew, and for many the names were synonymous with communist propaganda, totalitarian rule and anti-American rhetoric.
Today, a year after the failed coup that caused the collapse of the Soviet Union, both papers have become independent publications and are carving out influential new roles for themselves.
As Russia strains to salvage its shattered economy, the two old ideological peas-in-a-pod find themselves at opposite ends of the political garden.
Izvestia, the official government organ under communist rule, has transformed itself into one of the most respected publications here, by Russians and foreigners alike. A strong supporter of democracy and market economics, it has a circulation above 3 million, attracts considerable foreign advertising and claims to be the only Moscow newspaper that didn`t lose money in the first half of this year.
On the other hand, Pravda, once the official paper of the old Communist Party, almost went out of business in March when lack of funds forced it to suspend publication for 23 days. A sharp critic of President Boris Yeltsin`s domestic and foreign policies, it now comes out just three times a week, still losing readers and operating deep in the red.
But so uncertain is the political outlook here that it is the Izvestia editors who are more worried about the future, while at Pravda there is optimistic talk about new funding from abroad and an expanded publishing schedule this fall.
In fact, developments at Izvestia and Pravda in the next few months will be of great interest, and not just to their staffs. They could provide valuable clues to the ultimate fate of Yeltsin`s controversial reform effort, which has become bogged down and increasingly unpopular.
Right now, most of the attention is on Izvestia, which is fighting a takeover attempt by the Russian parliament. The parliament, which was elected before last August`s coup and contains many old-line politicians, voted overwhelmingly at its summer session to assume control of the staff-owned publication.
”They are unhappy with our editorial policy,” said Izvestia`s foreign editor, Andrei Ostalsky. ”We are the only influential newspaper that supports a liberal economy.”
Yeltsin and other democratic leaders have denounced the move as a serious threat to press freedoms here. Izvestia`s editor in chief, Igor Golembiovsky, said it was the first step in a campaign by old-line politicians to gain control over all Russian media.
If parliament has its way with Izvestia, Golembiovsky said, it will try to set up an oversight committee for TV news and make it a crime to criticize public officials. Proposals to this effect have been informally discussed in the legislature.
”Yeltsin has asked for the power to hold referendums on critical reform issues,” Golembiovsky said. ”Therefore, it becomes important who controls the leading mass media.” Without independent newspapers and TV news broadcasts, the president`s ability to mobilize the public behind his programs would be seriously diminished, he said.
Pravda needs cash
Pravda`s problem has been quite different. Circulation has plummeted to less than 1 million, from about 11 million five years ago, and editors have been casting about for someone to help keep the paper afloat.
Earlier this month, it was revealed that they thought they had found him, a left-wing Greek industrialist who is paying back a kindness that Pravda rendered him in the 1940s.
When Yannis Yannikos was imprisoned during Greece`s civil war, Pravda campaigned vigorously on his behalf. Now Yannikos` firm, Steel Light Ltd., is funding the creation of a joint stock company called Pravda International, according to the paper`s deputy editor, Alexander Ilin.
Yannikos had met with the paper`s staff, sources there said, and promised not to interfere with Pravda`s editorial content. He also said he is not concerned about making a profit on his investment, at least not for a few years, the sources said.
This new development is unlikely to put an end to speculation that Pravda is actually being funded by money sent abroad by communists before the Soviet Union went out of existence late last year. That the paper has maintained about a dozen foreign correspondents has fed the speculation. Ilin denied these allegations, but acknowledged that he would be ”very glad to get some of this money if it existed. If anyone knows where it is, tell me, and I will take a sack and go get it. I`m entitled to it.”
Pravda`s publishing house, which also printed books and several other profitable newspapers, ”transferred more than 8 billion rubles (about $39 million) to the party in recent years,” he said.
The coup was crucial
Izvestia`s success and Pravda`s problems can be traced to last August`s coup, when the two papers reacted quite differently to the attempt by communist hard-liners to overthrow then-President Mikhail Gorbachev and shore up the crumbling Soviet government.
Both papers published the decree issued by coup leaders, but Izvestia also printed Yeltsin`s defiant call for resistance to the plot. Nikolai Yefimov, editor in chief at the time, tried to keep Yeltsin`s statement out of the paper, Ostalsky said, but the staff rebelled.
”Yefimov was on vacation when the putsch began,” Ostalsky said. ”He rushed in here and, when he found out we intended to print Yeltsin`s statement, he went to the printing plant and tried to have it removed from the paper. The workers refused. They said they would not let the paper come out without Yeltsin`s statement in it.”
When the coup collapsed, Yefimov ”tried to behave as if nothing had happened,” Ostalsky said. ”But the staff told him to leave this building and never come back.” The editors and reporters then declared Izvestia an independent newspaper and themselves the joint owners.
