
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, March 14, 1992                   TAG: 9203140022
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: MOSCOW                                LENGTH: Short

COMMUNISTS' PRAVDA HALTS PUBLICATION

Pravda, which told the Communist Party's "truth" for nearly 80 years, will shut down indefinitely today, a victim of economic reforms by anti-Communists who turned the tables on the once-powerful daily.

The newspaper founded by Vladimir Lenin had been losing readers for two years, and this month cut back to three editions a week after Russian President Boris Yeltsin freed prices and the cost of newsprint soared.

Bitter editors said Friday the final blow was a demand by a state-controlled printing plant for two months' payment in advance. They accused the Russian government of subsidizing newspapers that support Yeltsin, and of gagging Pravda - now considered an "opposition" publication - before a major hard-line rally next week.

"We've become one of the victims of the current reform, which turned out to be nothing more than enormous, outrageous price increases," deputy editor Victor Linnik told The Associated Press.

Pravda means "truth" in Russian. The name of its sister paper, Izvestia, means "news." One of the country's oldest political jokes went: "There is no news in Truth, and there is no truth in News."

by CNB