“My years are my wealth.” So “MK” became “richer” by one year. But this capital is growing not only due to the journalistic work of the current editorial staff, but also due to the search for new facts from the history of the capital’s youth team. It was possible to replenish such a “piggy bank” by the current 102nd anniversary of the newspaper. It turned out that among its “early” editors there is a “double” of one of the honored party members – a former candidate for membership in the Central Committee of the RSDLP, who achieved great success in the diplomatic field.
How many archival documents and reference books have been shoveled when writing a detailed history of our newspaper on the eve of its 100th anniversary, but still there are “blank spots”.
The author of these lines had a chance to talk about one of them with the daughter of a man who actually stood at the very origins of the capital’s “youth team” – Ilya Lin, who worked as its editor in the early 1920s.
Regina Ilyinichna Lin said that she had written a book about her father, where she also placed information about some of his associates in the editorial office of the Komsomol newspaper. Including about Nicholas of Jordan, who was the editor-in-chief in 1923 – 1924.
While preparing a collection about the history of “MK” about this “captain” of the journalistic team, it was possible to learn quite a bit, so the information they heard now was very interesting. My interlocutor explained that she managed to find information about a person with such a first and last name in the bibliographic dictionary “Figures of the USSR and the Revolutionary Movement in Russia” published by the Publishing House of the All-Union Society of Political Convicts and Exiled Settlers in the late 1920s in a small print run. As indicated in the footnote to the article about N. Iordansky, its content is based on autobiographical materials.
And here I noticed a clear “overlap” of time. After all, “our” editorial Nikolai Iordansky, judging by his later published memoirs (albeit very meager), was included in the staff of a Moscow newspaper in the fall of 1923. He could not be engaged in the preparation of new numbers of the “youth” while in Italy!
It turns out that we are dealing with two different people. Although they have a lot of striking similarities. Not only is the surname quite rare, but also the name, as well as the type of activity – journalism, managing the work of newspaper editorial offices … So, maybe, after all, the former candidate for membership in the Central Committee of the RSDLP was in charge of the then “Young Leninist”?
Of course, it would be interesting to have a character with such an “exclusive” biography in the gallery of “emkov” editors. But without additional supporting facts, it is better to refuse such a temptation.
That is why today there will be a story about what we have reliably found out, thanks to the search in the archives and the study of old newspaper filings, about Nikolai Iordansky – the editor of the capital’s “youth team”, which until January 22, 1924 was called “Youth Truth”, and after the death of the “leader revolution ”was renamed“ Young Leninist ”.
Recalling his work for a Moscow youth newspaper, he mentioned that he started here as a freelance correspondent. Later he was included in the editorial staff and appointed to head the department of working youth.
In the minutes of the meeting of the Moscow City Committee of the Komsomol, held in the fall of 1923, there is a mention of the Jordanian. He then held the post of head of the Information Department of the MK RKSM. This means that it was from there that Nikolai moved to the “youth team”, maybe even combined editorial work with the city committee for some time – such options were practiced at that time.
Since November 17, 1923, according to the decision of the Komsomol “top” of Moscow, Nikolai Iordansky was put at the head of the team of journalists “Yunpravda” – first acting editor after the urgent removal of the previous leader Grigory Faltenberg, and then without any “and. O.” – a full-fledged editor-in-chief.
However, his “first coming” was short-lived. Already on February 3 of the following year, in the chair of the editor-in-chief (although what kind of chair is there – a simple office chair), they put another – more reliable? – a person: a Komsomol functionary named Petrovsky. Alas, the new “proven staff” did not cope with the specific newspaper work, and a month later Iordansky was again made the “captain” of the “youth team” (all this time he remained in the “ML” as Petrovsky’s deputy).
However, this time Nikolai was not destined to stay at the head of the journalistic collective. Soon he was seriously guilty before the Komsomol leadership of the capital. Judging by the records in the minutes of the meeting of the MK RLKSM secretariat dated May 16, 1924, the “senior comrades” put him on the surface for publishing an advertisement for a newspaper subscription without the sanction of the city committee.
After that, for some time Iordansky headed the youth team as acting editor-in-chief. His final dismissal from the newspaper provoked another emergency. In “Young Leninist” No. 55, a certain “crime” was published that “undermined the foundations” (it was not possible to find out what it was exactly), because of which the Komsomol leadership of the city decided to take extreme measures. An instruction followed: the entire circulation of this issue should be confiscated and destroyed, having printed a new issue instead. Of course, the city committee comrades, all the dogs for such a “puncture” were hanged on Nikolai Iordansky. The leadership of “ML” hastened to strengthen, removing from the affairs of its former “captain” and appointing in his place the executive editor M. Matveev – head of the Press Department of the MK.
This change of power took place on June 14, 1924. A few days earlier, an incident occurred in the editorial office, with the direct participation of Iordansky, one of those that the media write about in the “chronicle of incidents” section. This is the kind of note that appeared in the June 8 issue of The Young Leninist:
“June 5 at 4 pm Comrade Iordansky, editor of ML, shot himself in the chest with a shot from a Browning in the editorial office. Since at the moment of injury Comrade. Iordansky remained alone in the room – the editorial staff were in the adjoining room – it is very difficult to establish exactly the circumstances under which the injury occurred. However, both in terms of the situation and the nature of the injury, which is not dangerous to life, there is every reason to assume that the injury is the result of careless handling of weapons. After providing the first medical aid comrade. Iordansky was sent to one of the Moscow hospitals. “
Unfortunately, we have managed to find only very scant information about further events in the fate of “our” Nikolai Iordansky. The ex-editor-in-chief is mentioned in the minutes of the meeting of the MK RLKSM on October 10, 1924. Then the Komsomol leaders of Moscow decided to send him to the disposal of the city party committee.
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