View source for Problems of Peace and Socialism

{{Infobox journal
| title         = Problems of Peace and Socialism/<br/> World Marxist Review (WMR)
| image         = The Soviet Union 1988 CPA 5985 stamp (30th anniversary of 'Problems of Peace and Socialism' magazine. Emblem and open magazine).jpg
| image_size    = 
| alt           = 
| caption       = [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] stamp, commemorating the 30th anniversary of ''Problems of Peace and Socialism''
| former_name   = <!-- or |former_names= -->
| abbreviation  = Probl. Peace Social.
| bluebook      = <!-- For law journals only -->
| discipline    = <!-- or |subject= -->
| peer-reviewed = 
| language      = 41 languages
| editor        = Soviet chief editor, appointed by the Information Department of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
| publisher     = 
| country       = Prague, Czechoslovakia
| history       = September 1958 – June 1990 
| frequency     = Monthly
| openaccess    = 
| license       = 
| impact        = 
| impact-year   = 
| ISSNlabel     = 
| ISSN          = 0043-8642
| eISSN         = 0266-867X
| CODEN         = 
| JSTOR         = 
| LCCN          = 
| OCLC          = 
| website       = 
| link1         = 
| link1-name    = 
| link2         = <!-- up to |link5= -->
| link2-name    = <!-- up to |link5-name= -->
| boxwidth      = 
}}
[[File:Praha-Dejvice, Thákurova, teologická fakulta (01).JPG|thumb|240px|The seat of the editorial office in the building of the archbishop's seminary in Prague at ul. Thákurova 3]]
'''''Problems of Peace and Socialism''''' ({{Langx|ru|Проблемы мира и социализма}}), also commonly known as '''''World Marxist Review''''' (WMR), the name of its English-language edition, was a monthly theoretical journal containing jointly-produced content by [[Communism|Communist]] and workers' parties from around the world, published from September 1958 to June 1990.

The magazine was a subsidized publication of the Information Department of the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union]], which maintained control over content through appointment of a Soviet chief editor throughout the publication's entire duration.

The offices of WMR were based in [[Prague]], [[Czechoslovakia]]. Each edition of the magazine had a circulation of above half a million, being read in 145 countries.<ref name=FPSU>Richard Felix Staar, ''Foreign Policies of the Soviet Union''. Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press, 1991; pp. 33, 93.</ref> At its height, ''WMR'' appeared in 41 languages, and editors from 69 communist parties around the world worked at its office in Prague.

==History==

===Background===
The [[Communist International]] (Comintern) was established in Moscow in March 1919 and began the regular production of a theoretical journal for members of its affiliated organizations, with the first issue of the magazine ''[[Communist International (magazine)|The Communist International]]'' appearing dated [[May Day]] of that same year.<ref name=Hulse27>James W. Hulse, ''The Forming of the Communist International''. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1964; pg. 27.</ref> This publication helped to advance news and theoretical ideas across national boundaries and to unify political campaigns, with an article in the first issue declaring that the journal should become a "constant companion" and source of guidance for its readers.<ref>Hugo Eberlein in ''Die Kommunistische Internationale'' (Petrograd), No. 1 (May 1, 1919), cols. 68-69. Quoted in Hulse, ''The Forming of the Communist International'', pg. 28.</ref> The magazine was initially produced in four parallel editions—[[Russian language|Russian]], [[German language|German]], [[French language|French]], and [[English language|English]]<ref name=Hulse27 />—and remained in production until the abrupt termination of the Comintern due to wartime political exigencies in 1943.

Following the end of the [[World War II|Second World War]] and the wartime alliance between the [[Soviet Union]] and the [[Allies of World War II|Allied powers]] of the United States, Great Britain, and France, a new [[Cold War]] erupted. The world Communist movement, headed by the USSR, reorganized itself as the [[Cominform|Communist Information Bureau]] (Cominform) in 1947, an institution which attempted to restore the centralized dissemination of news, ideas, and political activities under a new banner. The Cominform also had its official organ, the weekly newspaper ''For a Lasting Peace, for a People's Democracy,'' which closely paralleled the earlier Comintern magazine in function if not form. This newspaper remained in production until 1956, when the so-called [[On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences|"Secret Speech"]] of Soviet leader [[Nikita Khrushchev]] led to a restructuring of the world Communist movement which ended the Cominform.

