The legendary Moscow News celebrated its 30th anniversary on July 6. Since its publication in Russian on the eve of the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow, the weekly has evolved from a propaganda leaflet into a highly respected independent news publication, changing the history of Russian journalism along the way. Editor-in-chief from 1995 to 2003 Viktor Loshak said that many journalists who now head other publications previously worked at the weekly: “The Moskovskiye Novosti standards of journalism were so new and refreshing compared to the Soviet press that our alumni were looked upon very highly.”
Prelude
This year the weekly’s anniversary coincided with the eighty-year anniversary of its English-language version, also called The Moscow News, which was launched on October 5, 1930. Issues were published once every five days for foreigners in Moscow.
Publication continued through some of the most difficult times in the history of Russia, and lasted until 1949, when it was unexpectedly shut down by decision of the Politburo of the Communist Party Central Committee. Its editor-in-chief Mikhail Borodin was removed from his position and charged in the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee trial.
A new stage in the weekly’s history began in 1955, when it began issuing versions in other foreign languages, including French, German, Italian, Spanish, Arabic, Estonian, Greek, Hungarian, Finnish and even Esperanto. The Moscow News is now published under the auspices of RIA Novosti, which was previously called the Novosti Press Agency.
The trial issues of the Russian version appeared in the spring of 1980, when Moscow hosted the Olympic Games. Nikolai Yefimov became the first editor of the Russian version of The Moscow News – The Moskovskiye Novosti. In six years he was replaced by prominent journalist Yegor Yakovlev, who turned the newspaper into one of the country’s most popular publications.
A newspaper in support of perestroika
Yakovlev began his tenure by building a new team and establishing a set of principles for the new newspaper. One of the main principles was the goal to “serve as a bridge between East and West, between the U.S.S.R. and the West.”
Editor-in-chief from 2006 to 2007 Vitaly Tretyakov recalls: “It was an honor to work at this newspaper, with Yegor Yakovlev. You received an enormous amount of attention, as did the publications. Everyone read the newspaper, from top executives to rank-and-file citizens. Every week Yakovlev set the bar higher for glasnost (openness). At that time, The Moskovskiye Novosti, Ogonyok and AiF were moving from glasnost to freedom of speech. Other newspapers were still scared of everything.”
In the late 1980s The Moskovskiye Novosti supported Mikhail Gorbachev’s ideas of perestroika and glasnost. The newspaper was read in Britain, France, Germany, etc. People from around the world saw it as unbiased and important.
In the Soviet Union, the weekly was perhaps even more popular. Many readers woke up to visit news kiosks at six in the morning, because after seven it became impossible to buy a copy anywhere in the country. People traveled from all over the country to read The Moskovskiye Novosti, at least at the kiosk by its building. Because of The Moskovskiye Novosti and the magazine Ogonyok, people realized that their difficult and tragic personal lives coincided more with the history of the country rather the official nonsense.
Viktor Loshak became the newspaper’s editor-in-chief in the early 1990s, when the political situation changed. In an interview with Slon he recalls: “The News spread all over the world, as if saying that it was now possible to start a conversation with this country.”
Loshak’s tenure also saw The Moskovskiye Novosti becoming the first economically independent newspaper in Russia. However, this independence led to economic instability, forcing the newspaper to discontinue many of its foreign publications that had become unprofitable. Only one version never shut down: the original English-language Moscow News.
To keep the publication going, the new editor-in-chief republished it as a leaflet. For some time it was handed out in underground pedestrian walkways. Other methods were also tried. Loshak recalls: “We found some amplifiers at our depot and set them up on Pushkin Square during the State Committee of the State of Emergency’s media crackdown. For about a week we were broadcasting radio news, so to speak.”
The new format
In 2003 Loshak was replaced by Evgeny Kiselyov, a producer at the NTV television network. As reported by lenta.ru, issues related to the newspaper’s management caused disagreements between him and the editorial board. The new editor-in-chief fired five leading employees, including his first deputy Lyudmila Tyulen, who had worked for the weekly since 1990. In 2005 the dismissed journalists signed an appeal to Kiselyov, urging him to retire. He was replaced by Vitaly Tretyakov in the January of 2006.
“I agreed to work there because I held it in high esteem as a professional and admired its distinguished history. I was aware of all the difficulties, but still agreed to take the job. I am convinced that we managed to accomplish a lot in the first two years, or even in the first four to six months. Staff had been cut, and when I arrived there were only 12 journalists and one photo correspondent,” Tretyakov said.
President of the Media International Group (MIG) Vadim Rabinovich bought the Moscow News company and its trademarks The Moskovskiye Novosti and The Moscow News in July 2005. Israeli businessman Arkady Gaidamak became the newspaper’s owner in October 2005. Publication of The Moskovskiye Novosti has been suspended since January 1, 2008.
Tretyakov cited the owner’s discontent with the lack of profits as the motive behind the decision. “This project could not have been profitable, and I did not promise to make it profitable. The owner changed his intentions. A group of people from the general directorate whom he appointed went all out to persuade him to give up on the newspaper that only spends money and makes no profit. They did not mention that it could never have made a profit. Everything ended with my departure and its closure.”
In April 2008 it was announced that the Russian News & Information Agency RIA Novosti and the United Media management company, which owns The Moscow News, had agreed to transfer the trademarks for The Moscow News and The Moskovskiye Novosti to RIA Novosti. This decision was reached over the course of fruitful cooperation between the two companies during the joint publication of its English-language version – The Moscow News weekly.
