Among the newspapers currently published in the German Democratic Republic, the Leipziger Volkszeitung has perhaps the longest and richest history. As the organ of the Socialist United Party of Germany in the district of Leipzig, this newspaper originated at the end of the last century. Soon, she gained fame far beyond the city where she was born. In connection with the 75th anniversary of the founding of the Leipziger Volkszeitung, Ulbricht noted that at a certain historical stage this newspaper was "an important mouthpiece for German Marxists"1 . At the beginning of the twentieth century, in the eyes of representatives of the international revolutionary movement, it was a recognized tribune of the German left-wing social Democrats. It was also important that the newspaper was published in Leipzig, the city of international fairs, where extensive international relations were established. It was also a true publishing center for the whole of Germany. Representatives of the Russian revolutionary emigration contacted the editorial office of the Leipziger Volkszeitung.

V. I. Lenin repeatedly visited Leipzig, where, with the support of the German Social-Democrats, on December 11 (24), 1900, he managed to organize the printing of the first issue of the Iskra newspaper. In February 1912, in the editorial office of the Leipziger Volkszeitung, V. I. Lenin organized a meeting with Bolshevik deputies of the State Duma, to whom he informed the contents of the decisions of the VI (Prague) All-Russian Conference of the RSDLP2 . V. I. Lenin drew the necessary information from the Leipziger Volkszeitung and repeatedly published his articles on its pages. He noted that the position of this newspaper for a long time differed favorably from that of the other major print organs of German social democracy. On January 12, 1914, V. I. Lenin wrote to the Dutch social Democrat D. Weinkop: "The German social-Democratic press is boycotting us, especially Vorwarts, and only the Leipziger Volkszeitung has published one of our articles (signed by the editorial board of Sotsial-Demokrat, the central Organ of the Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party)."3 .

The first issue of the newspaper was published on September 29, 1894. It opened with the article "What We Want", written by the founder and editor-in-chief of the newspaper, the Social Democrat Bruno Schoenland. Describing its position in the unfolding class struggle of the proletariat against the bourgeoisie, the newspaper explained that it was on the side of the working class and its party striving for social emancipation and hoped to become the representative of the interests of the broad masses of the people, including the small ones

1 "Leipziger Volkszeitung. 75 Jahre. 1894 - 1969". Leipzig. 1969, S. 4.

2 X. Streb. Lenin in Deutschland. B. 1960, S. 51.

3 V. I. Lenin. PSS. Vol. 48, pp. 249-250.

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peasants, artisans, small merchants, employees, and "all those who earn their bread by the sweat of their brow." 4

In contrast to the revisionist onslaught of the Bernsteinists, the Leipziger Volkszeitung published materials that revealed the views of Karl Marx and Fr. Engels ' view of the world-historical role of the working class and its revolutionary party. In the article by F. Mehring's "The Socialist Ultimate Goal" convincingly revealed the theoretical failure of the revisionists, the ruinous nature of their rejection of the Marxist thesis about the irreconcilability of class contradictions in capitalist society. However, the author of the article immediately expressed confidence that "mutual understanding with Bernstein could have been established very easily." 5 R. Luxemburg made a more decisive criticism of the revisionists. In the supplement to the newspaper "Leipziger Volkszeitung" of September 21, 1898, a fragment of her future work "Social Reform or Revolution?", which appeared in 18996, was published . R. Luxemburg argumentatively refuted Bernstein's theses on the economic and tactical questions of the working-class movement, and argued that the revisionists were trying to impose on social-democracy a petty-bourgeois approach to the goals of this movement. While defending the necessity for the Social-Democrats to remain in the position of a revolutionary class worldview, R. Luxemburg did not propose any organizational measures against the revisionists.

The importance of the Leipziger Volkszeitung as the most important mouthpiece of the German left-wing social Democrats was especially strengthened after F. Mehring became its editor-in-chief in 1902. Such prominent figures of the revolutionary movement as R. Luxemburg, Y. Markhlevsky (Karsky), and K. Zetkin collaborated in the newspaper at that time. J. Mottel and M. Seifert worked on the technical side of publishing and distributing the newspaper .7
A bright and significant time in the history of the newspaper is 1905-1907, when it promoted the experience of the first Russian revolution in the German labor movement, which contributed to the growth of the authority and influence of the Leipziger Volkszeitung both in Germany and abroad. On January 28, 1905, the newspaper published an article by Yu. Karsky's "Russia and the Ruhr", in which the author stigmatized the executioners who committed a bloody massacre of St. Petersburg workers on January 9, and exposed the actions of the international reaction that provided financial support to Tsarism in the fight against the revolution. The article stated that the workers of all countries, in particular the miners of the Ruhr, were dealing with a common enemy - big capital, against which the proletariat needed unity and international solidarity .8 The Leipziger Volkszeitung revealed to the German workers the plans of the reactionaries, who cherished the dream of coming out against revolutionary Russia, and called on the proletariat to prevent its realization by all means. 9
The left social-Democrats duly rebuffed the opportunists who tried to distort the true character of the events taking place in Russia: in February 1905, Karl Liebknecht, making a report to the workers on the situation in Russia, directly invited his listeners to "stand up to the banner of the Russian revolution."10 When the Cologne Congress of Trade Unions (1905) adopted an erroneous resolution condemning political strikes, the Leipziger Volkszeitung immediately explained the disastrous consequences of this reformist decision for the revolutionary movement .11 In one of her articles, K. Zetkin drew the attention of German workers to the successful use of new forms of political struggle by Russian revolutionaries, including the general political strike .12 On November 28, 1906, the Leipziger Volkszeitung expressed its full solidarity with R. Luxemburg's recently published work "Mass Strike, Party and Trade Unions". The organ of the Left Social Democrats strongly recommended that the German proletariat adopt a mass strike , an effective method of fighting the bourgeoisie used by the Russian brothers .13
However, not everything about the revolutionary events in Russia was correctly understood by the staff of the Leipziger Volkszeitung. For example, they were unable to understand the driving factors

