On June 19, 2025, the heart of our old comrade Dmitry Fedorovich Pirozhkov stopped beating.

Dmitry Fedorovich and I had a joint live broadcast on current issues of Marxism and the communist movement. You can find it here: https://www.youtube.com/live/IcoTvSee-YU?si=qlqoQrNcbDrsoZEh

Comrade Pirozhkov began his fight against the current system in the mid-90’s. From then until his last breath, he was faithful to the struggle of the working class against oppression.

First of all, his role in the labor movement of Russia stands out in his work in the "Proletarskaya Gazeta" from its very foundation – since 1999. He was an editor there, and made a huge contribution to its work. In total, the newspaper was published in 46 issues. It contains a huge array of information about the labor movement in the world, historical references and research articles. Dmitry Fedorovich put all his efforts into the newspaper.

Comrades who worked with him remember him as a very intelligent, well-read, attentive, kind and caring friend and person. In any weather, in any state of health, he was at the forefront of the fight. Despite his age, he was distinguished by enormous energy. In case of a question on any topic, comrade Dmitry was always ready to help with advice, and thanks to his amazing memory, he could name any work of a classic if it was needed to prepare an article. He was a real aksakal of the communist movement!

Dmitry Fyodorovich will be buried at the Southern Cemetery in St. Petersburg.

Rest in peace, dear comrade Dmitry Fyodorovich! We will miss you.

Friend, comrade of Dmitry Fyodorovich Pirozhkov, member of the editorial board of Proletarskaya Gazeta, member of the editorial board of the Internet publication Tribune, Georgii Eremin

Our comrades are passing away. This summer, on June 19th, Dmitry Fyodorovich Pirozhkov passed away—a longtime member of the Proletarskaya Gazeta editorial board and occasional editor-in-chief. Many knew him as the distributor of Proletarskaya Gazeta at the "bourgeois democracy" spot near Gostiny Dvor on Nevsky Prospekt. Two or three times a week, on weekends or after work, in all weathers, he distributed the newspaper and other communist literature there. He could also be seen with a folding table and printed publications at most left-wing rallies and demonstrations in Leningrad and St. Petersburg. He was constantly in the thick of public events, interacting with people, rather than retiring to the quiet of his office. Besides communist literature, other literature was also distributed at Gostiny Dvor, including nationalist and obscurantist ones. Although not physically strong, he was ideologically steadfast. In ideological debates with opponents and passersby, including obscurantists and aggressive citizens, he rebuffed the perversion of the communist idea, sometimes even having to fend off physical attacks. Even in those liberal times, he constantly had to deal with the police, and later with the police, which was no easy task – after all, he was also engaging in a struggle with the state machine.

But Dmitry Fyodorovich wasn't just a distributor; he, along with Anatoly Vasilyevich Pyzhov, founded the newspaper. I began working with them in 1991, after the so-called "Putsch," which exposed the rottenness of the CPSU and brought to light all the filth of this already decayed organization that claimed to be "Communist." It was they who forced me to reconsider my views and kept me from joining the Communist Party of the Russian Federation—in other words, they carried out a competent educational task. At first, we distributed various communist publications in public places and at factory entrances, but then we came to the conclusion that we needed to publish our own newspaper, one that, as we believed, reflected Leninist positions. Thus, in 1994, with the assistance of V.N. Leonov, the first issue of "Arguments and Counterarguments" was published in Gatchina, and in 1999, "Proletarskaya Gazeta" began publication. After the death of A. V. Pyzhov, the burden of editing, printing, and distributing the newspaper was taken on entirely by Dmitry Fedorovich.

The newspaper was created through their joint efforts: every weekend, they would gather in the editorial office and carefully review the submitted materials, most of which they had written, selecting every word and every sentence. This continued year after year. This allowed them to create a coherent issue, focused on a specific theme, in which all materials were logically linked and advanced communist ideas. If you look at the newspaper's previous issues, most of which were posted online, you'll see that many ideas were put forward back then that are only now finding confirmation and recognition. This includes the thesis on the failure of communism in the USSR as a result of the class struggle that continued after October 1917 until the formal defeat of the working class in August 1991 (although at times, the comrades were overly uncritical of Stalin's work, denying the possibility of error, thereby disconnecting this work from the class struggle). In the early 2000s, based on Lenin's works and the economic crisis in Greece, a thesis was advanced regarding the collapse of the United States of Europe – the European Union. We see confirmation of some of these tendencies today. The analysis was based on the theoretical foundation of Marxism, and Dmitry Fedorovich's extensive knowledge was essential here.

Unfortunately, there were also negative experiences with this method of work, when a small circle of editorial board members rejected all criticism, information, and materials from other members and from outsiders. This lowered the theoretical level of the newspaper, and this should become a lesson learned for communist groups.

The editorial board of Proletarskaya Gazeta established contacts with many activists throughout Russia and with communist organizations abroad. The newspaper maintained contacts with organizations in Germany, Greece, Turkey, India, Iran, and Canada. Members of the editorial board, including D. F. Pirozhkov, were invited to congresses and conferences, where they were sometimes the only representatives from Russia.

D. F. Pirozhkov, along with the editorial board, considered one of his main tasks to be transferring the momentum of the communist movement to the younger comrades who would replace it, and one can see that he deserved some credit for this. Dmitry Fyodorovich was never a member of the CPSU, but he was a true communist—a fighter not for privileges, but for the communist idea. As the imperialist confrontation escalated to the level of armed conflict, D. F. Pirozhkov adopted a consistent internationalist stance and supported comrades who had left the RCWP and OKP in their assessment of the leadership of these parties as social-chauvinist. Recently, he actively collaborated with the RCP(i) and published materials from our comrades in Proletarskaya Gazeta.

The time will come when power in Russia is in the hands of the working people, and a monument will be erected to those fighters who, during the turbulent times of counterrevolution, raised the scarlet banner of struggle for the cause of the working class. The name of Dmitry Fyodorovich Pirozhkov will be on it.

Vladimir Nikiforov, participant of the Proletarskaya Gazeta, member of the RCP(i)

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Vladimir Nikiforov, participant of the Proletarskaya Gazeta, member of the RCP(i)