A new effort at joint international activity would begin the following year.

===Establishment===
The idea of launching a joint ideological monthly publication was raised at the [[1957 International Meeting of Communist and Workers Parties]]. The first issue of ''Problems of Peace and Socialism/World Marxist Review'' was issued in September 1958. At the start, WMR was published in Russian, German, English, French, [[Hungarian language|Hungarian]], [[Polish language|Polish]], [[Chinese language|Chinese]], [[Albanian language|Albanian]], [[Vietnamese language|Vietnamese]], [[Bulgarian language|Bulgarian]], [[Romanian language|Romanian]], [[Korean language|Korean]], [[Czech language|Czech]], [[Mongolian language|Mongolian]], [[Spanish language|Spanish]], [[Italian language|Italian]], [[Dutch language|Dutch]], [[Swedish language|Swedish]] and [[Japanese language|Japanese]].<ref name="wmr">Zbigniew Brzezinski, ''The Soviet Bloc: Unity and Conflict''. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1967; pg. 475.</ref>

In some ways WMR represented a continuation of the [[Cominform]] organ ''[[For a Lasting Peace, for a People's Democracy!|For a Lasting Peace, for People's Democracy!]]'' WMR was supposed to play an important role in formulating a joint political line of the communist parties of the [[Socialist Bloc]]. However, it never really came to fill the function of being an intra-Bloc organ, but was rather used by non-ruling communist parties.<ref name="wmr"/>

===Development===
In the wake of the [[Sino-Soviet split]], the Albanian edition was canceled in 1962, followed by the Chinese and Korean editions in 1963.<ref name="wmr" /> Meanwhile, a [[Greek language|Greek]] edition was started in [[Cyprus]] in 1962, a [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]] in [[Brazil]] in the same year and a [[Sinhala language|Sinhala]] edition was launched in [[Ceylon]] in 1965. During the same period, new distribution centres were set up in [[Switzerland]], [[Uruguay]], [[Mexico]], [[Chile]] and [[Argentina]].<ref name="wmr" />

The costs for the printing of the magazine were mainly covered by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Communist parties from [[East Germany]], [[Poland]], [[Czechoslovakia]], [[Hungary]], [[Romania]], [[Bulgaria]] and [[Mongolia]] also contributed. Around half of the 400 strong staff were from the Soviet Union.<ref name=Kamm /> Until its final phase chief editor of the magazine as well as one of two executive secretaries were Soviets, with the second executive secretary position traditionally held by a Czechoslovak in apparent deference to the magazine's Prague editorial location.<ref name=84YICA-426>Richard F. Staar (ed.), "International Communist Organizations," in ''1984 [[Yearbook on International Communist Affairs]]''. Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press, 1984; pg. 426.</ref> These three individuals were described in the magazine as "the core of the Editorial Office" and together with a carefully selected Editorial Board served to maintain pro-Soviet ideological consistency of the journal's content.<ref name=84YICA-426 />

Ideological orthodoxy was maintained throughout the decades of the 1960s and 1970s, with the sole possible exception of 1968, when an issue was skipped and a chief editor removed following the August [[Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia]].<ref name=84YICA-426 /> The magazine's content was managed by a 65-member Editorial Council, divided into various content-related commissions.<ref name=84YICA-427>"International Communist Organizations," in Staar (ed.), ''1984 [[Yearbook on International Communist Affairs]]'', pg. 427.</ref> In the middle 1980s there were 10 such content commissions, including commissions related to affairs of the Soviet Union and other nations of the [[Warsaw Pact]]; developed non-communist countries of the Europe and North America; the countries of Asia and Africa; the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean; the world peace movement; the topic of science and culture, among others.<ref name=84YICA-427 />

