Gudok

an ancient Russian stringed instrument. The gudok has a hollow, wooden body, oval or pear-shaped, a flat soundboard with resonating openings, a short neck, and three strings; it is tuned in fourths or fifths. The gudok was used mainly by skomorokhi (itinerant performers) for dances and songs and to accompany singing. It was used in folk-instrument ensembles.

(The Whistle), a legal Bolshevik weekly newspaper, published by the Trade Union of Baku Petroleum Workers from 1907 to 1908. The first issue of Gudok came out on Aug. 12 (25), 1907, in Baku. Among those who participated actively on the newspaper were P. A. Dzhaparidze, S. S. Spandarian, J. V. Stalin. A. M. Stopani, and S. G. Shau-mian. Its circulation was 2.000–3,000 copies.

Gudok dealt with questions related to the workers’ movement and struggled to unite the multinational proletariat of Baku under the banner of revolutionary Social Democracy. In February 1908, Lenin wrote to M. I. Ulyanova from Geneva: “In the category of trade-union journals, I have received Gudok and Tekstil’noe delo. I urge you to send me all similar journals in the future” (Poln. sobr. soch., 5th ed., vol. 55, p. 246). The 35th issue of Gudok was printed on June 9 (22), 1908, but it was confiscated at the printing plant, and only part of the run was preserved. The newspaper passed into the hands of the Mensheviks, who published their own 35th issue on July 26 (Aug. 8), 1908. The Bolsheviks then began to publish the newspaper Bakinskii rabochii.

(The Whistle), the daily newspaper of Soviet railway workers; organ of the Ministry of Communications of the USSR and the Central Committee of the Trade Union of Railway Transportation Workers. Gudok has been published in Moscow since December 1917 (daily since May 1920). On the 50th anniversary of Gudok the newspaper Pravda wrote that “through all the stages of socialist construction this oldest workers’ newspaper, in its militant way, helped the railroad workers successfully to carry out the tasks posed for them by the party and the government” (Pravda, Dec. 23, 1967, p. 3).

In the I920’s the so-called fourth page of Gudok, which was devoted to satire, gained great fame. It contained topical satirical sketches based on material from letters sent by workers and readers. The satires were written by such talented young writers as 1. Il’f, E. Petrov, V. Kataev, and Iu. Olesha, who contributed regularly to the newspaper. In 1958, on the occasion of its 10,000th issue, the newspaper was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor. Its circulation in 1971 was approximately 700.000.