Iskra - The Spark

Искра - The Spark, December 1900

Front cover of the first ever edition of the official organ of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP).

The Spark ('Iskra' in Russian) was a fortnightly political newspaper of Russian socialist emigrants in exile and smuggled into Russia. Initially overseen by Lenin and published from wherever Lenin was living at the time including 37a Clerkenwell Green in London during 1902/03.  

Editorial Board, 1903

In 1903, when the RDSLP split into Mensheviks and Bolsheviks, the Mensheviks gained editorial control and Lenin resigned.

The paper ceased publication in 1905.

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In 1917, after three years of devastating war, food shortages and government corruption, the workers and peasants of Russia rose up to overthrow the ruling elite and attempted to create the world’s first communist society under the slogan “All Power to the Soviets”.

Throughout the year there were riots, mutinies and strikes, influenced by and involving Mensheviks, Anarchists, Social Revolutionaries and Bolsheviks.

By October, the Bolsheviks, who promised to end Russia’s involvement in the war, were able to overthrow the provisional government, which had been established after the abdication of the Tsar in February.

As the Bolsheviks centralised power and tightened their control over the new state, civil war broke out across Russia as monarchists and liberals (known as the Whites), supported by Western capitalist democracies, fought back against the Bolsheviks.

At the same time, various non-Russian independence movements, anarchists and anti-Bolshevik socialist parties rebelled against Bolshevik imposed terror.

By 1923 the Bolsheviks had defeated the White Army and suppressed internal dissent. The Civil War concluded with a Bolshevik victory.

Before the Revolution and throughout the period of the existence of the Soviet Union, visual propaganda was considered a significant means to inform, educate and motivate people.