As the [[Leonid Brezhnev|Brezhnev]] period drew to a close there were some 75 national editions of ''Problems of Peace and Socialism'' being published in 40 languages, with distribution taking place in 145 countries.<ref name=84YICA-426 />

===Activities===
In addition to publication of the theoretical journal itself, the Prague editorial office of ''Problems of Peace and Socialism'' served as a nexus for the sponsorship or co-sponsorship of various international conferences, including large events held in [[Sofia]], [[Bulgaria]] in December 1978 and [[East Berlin]] in October 1980.<ref name=84YICA-427 /> In the view of scholars these events served as de facto substitutes for previous international congresses of the Comintern and Cominform, gathering representatives of various national communist and anti-colonial political parties for the adaptation of policy.<ref name=84YICA-427 />

A similar conference was held in Prague in November 1981, attended by representatives of 90 political parties, ostensibly to discuss the work of the magazine.<ref name=84YICA-427 /> This gathering was marked by explicit criticism on the part of the Japanese delegation which challenged tight Soviet control of the magazine—a position said by the Japanese delegation to be backed by the [[Eurocommunist]] parties of Italy, Spain, Great Britain, and Belgium.<ref name=84YICA-427 /> The [[Japanese Communist Party]] in fact went so far as to call for the dissolution of the magazine itself.<ref name=84YICA-427 />

''Problems of Peace and Socialism'' was also an important conduit of information between Communist parties about the ongoing activities of various [[Communist front|front groups]] of the international movement, including the [[World Peace Council]] (WPC), the [[World Federation of Trade Unions]] (WFTU), the [[Women's International Democratic Federation]] (WIDF), the [[World Federation of Democratic Youth]] (WFDY), the [[International Union of Students]] (IUS), the [[Afro-Asian People's Solidarity Organisation]] (AAPSO), the [[International Association of Democratic Lawyers]] (IADL), the [[World Federation of Scientific Workers]] (WFSW), and the [[International Organization of Journalists]] (IOJ).<ref>"International Communist Organizations," in Staar (ed.), ''1984 [[Yearbook on International Communist Affairs]]'', pp. 428–434.</ref>

===Final period (1988–1990)===
With the ascent to power of [[Mikhail Gorbachev]] in the USSR, ''Problems of Peace and Socialism'' began to gain notoriety as an incubator of the liberalization known as [[perestroika]]. Several of Gorbachev’s top advisors on his reforms (such as [[Gennadi Gerasimov]], [[Georgy Shakhnazarov]], [[Yevgeny Ambartsumov]], [[Anatoly Chernyaev]], [[Georgy Arbatov]], [[Aleksandr Tsipko]], [[Yegor Yakovlev]], [[Ivan Frolov (journalist)|Ivan Frolov]] had worked on the staff of the magazine in Prague.

In August 1988 a new publication entitled ''First Hand Information: Communists and Revolutionary Democrats of the World Presenting Their Parties'' was launched by Peace and Socialism Publishers, formal publisher of ''Problems of Peace and Socialism.''<ref name=Spaulding>Spaulding, "International Communist Organizations: World Marxist Review," in Staar (ed.), ''1990 [[Yearbook on International Communist Affairs]]'', pp. 499–500.</ref> Shortly thereafter it was announced that the publishing house's longtime auxiliary magazine dedicated to publication of official Communist Party statements, ''Information Bulletin,'' was being discontinued.<ref name=Spaulding />

Towards the end of 1989, there were sharp changes in the editorial policy at WMR. Articles written by critics of the traditional Soviet system such as [[Zbigniew Brzezinski]], [[Alexander Dubček]], [[Milovan Đilas]] and [[Andrei D. Sakharov]] began to appear in the magazine's pages as a foil for discussion and debate.<ref name=Kamm>Henry Kamm [https://www.nytimes.com/1990/07/03/world/evolution-in-europe-with-nonreaders-gone-marxism-s-journal-fails.html "Evolution in Europe: With Nonreaders Gone, Marxism's Journal Fails,"] ''New York Times'', July 3, 1990.</ref>

