Sovetskaya Rossiya is a leftist political newspaper first published on July 1, 1956 shortly after the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) where Nikita Khruschev infamously denounced Stalinism (Encyclopaedia Britannica, n.d.). Founded upon Leninist principles of journalism, that newspapers should be “ahead of everyone, catch the mood, shape them” (Sochnev, 2015), the publication employed a large arsenal of citizen journalists (Vasilievich, n.d.).
In the 1980s, the paper was strongly critical of Gorbachev’s glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring) policies, becoming the mouthpiece of Neo-Stalinists and supporters of classical Soviet principles (Vasilievich, n.d.). Notably, the paper published Nina Andreyeva’s essay about her experience discussing Soviet social issues with her students, “I Cannot Forsake My Principles” in March 1988, in which she defended Stalin’s achievements, and accused glasnost of “falsifying the history of socialism” and expressed her concerns of the unsustainability of perestroika led by “left-wing liberal socialists” (Andreyeva, 1988). While welcomed by conservative members of the CPSU such as Yegor Ligachev, this prompted a counter-response published in Pravda, titled “The Manifesto of Anti-Perestroika Forces” (Keller, 1988). In July 1991, Sovetskaya Rossiya also published the open letter “A Word to the People”, signed by twelve prominent Soviet figures, which sought to rally laborers and working professionals across all backgrounds to join their nationwide opposition movement under the banner of nationalism, claiming that the ruling authorities were a “terrible attack” against the country (Bondarev et al., 1991).
While the paper strongly opposed Gorbachev, the paper maintained strong ties with the CPSU, promulgating decrees and other acts passed by the Supreme Soviet in its publications (Decree on the procedure for publication and entry into force of laws of the RSFSR, 1980).