The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1929-01-05
BY A. G. RICHMAN.

The article printed elsewhere in
his issue by Lenin on "Our Party's
ress and Literature" was pub
shed during one of the few months
part of November and December)
a 1908, during which he could write
penly. The revolution of 1905 en-
orced temporary letup in the CEN
orship, and this short period, to-
ether with a month and a half in
906, were the only periods during
he twenty years between 1892 and
912 during which Lenin could le-
rally publish his writings.
Bourgeois Freedom of Press"
Lenin's experiences with the car
st censors are the best possible
Example of bourgeois freedom of
press" After a dozen years of en-
iorced underground publicist activ-
ty, a short period of respite. Then
LEGALITY again until the few days
IF open existence of the Bolsheyik
press during the period of the Sec
md Duna! Suppression until 1912,
when the Lena massacre revived the
proletarian movement, and Pravda
gained semi-legality, then illegality
again
Let rs take some of Lenin's
pamphlets and books. His first
work, "New Economic Movement
Among the Peasantry," written in
banishment in Samara, was refused
publication by the liberal champions
of freedom of speech and press"
the Moscow "Yuridichesky Vestnik"
Law JournaD. The manuscript was
confiscated to the archives of the
secret police and did not see publ
cation for thirty years.
-rAll Writings Suppressed.
In 1894 Lenin's Friends of the
People: Who They Are and How
They Make War on the Social Dem
ocrats" had to be copied by hand
and y few hundred copies hectic
graphed, only to be confiscated and
buried for the next twenty-eight
years. In 1895 his writings exposing
the pseudo Marxist bourgeois ideol-
ogists was seized and burned as
soon as published, Freedom of press
was working overtime. The legally
written book, "The Agrarian Cues
ton and the First Russian Revolu-
tom" could find no publisher, and
was issued only after 1917 In 1908
"Marxism and Empirico-C Criticism"
found a publisher, but the latter
soon found himself in Jail, and the
book was also arrested" and not
published until 1920.
In 1909, the publication of legal
literature was an impossibility, and
Lenin could write from abroad only
for a small four-page monthly. He
had to flee with his manuscript of
"Marxism and the State" which was
not published until years later lin
English known as "The State and
Revolution"). And so it went until
the October Revolution won for the
proletariat real and lasting freedom
of speech, press and assemblage.
Lenin's Editorial Work.
To take up the newspapers. Lenin
was the driving force in the editorial
boards of most Of the papers of the
movement. Every important paper
that the Party issued during the
quarter century before the revolution
was under his direct editorial super
vision.
The Petersburg group Of social
democrats which Lenin organized in
the autumn Of 1896 decided to issue
an illegal newspaper to tie together
the economic demands Of the work.
ers and the revolutionary political
movement directed against czarism.
The paper was to be called "Rabo-
cheye Dyelo" (Workers Affair.".
Three quarters of the first number
was put together and edited by
Lenin. 1t did not appear, however,
because of the arrest Of the entire
group.
"s Issuing of ''Iskra."
The next attempt to issue an il
legal paper was in 1900, when the
development of the proletarian
movement made possible the pub
licatien Of "Iskra" (The Spark. The
first issue appeared in Muenchen,
Germany. It played great role in
the theological development of the
working class movement, particu-
larry in the fight against deviations
from revolutionary Marxism.
When Lenin left the editorial
board Of "Iskra" with the split from