The final issue of the publication was a combined No. 5-6 dated "May–June 1990."<ref name=YCA91>Wallace H. Spaulding, "International Communist Organizations," in Richard F. Staar and Margit N. Gregory (eds.), ''1991 [[Yearbook on International Communist Affairs]]: Parties and Revolutionary Movements''. Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press, 1991; pp. 437-438.</ref> Despite vigorous debate and a multiplicity of viewpoints that rendered ''World Marxist Review'' a more interesting publication, officials at the magazine claimed that circulation of the publication had fallen from its peak level of 500,000 to "zero" and the magazine was abruptly terminated.<ref name=YCA91 />

The immediate cause of the magazine's demise seems to have been a loss of subsidies, which had fallen by 1990 to only the Soviet and Mongolian Communist Parties.<ref name=Kamm /><ref name="1991-YICA-x1iii" /> The skeleton staff defaulted to Czech leadership, with Lubomír Molnar assuming the editorship early in 1990, becoming the first non-Soviet editor-in-chief of the publication.<ref name=YCA91 /> Following the magazine's closure the [[Roman Catholic church]] reclaimed the building where the ''WMR'' editorial office had been located.<ref name=Kamm />

The last editor, Molnar, tried unsuccessfully to negotiate remodeling the Peace and Socialism International Publishers venture into a broader [[left-wing politics|leftwing]] publishing house. The company was to be renamed "Patria."<ref name=Kamm />

==Editors==
[[Aleksei Rumyantsev|Aleksey Rumyantsev]] was the first editor, and served in the position until 1964. After Rumyantsev, G. P. Frantov (rector of the Academy of Social Sciences) took over the editorship.<ref name="wmr" />

In 1986 Aleksandr M. Subbotin, who was also a member of the [[Central Auditing Commission of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Auditing Committee]] of the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union]], became editor of ''WMR.''<ref name=FPSU />

===Editorial board===
In 1987, editors from parties of the following countries comprised its editorial board:<ref name=WMR1987>{{Citation |title=World Marxist Review |date=November 1987 |volume=30 |number=9 |access-date=7 July 2020 |url=https://meshok.net/item/134373560_World_marxist_review_Problems_of_peace_and_socialism_Volume_30_namber_11_november_1987_%D0%917677 |issn=0266-867X}}</ref><!--full list of parties is in Hobday: Communist and Marxist Parties of the World-->
{{div col}}
* {{flag|Algeria}}
* {{flag|Argentina}}
* {{flag|Austria}}
* {{flag|Belgium}}
* {{flag|Bolivia}}
* {{flag|Brazil}}
* {{flag|Bulgaria|1971}}
* {{flag|Canada}}
* {{flag|Chile}}
* {{flag|Colombia}}
* {{flag|Costa Rica}}
* {{flag|Cuba}}
* {{flag|Cyprus|1960}}
* {{flag|Czechoslovakia}}
* {{flag|Denmark}}
* {{flag|Dominican Republic}}
* {{flag|East Germany}}
* {{flag|Ecuador|1900}}
* {{flag|Egypt}}
* {{flag|El Salvador}}
* {{flag|Finland}}
* {{flag|France}}
* {{flag|Great Britain}}
* {{flag|Greece}}
* {{flag|Guatemala}}
* {{flag|Guyana}}
* {{flag|Honduras}}
* {{flag|Hungary}}
* {{flag|India}}
* {{flag|Indonesia}}
* {{flag|Iran}}
* {{flag|Iraq|1963}}
* {{flag|Ireland}}
* {{flag|Israel}}
* {{flag|Italy}}
* {{flag|Jamaica}}
* {{flag|Japan|1947}}
* {{flag|Jordan}}
* {{flag|Lebanon}}
* {{flag|Lesotho|1987}}
* {{flag|Luxembourg}}
* {{flag|Mexico}}
* {{flag|Mongolia|1945}}
* {{flag|Morocco}}
* {{flag|North Korea}}
* {{flag|Palestine}}
* {{flag|Panama}}
* {{flag|Paraguay|1954}}
* {{flag|Peru}}
* {{flag|Philippines}}
* {{flag|Poland}}
* {{flag|Portugal}}
* {{flag|Romania|1965}}
* {{flag|Saudi Arabia}}
* {{flag|Senegal}}
* {{flag|South Africa|1982}}
* {{flag|Spain}}
* {{flag|South Yemen}}
* {{flag|Soviet Union}}
* {{flag|Sri Lanka}}
* {{flag|Sudan}}
* {{flag|Syria}}
* {{flag|Sweden}}
* {{flag|Switzerland}}
* {{flag|Turkey}}
* {{flag|United States}}
* {{flag|Uruguay}}
* {{flag|Venezuela|1954}}
* {{flag|Vietnam}}
* {{flag|West Germany}}
{{div col end}}