Success soon followed. Izvestia and Hearst Corp. brought out a joint English-Russian paper, and Izvestia and Britain`s Financial Times plan to publish jointly a weekly Russian-language business supplement in Moscow starting in October.
Yeltsin vs. Khasbulatov
The drive to take control of Izvestia is being spearheaded by parliamentary Speaker Ruslan Khasbulatov, a prominent Yeltsin opponent. He insists that a takeover would be legal because, for more than seven decades, Izvestia was the official organ of the old Soviet parliament.
Khasbulatov argues that because the Russian parliament has replaced the Soviet legislature, it has inherited the right to publish Izvestia. The editors dispute this.
”On Aug. 22, 1991, we declared our independence,” Golembiovsky said.
”That was legal under Soviet law at the time,” and the leadership of the Supreme Soviet, as the old parliament was called, did not exercise its right to raise objections, he added.
Parliament`s resolution has been appealed to Russia`s constitutional court, which has asked the legislature not to attempt a formal takeover until it can rule on the matter.
`A paper for Russians`
For Pravda, once the proudest and most powerful Soviet daily, the coup marked the beginning of hard times. Yeltsin outlawed the Communist Party, and publication of Pravda and five other party newspapers was suspended for a week.
Like Izvestia, Pravda became an independent paper owned by its staff. But unlike its former ideological soulmate, it has cut itself off from most foreign assistance by its opposition to Yeltsin`s programs. In fact, the editors have turned down offers of aid from wealthy Russians who do not share their conservative views, according to Ilin.
”In choosing partners, we considered how close their views are to ours,” Ilin said. Despite its independent status, Pravda ”will not be an anti-communist paper,” he said. ”We promised to keep our loyalty to our readers, who subscribe to this paper because of a certain political point of view.
”And we promised to defend the rights of rank-and-file communists, against whom we thought a witch hunt might be launched. We won`t justify the crimes of the past, the persecutions made in the name of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. But we clearly state that we make a distinction between party leaders and the rank-and-file.”
Pravda sees itself primarily as ”a paper for Russians,” defending traditional Russian culture and values, Ilin said. It champions the cause of Russians in the Baltics, Moldova and other parts of the former Soviet Union, where attempts have been made to limit their rights or where they have been subjected to threats and attacks.
As for economic reform, Pravda wants Yeltsin to proceed more slowly, maintaining state subsidies to unprofitable enterprises and softening the impact of inflation and price increases on the common people.
Critics contend that Pravda`s basic aim in criticizing reform is to weaken the democratic forces and protect the vested interest of the longtime industrial elite, who have maintained their control over the largest enterprises despite the collapse of the communist system.
But many critics conceded that Pravda`s editorial positions have restored some of the paper`s influence and attracted loyal readers among those who feel threatened by change. Ilin hopes the circulation decline will soon level off at about 750,000 subscribers next year, and he notes that a smaller readership has its advantages.
”At least we don`t have people subscribing just because they were ordered to by party committees,” he said.
Printing plant at risk
Because the prices of newsprint, ink and delivery have soared along with everything else here, subscription charges offset only a small portion of the cost of production. That means a publication like Pravda, which has relatively little advertising, loses money on every paper it prints, so the fewer subscribers, up to a point, the better.
Izvestia editors are also concerned about inflation, which they fear could put them in the red for the rest of this year. But they are proceeding with plans to build a new, high-tech printing plant-if they can get their printers to go along. The printers have not yet organized into an independent unit, and the printing equipment still belongs to the state.
Like millions of other Russian workers, Izvestia`s printers have been paid irregularly in recent months, and many of them believe they would be more secure working for parliament, not themselves, said Pavel Bychkov, 31, the shop supervisor.
Younger workers favor independence, Bychkov said, because ”we know that if parliament takes over, there will be no chance to improve our technology. You need foreign investment for that.” But the economic chaos that has accompanied Yeltsin`s reforms has given older workers cold feet, and they make up the majority, he said.
Izvestia`s building, office equipment and printing facilities are still owned by the state, which also puts the journalists at a disadvantage in their faceoff with parliament. If the legislature succeeded in confiscating the paper`s physical property, the journalists could find themselves out in the street, looking for new quarters and new presses.
Izvestia editors insist they could survive even that.
”If the government takes over this building, we will all stand up, move out and start publishing a new newspaper,” Ostalsky vowed. ”We are absolutely confident that our readers will follow.”
In the last 10 days, separate government agencies have announced decisions in support of Khasbulatov`s position that control of Izvestia belongs to the legislature, and Yeltsin`s position that it doesn`t, so the issue remains in doubt.
Still, Yeltsin`s support has boosted morale in Izvestia`s newsroom. Staff members feel more confident than ever that the president will go to the wall with them and other independent journalists.
”He will have to,” Golembiovsky said, ”or he will find himself in a news blackout.”
