Vpered, first issue of the Bolshevik weekly, Geneva, January 1905

What it is

This is the front page of the first issue of Vpered («Вперёд»), dated Geneva, 4 January (22 December) 1905. The masthead reads «Вперёд» with the name of the Russian Social-Democratic Workers' Party in smaller text. The page is filled with dense, multi-column text and is aged and brownish. The issue was produced by a collective of authors. The paper appeared weekly from 4 January to 18 May 1905 and was illegal.

Why it matters

Vpered was the party paper that Lenin's faction produced abroad during the 1905 revolution period. Because it was illegal in Russia, it had to be printed outside the country and smuggled in. The paper shows how the Bolshevik faction argued its positions to workers and party members, and it places Lenin within the wider Russian socialist movement of his time.

Look closer

• What do the headline and the slogan at the top tell you about what the paper wanted readers to do?
• Why was it printed in Geneva rather than in Russia, and what risks did that create?
• Whose voices appear in this issue, and whose are missing?