Komsomolskaya Pravda

History and profile

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 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 Nevertheless, on 21 August the newspaper published a complete chronicle of the coup as a historical document.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, an energy company (Russian: Евросевернефть) led by Grigorii Beryozkin, who has close links to Gazprom. In December 2000 the Norwegian media company A-Pressen bought 25 percent plus one share of the paper. It is published in tabloid format by "Izdatelsky Dom Komsomolskaya Pravda" (Komsomolskaya Pravda Publishing House).

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

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

Editors in Chief of "Komsomolskaya Pravda"

The Editors in Chief, in reverse chronological order:

Similar publications

Beside Komsomolskaya Pravda that is issued in Russian, there are other similar yet not related publications were revived in CIS countries such as Komsomolskaya Pravda v Ukraine (in Ukraine; but this newspaper was renamed KP in January 2016 In order to apply with Ukrainian decommunization laws.), Komsomolskaya Pravda v Belorussii (in Belarus), Komsomolskaya Pravda v Moldove (in Moldova). There is also a "European" edition (Komsomolskaya Pravda v Evrope) which is focused on the Russian diaspora in Germany, but can also be found in other EU countries, as well as on the Croatian Adriatic coast, catering to Russian-speaking tourists. A Baltic edition is available in Latvia, Estonia, and Finland.