4 "Leipziger Volkszeitung", 29.IX.1894.

5 "Leipziger Volkszeitung. 75 Jahre. 1894 - 1969", S. 15.

6 Ibid., S. 17.

7 "Leipzig in acht Jahrhunderten". Leipzig. 1965, S. 187.

8 "Leipziger Volkszeitung", 28.I.1905.

9 "Leipziger Volkszeitung", 15.II.1905.

10 "Leipziger Volkszeitung", 13.II.1905.

11 "Leipziger Volkszeitung", 27.V.1905.

12 "Leipziger Volkszeitung", 17.VII.1905.

13 "Leipziger Volkszeitung", 28.XI.1906.

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forces of the revolution; considered the Russian peasantry "politically incapacitated" 14 . The newspaper's mistakes in assessing the role of the Bolshevik Party, as well as in not understanding the essence of the struggle between the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks, were most clearly revealed. This was clearly reflected in the German left's admiration for the spontaneity of the working-class movement and its disregard for the organizing role of the proletarian party. The Leipziger Volkszeitung presented the Bolsheviks 'principled struggle against the Menshevik line as "personal quarrels" and called on both sides "to reconcile".15
In the period leading up to the First World War, the left continued to use the Leipziger Volkszeitung to fight for the interests of the working class, although already in those years there was an increase in opportunist influence in the SPD leadership, which in turn affected the newspaper's position. Karl Liebknecht, an outstanding representative of the left who actively collaborated in the Leipziger Volkszeitung, was credited with his clear presentation of anti-war views and his bold statements against imperialist preparations for war. The Kaiser's authorities then accused Karl Liebknecht of high treason. On October 14, 1907, before the hearing of his case in the Imperial Court, an article "High treason"appeared in the newspaper.

The Leipziger Volkszeitung fully agreed with Karl Liebknecht's statement on the need for anti-militarist agitation, considering that conducting systematic anti-war work is an international and national duty of social-democracy. The article was inspired by the anti-war resolution adopted at the Stuttgart Congress of the Second International in August 1907. While the leaders of the SPD - both right and center - opposed anti-war agitation, claiming that such activities were dangerous to the very existence of the proletarian party and the freedom of its members, the leftists who collaborated in the Leipziger Volkszeitung actively joined the fight against militarism and condemned the philistine position of "non-resistance" to the imperialist policy of preparing for war.

Immediately before the war, the Leipziger Volkszeitung continued to denounce the aggressive foreign and reactionary domestic policies of German imperialism. The newspaper exposed the real inspirers of this course - representatives of monopolistic capital (the Mannesmann brothers, Krupp and others). Its pages also sharply condemned the position of opportunists who were sliding towards outright nationalism and cooperation with the bourgeoisie. However, after the SPD party meeting in Jena (1913), which was marked by the victory of opportunism, centrists began to gain more and more influence in the editorial board of the Leipziger Volkszeitung: K. Kautsky, G. Haase, G. Ledebur. When publishing articles by R. Luxemburg criticizing the erroneous decisions of the party committee, which evaded the elaboration of a concrete program of anti-war actions, the newspaper's editorial board immediately polemicized against the views of the left, doing so from a clearly Kautskyite position.

Although later on the Leipziger Volkszeitung continued to publish articles by representatives of the left, mainly K. Zetkin and F. Mehring (mainly in the bi-weekly supplement for women created by this newspaper in the summer of 1917 under the leadership of K. Zetkin), in general, the former mouthpiece of the German left was increasingly used by centrists. In 1917, the newspaper became the official organ of the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany .16 Nevertheless, even during the First World War, the editorial policy of the Leipziger Volkszeitung differed somewhat from that of most other social-democratic publications in Germany. On the pages of this newspaper F. Mehring repeatedly raised the question of strengthening international proletarian solidarity in the context of the world imperialist slaughter. In connection with the publication of F. The publication of the newspaper from May 8, 1916, was banned for one week by Meringue's article on May 1 .17
The victory of the Great October Revolution had a huge revolutionizing effect on Germany and contributed to the growth of the revolutionary situation there. However, most social-democratic publications, including Vorwarts, grossly distorted the essence of the events that took place in Russia. Kautsky strenuously opposed the use of Russian experience, and his influence in the Soviet Union was very strong.

