On February 3, "Komsomolskaya Pravda" reported: "We are fully preparing to deliver punishment to the saboteur."

1929

The youth of "Komsomolka" calls for a battle for the harvest. Most of the notes in this issue relate to the appeal from the Central Committee of the All-Union Leninist Young Communist League (VLKSM) dated January 16, 1929, urging Komsomol organizations to prepare for the All-Union campaign aimed at increasing yields.

The headline "For what and how will rewards be issued" instantly grabs attention:

“Each region (territory, republic), district, area, and cell, based on the agro-social minimum, will organize a competition from February 15 until the autumn ‘harvest festival’ for the best implementation of the harvest campaign. Meeting the agro-social minimum grants the right to participate in the competition. Exceeding the agro-social minimum allows for a reward.

At the request of the central commission for conducting the harvest campaign, the People's Commissariat of Agriculture of the RSFSR allocates a certain percentage of the agricultural tax (300,000 rubles) for rewarding the best cells, districts, and regions. The size and nature of the rewards for cells, districts, territories, and regions will be determined locally. Central rewards are planned at five for each level (five for cells, five for districts, etc.) - a total of 20-25 rewards.

For the best cells and districts:

1. SENDING THE ENTIRE CELL FOR STUDY TO HIGHER EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS AND WORKING FACULTIES.

2. BUILDING A SCHOOL FOR PEASANT YOUTH OR A SCHOOL OF AGRICULTURAL STUDIES (AT THE REQUEST OF THE POPULATION).

3. CONSTRUCTING A PEOPLE'S HOUSE (there will be two such rewards).

4. A MONTH-LONG EXCURSION FOR THE ENTIRE CELL ACROSS THE USSR.

5. A RANDOM ITEM FROM THE BEST PRODUCERS (stallions, bulls, rams, etc.; there will be 2 such rewards).

6. A TRACTOR.

7. A RENTAL POINT.

8. A MODEL LIBRARY OF 5,000 VOLUMES (there will be 3 such rewards).

For districts and regions:

1. TRACTOR COLUMNS (3).

2. OIL FACTORIES (2).

3. CONSTRUCTION OF AN AGRICULTURAL TECHNICUM.

4. CONSTRUCTION OF FIVE MODEL SCHOOLS WITH CRAFT WORKSHOPS, etc.

Additionally, THE BEST CELLS OF ARTELS, SOCIETIES, AND COLLECTIVE FARMS WILL BE REWARDED THROUGH THE COOPERATION LINE.

Thus, the notion that the labor feats of Soviet youth were solely based on bare enthusiasm is not entirely accurate. Material incentives were also present.

And our poetic correspondent Vladimir Mayakovsky urges for noble labor with a sharp rhyme:

Harvest March

We will achieve the harvest -

threefold,

land,

harvest!

Come,

esteemed

comrade harvest!

So that we do not toil in vain

one by one,

two by two -

let's unite, brothers,

in collective farms,

artels.

Our land is good,

the soil is not bad,

but it needs

to be plowed

in advance for rye.

How to live, gnashing our teeth

in hungry years,

we will get rid of the cursed

three-field system

once and for all.

To the detriment, we

prepare a reckoning.

We will sweep from the fields

kulaks,

weeds

and locusts.

We will clear the storages.

We await responses from everyone, -

so that tractors

do not rust

uselessly under the rain.

The fields

will learn science

under the playful wind…

Let's extend

a hand in friendship,

comrade agronomist!

The land

no longer wants

to endure

poor care, -

get ready,

Komsomol,

for the advance campaign.

End

with the gray village,

rise,

whoever is gray!

Race

against America

go, USSR!

We will achieve the harvest -

threefold,

land,

harvest!

Come,

esteemed

comrade harvest!

1943

The victory at Stalingrad is the greatest event of World War II and the entire 20th century.

“On February 2, 1943, the historic battle at Stalingrad ended with the complete victory of our troops.

The Supreme Commander Comrade Stalin expressed gratitude to all soldiers, commanders, and political workers of the Don Front for their excellent combat actions,” reports “Komsomolka”.

On page 4 - reactions from the foreign press:

“NEW YORK. February 2. (TASS). Commenting on the Red Army's elimination of the German-fascist troops surrounded at Stalingrad and the capture of 16 generals, the newspaper "The Sun" writes: “Reports from the Stalingrad front are an excellent commentary on the gloomy performances of Goering and Goebbels on January 30 in Berlin. It is now clear why Hitler did not dare to directly address the deceived German people. After all, in June 1941, the German people were promised that Russia would be ‘destroyed’ within a few weeks. In December of that same year, the Germans were told that ‘the matter is somewhat delayed,’ but soon ‘everything will be fine.’ In the spring of 1942, the Germans were led to believe that only one more summer campaign would be needed to drive the Russian troops beyond the Urals. Last autumn, Hitler promised to capture Stalingrad, and today the Nazis are whining about the fact that their army, which besieged Stalingrad, is an army of the dead. What can the German people think now about all the promises made by Hitler, Goering, and other Nazi leaders?”

An Associated Press observer, Grenmer, assesses the Red Army's victory at Stalingrad as the greatest victory in the current war.

According to military observer Eliot from the "New York Herald Tribune," the Germans are losing the fruits of all their successes during last year’s summer campaign.

“LONDON, February 2. (TASS). The British press emphasizes the great significance of the final elimination of the German-fascist troops surrounded at Stalingrad. The newspaper "Daily Mail" writes that with the elimination of these troops, a whole stage of the current campaign has been completed. The operation to encircle and destroy the German troops at Stalingrad has immense strategic and moral significance.”

2014

The country learned about the Old Believer hermits lost in the taiga from a series of essays by Vasily Mikhailovich Peskov titled "Taiga Dead End," published in "Komsomolskaya Pravda" in 1982. Back then, there were lines at kiosks for the fresh issue, and the newspaper's circulation rose to twenty-one million.

Since then, our journalists have been following the fate of Agafya Lykova.

This issue features a large photo report about the life of the hermit:

“To you, a big and great request. Help is needed with firewood, household chores, and haymaking…” - recently wrote the famous hermit Agafya Lykova to a friend in Krasnoyarsk. “And immediately a team was dispatched - workers from the "Khakassky" reserve, where Lykova's homestead is located, and rescuers brought 200 kilograms of supplies to the 68-year-old