Pid markso-leninskym praporom [Under the Marxist-Leninist Banner]

Archive of the journal “Pid markso-leninskym praporom” [“Under the Marxist-Leninist Banner”] (1934-1935; in 1935-1936 – “Pid marksystsko-leninskym praporom” [“Under the Marxist-Leninist Flag”])

The journal “Pid markso-leninskym praporom” was created as a theoretical journal of the All-Ukrainian Association of Marxist-Leninist Institutes [Vseukraiinska asotsiatsiya marksystsko-leninskyh instytutiv] (VUAMLIN) in 1934.

The background for the creation of the journal was the shutdown of the periodicals “Economist-marksyst” [“Economist-Marxist”]  (until 1933, a bimonthly organ of the Institute of Economics of the VUAMLIN and the Economist-Marxist Society) and the “Prapor marksyzmu-leninzmu” ["The Banner of Marxism-Leninism"] (until 1933, a bimonthly organ of the Research Institute of Philosophy of the VUAMLIN), which is reported in the first issue of the journal “Pid markso-leninskym praporom” (No. 1, 1934): “Instead of the journals “Economist-marksyst” and “Prapor marksyzmu-leninzmu”, all subscribers to the above-mentioned journals will be sent a new theoretical journal of the VUAMLIN, “Pid markso-leninskym praporom””.

The title page of the journal defined it as a bimonthly theoretical journal. The publisher was the  Partvydav CK KP(b)U [Party Publishing House of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine]. During 1934, it was printed by the Book Factory of the G.I. Petrovsky State Publishing House (Kharkiv). Petrovsky (Kharkiv). In 1935-1936, it was printed at the Book Factory of the Partvydav CK KP(b)U (14, Senna Square, Kyiv). The editorial office of the journal, according to the first issue (№1, 1934), was located at 33 Karl Liebknecht Street, Kharkiv (now Sumska St., most probably it was located in the block where the Opera and Ballet Theater is located today). Already in №2/1934, the journal's address changed due to the relocation of the central scientific institutions of the Ukrainian SSR from Kharkiv to the new capital, Kyiv. Since then, and, most probably, until the shutdown of the journal, the editorial office was located at 14 Shevchenko Boulevard, Kyiv (now the building houses the Educational and Research Institute of Philology of the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv): this address is given in the last issue of the journal available to us, №2, 1936.

The journal was rather a non-academic one and had no specific thematic focus. It rather served to: a) reprint ideologically significant materials by party leaders of the time in Ukrainian; b) publish articles on a wide range of topics related to party building, economics, current political issues, and the national question; c) publish the scientific chronicle of the VUAMLIN (since 1935 - UAMLIN); d) publishing reviews and commentaries on generally Russian original or translated works on a wide range of topics that corresponded to the thematic focus of the articles published in the journal.

In late 1934 and early 1935, VUAMLIN was renamed the Ukrainian Association of Marxist-Leninist Institutes [Ukraiinska asotsiatsiya marksystsko-leninskyh instytutiv] (UAMLIN). In the issues of the journal available to us, its subordination changes for the first time on the title page of issue №1, 1935.

In the same year, 1935, the name of the journal was changed to “Pid marksystsko-leninskym praporom”. The first issue of the journal published with the changed name is №2, 1935. The journal existed under this name until its shutdown in 1936.

Illia Davidenko