14 "Leipziger Volkszeitung", 17.V.1905.

15 "Leipziger Volkszeitung", 26.V.1905.

16 V. Bartel. The Left in German Social-Democracy in the Struggle against Militarism and War, Moscow, 1959, p. 242.

17 "Leipziger Volkszeitung. 75 Jahre. 1894 - 1969", S. 31.

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The "Leipziger Volkszeitung" has significantly strengthened. At the same time, the newspaper's editorial staff could not ignore the wishes of its many proletarian readers, who wanted to become more familiar with the state of affairs in Russia .18 Therefore, the newspaper quite often appeared collections of materials telling about the revolutionary achievements in the Country of the Soviets. Of particular interest were the articles by F. In these articles, the author sought to show the significance of the Bolshevik victory for the revolutionary struggle of the German and international proletariat. They revealed a deep understanding of the world-historical significance of the Great October Socialist Revolution and emphasized that none of the revolutions of the past had yet faced such enormous tasks as the proletarian revolution would have to solve; that Russia had given other peoples of the world "a signal to fight for a better future." 19
Concerning the position of Kautsky, who slanderously distorted the revolutionary events in Russia, F. Mehring stated that this position might prevent the German workers from following the right path. 20 After learning about this speech of F. Mehring, V. I. Lenin described him as a man who "proves to the German workers that only the Bolsheviks understood socialism correctly." 21 F. Mehring gave a detailed exposition of his views in articles united under the title "The Bolsheviks and we" and published in the" Leipziger Volkszeitung " in the summer of 191822 . K. Zetkin's articles were also perceived by readers as a fervent call for solidarity with the Bolsheviks .23
However, the newspaper also published many other kinds of material - slanderous articles by Russian Mensheviks and German social-democratic leaders, in particular the renegade Kautsky. For anti-Soviet purposes, the specially introduced heading "For and against the Bolsheviks"was also used. After the suppression of the November Revolution of 1918, the process of further transformation of the "Leipziger Volkszeitung" is observed. The newspaper ended up in the hands of social-democratic leaders who took anti-communist positions. In those years, the revolutionary Marxist press in Leipzig was represented by the newspaper Der Rote Kurier (published since 1921), and then by the Sachsische Arbeiterzeitung (since 1922), the organ of the West Saxon district committee of the Communist Party of Germany. It inherited the best of the old revolutionary traditions of the Leipziger Volkszeitung, while the newspaper, while retaining its old name, no longer really expressed the true interests of the working people. 24 With the establishment of the fascist dictatorship in Germany, the entire workers ' press was outlawed. The Sachsische Arbeiterzeitung was banned by the Nazis immediately after the Reichstag was set on fire, and on March 3, 1933, the Leipziger Volkszeitung also ceased to exist.

By crushing fascism, the Soviet people created the decisive prerequisites for the revival of Germany on a new, democratic basis. The Socialist United Party of Germany, which emerged in 1946, was able to rally the progressive forces of the nation in the east of the country in the name of this important goal. For the spiritual renewal of the Germans, history lessons were of particular importance, including an appeal to the revolutionary and humanistic national traditions. The memory of the Leipziger Volkszeitung was still alive among the working people of Saxony. That is why the newspaper of the Leipzig District Committee of the SED, founded on May 19, 1946, received the same name: "Leipziger Volkszeitung". This day was the second birthday of the newspaper. The revived newspaper and its predecessor were connected by a common principle, which is revealed in the very name and testifies to organic unity with the interests of the working people. This continuity was emphasized, in particular, by the fact that the issue of May 19, 1946 also opened with the editorial "What we Want". Taking into account historical lessons, first of all the national catastrophe into which the country was plunged by fascism, the SED organ outlined the main directions of its activities .25 Since that day, the Leipziger Volkszeitung has been honourably fulfilling its duty and faithfully serving the great ideas of socialism for a quarter of a century.

18 "Leipzig in acht Jahrhunderten", S. 204.

19 "Leipziger Volkszeitung", 31.XII.1917.

20 "Lenin and the International Labor Movement", Moscow, 1969, p. 350.

21 V. I. Lenin. PSS. Vol. 36, p. 459.

22 "Leipziger Volkszeitung", 31.V; 1, 10, 17.VI.1918.

23 "Frauen Beilage der Leipziger Volkszeitung" N 12, 30. XI 1917.

24 "Leipziger Volkszeitung. 75 Jahre. 1894 - 1969", S. 44.

25 "Leipziger Volkszeitung", 19.V.1946.

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