“The Red Star” newspaper first number issued

On January 1, 1924 the first number of “The Red Star” central military newspaper issued in Moscow.

Among the first number editors were the eminent figures of the Soviet state: V.A. Antonov-Ovseenko, A.S. Bubnov, S.S. Kamenev, V.P. Polonsky and Ya.A. Yakovlev. The head of the Republic Revolutionary Military Council Political Office V.A. Antonov-Ovseenko, one of the founders of the central military newspaper, did not sign “The Red Star” personally as the editor-in-chief, but he wrote the address “To our readers” for the first issue: “We are starting to issue the central military newspaper in complete realization of responsibility and complexity of the task. Our newspaper has to become a lab for military ideas of the whole Red Army and Navy”.

The daily immediately became popular among military men as well as civil population. During the first years of its existence “The Red Star” made a significant contribution to explaining the essence and objectives of the 1924-1925 military reform, principles of the navy troops and forces’ radical reorganization.

“The Red Star” became exclusively authoritative in the army and country during the years of the Great Patriotic war having made a significant contribution to the development and coverage of the issues of tactics, operative art, arms of the service usage in different environment and providing of a particular war experience to officers. The newspaper published the material on a mass heroism of the Fatherland defenders on front and home front. Each issue aspired to give the readers the confidence in the victory over the enemy, raise the fighting spirit among soldiers, inspire them for feats. The newspaper own correspondents were constantly present at the scenes of decisive actions, 17 of them were killed completing the task of the editorial office. During the war time for “The Red Star” worked such famous writers as M.A. Sholohov, A.N. Tolstoy, V.V. Vishnevsky, I.G. Erenburg, K.M. Simonov, P.A. Pavlenko, V.L. Vasilevskaya, A.A. Surkov, etc.

During the time of its existence “The Red Star” was awarded with the orders of The Red Star (1933) and The Red Banner (1945), order of Lenin (1965) and order of the October Revolution (1974).

The major publishing body of the Russian Federation Defense Ministry (the Defense Ministry of the USSR until 1991) continues up to the present to provide a single informational space not only for the Armed Forces but also for Frontier, Domestic, Railway troops, military units of other state security agencies. The newspaper publishes the material on the Russian warriors’ activities in the places of local military conflicts, on the problems of potential preservation of the Russian defense establishment.

At the present, in addition to the traditional issue, the daily electronic version of the paper is being prepared at: http://www.redstar.ru.

Lit.: Князьков С. В списках реввоенсовета не значилась // Красная звезда. 2004. 29 янв.; Мороз В. В декабре 2008 года выйдет 25-тысячный номер «Красной Звезды» [Электронный ресурс] // Гильдия издателей периодической печати. 2002-2013.