==Languages==
At its height, ''WMR'' appeared in 41 languages. In 1987, it appeared in the following languages:<ref name=WMR1987/>
{{div col}}
* [[Arabic]]
* [[Bengali language|Bengali]]
* [[Bulgarian language|Bulgarian]]
* [[Czech language|Czech]]
* [[Danish language|Danish]]
* [[English language|English]]
* [[Finnish language|Finnish]]
* [[French language|French]]
* [[German language|German]]
* [[Greek language|Greek]]
* [[Gujarati language|Gujarati]]
* [[Hebrew]]
* [[Hindi]]
* [[Hungarian language|Hungarian]]
* [[Indonesian language|Indonesian]]
* [[Italian language|Italian]]
* [[Japanese language|Japanese]]
* [[Malayalam]]
* [[Mongolian language|Mongolian]]
* [[Norwegian language|Norwegian]]
* [[Odia language|Odia]]
* [[Persian language|Persian]]
* [[Polish language|Polish]]
* [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]]
* [[Punjabi language|Punjabi]]
* [[Romanian language|Romanian]]
* [[Russian language|Russian]]
* [[Sinhala language|Sinhala]]
* [[Spanish language|Spanish]]
* [[Swedish language|Swedish]]
* [[Tagalog language|Tagalog]]
* [[Tamil language|Tamil]]
* [[Telugu language|Telugu]]
* [[Turkish language|Turkish]]
* [[Vietnamese language|Vietnamese]]
{{div col end}}

==Footnotes==
{{Reflist|30em|refs=

<ref name="1991-YICA-x1iii">{{cite journal |editor1-last=Staar|editor1-first=Richard F.|editor1-link=Richard Felix Staar|editor2-last=Grigory|editor2-first=Margit N. |date=1991 |title=[[Yearbook on International Communist Affairs]] |journal=Yearbook on International Communist Affairs: Parties and Revolutionary Movements|location=USA |publisher=[[Hoover Institution|Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace]], [[Stanford University]]|page=x1iii 0-8179-9161-1|issn=0084-4101|lccn=67-31024}}</ref>

}}

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
* [https://archive.org/details/pub_world-marxist-review Archive of the English-language edition]
* [http://www.iran-archive.com/hezbe_toode/masaele_beinalmelali.html Archive of the Persian-language edition]
* [https://www.tustav.org/sureli-yayinlar-arsivi/baris-ve-sosyalizm-sorunlari/ Archive of the Turkish-language edition]
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Problems of Peace and Socialism}}
[[Category:Magazines established in 1958]]
[[Category:Magazines disestablished in 1990]]
[[Category:Communist magazines]]
[[Category:Defunct political magazines]]
[[Category:Marxist magazines]]
[[Category:Magazines published in Prague]]
[[Category:Foreign relations of the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Propaganda newspapers and magazines]]
[[Category:Magazines published in the Soviet Union]]