"Pravda" began publication in 1912 as the foremost newspaper of the Communist Party of Russia. Following the October Revolution of 1917, it became the leading daily newspaper of the Soviet Union. Following the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, it continued to be published into the 21st century. "Bednota" was a daily newspaper for peasants established in Petrograd in 1918 by its editor, Lev Sosnovskii. In its early period of issuance, the paper was published as Pravda/Bednota, likely owing to the fact that Sosnovskii was a member of the editorial board of Pravda and the editor of Bednota. Sosnovskii was Bednota's editor until the mid-1920s when he was banished from the Communist Party. Following him was Yakov Arkadevich Yakovlev. He was executed in 1938 during the Stalinist Purges. Bednota was published until February 1931 when it merged with "Socialisticheskoe Zemledelye" (Socialist Agriculture).