What is "iskra"

Iskra was a 1900–1905 communist newspaper. The word means "spark" in many Slavic languages.

Iskra may also refer to:

Products

• ISKRA lasers, used for laser fusion experiments at VNIIEF Russia
• Iskra-1030, a Soviet personal computer, other Iskras in list of Soviet computer systems
• Iskra, 1960–1963 Soviet camera, see :ru:Искра (фотоаппарат)
• PZL TS-11 Iskra, a Polish jet aircraft

Places

• İskra, former name of Aşağı Kəsəmən, Azerbaijan
• Iskra, Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship (north-central Poland)
• Iskra, Parvomay village in Plovdiv region, Bulgaria
• Iskra, Kardzhali Province, Bulgaria

Sports teams

• NK Iskra Bugojno, a football club in Bosnia and Herzegovina
• FK Iskra Danilovgrad, a football club from Montenegro
• ISKRA, volleyball club based in Odintsovo, Moscow Oblast, Russia

Other

• Iskra (company), an electronic equipment manufacturer in Yugoslavia, now broken up into many parts, some with "Iskra" in the name
• Iskra (band), a crust punk/black metal band from Victoria, Canada
• Iskra (Egyptian communist organisation)
• Iskra 1903, Iskra 1904 and Iskra 1912, jazz bands with Paul Rutherford
• Operation Iskra

Iskra is a Canadian blackened crust band founded in Victoria, British Columbia in 2002. Their name means "spark" in Croatian (iskra), Polish (iskra), Serbian (искра/iskra), Russian (искра), and Bulgarian (искра).

Iskra performs and contributes to the anarchist underground musical tradition, which emerged via anarcho-punk in the late 1970s and 1980s with bands like Crass, Amebix, Antisect, and Conflict. By blending elements of crust punk and black metal, Iskra say they have created their own subgenre: "blackened crust".

Iskra includes former members of the crust band Black Kronstadt, who in the 1990s also described their music as "blackened crust", thus coining the phrase.

Lyrically, Iskra's material generally follows in the anarchist punk tradition, with topics including criticism of government, war, economics, social issues such as homophobia, sexism, racism, and the struggles of indigenous peoples. The effects of political organization (both right and left wing) is also a common theme. Some songs discuss the global effects of capitalist institutions such as the World Trade Organization, World Bank, the Central American Free Trade Agreement, the North American Free Trade Agreement and the Independent Task Force on North America.

Iskra (, ash-Sharara) was a communist organization in Egypt. Iskra was founded in 1942 by Hillel Schwartz. In the initial phase of its existence, the membership of Iskra was a few tens.

The followers of Iskra were, like the supporters of other Egyptian communist factions, active inside the Wafdist Vanguard (see Wafd).

Iskra emphazised studies of Marxist theory and its application in Egyptian society. The approach of Iskra was that the first task of the communists was to build a base amongst revolutionary intellectuals, and that mass mobilisation would follow at a later stage.

In 1944 Iskra established a study centre, Dar al-abahth al-'ilmiya (دار الأبحاث العلمية, House of Scientific Research). The centre published literature and gave classes on communist thought.

In 1945 Iskra was one of the forces behind the foundation of the National People's University, an institution that provided courses in politics and social sciences for labour activists.

In February 1946, Iskra was one of the groups that organised the National Committee of Workers and Students, a mass movement for national independence and social reforms. The National Committee lasted until July the same year.

In 1947 began publishing the newspaper al-Jamahir (الجماهير, 'The Masses'). Shudi Atiya ash-Shafi was the director of the House of Scientific Research and later the editor of al-Jamahir. Ash-Shafi had been the first Egyptian Muslim to become part of the Iskra leadership.

In 1947 Iskra merged with the Egyptian Movement for National Liberation (HAMITU) to form the Democratic Movement for National Liberation.

Iskra was an electronic equipment manufacturer in Yugoslavia, established on March 8, 1946 in Kranj, Slovenia. Starting with 850 workers, it employed as many as 35,000 at its peak. In the beginning of the 1970s, Iskra was the largest Slovenian company in the field of electromechanics, telecommunications, electronics and automation.

In 1989, Iskra SOZD consisted of the following organizations:

• Iskra Banka
• Iskra Commerce
• Iskra Servis
• Iskra Telematika
• Iskra Delta
• Iskra Kibernetika
• Iskra električna orodja
• Iskra Elektrozveze
• Iskra Merilna elektronika
• Iskra Elektrooptika
• Iskra Avtomatika
• Iskra Orodja
• Iskra Elementi
• Iskra Mikroelektronika
• Iskra Antene
• Iskra Elekroakustika
• Iskra Elektromotorji
• Iskra Videomatika
• Iskra Rotomatika
• Iskra Avtoelektrika
• Iskra Kondenzatorji
• Iskra Baterije Zmaj
• Iskra Institut za kakovost
• Iskra "ZORIN"
• Iskra Invest servis
• Iskra High School

Following the breakup of Yugoslavia, it is now a company in Slovenia. The company's operations in Slovenia were divided into many separate companies, including Iskratel, Iskra Avtoelektrika, Iskraemeco, Fotona, Iskra Amesi, Iskra, elektro in elektronska industrija, d.d. (Iskra d.d. for short)

Iskra (, , Spark) was a political newspaper of Russian socialist emigrants established as the official organ of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP). Initially, it was managed by Vladimir Lenin, moving as he moved. The first edition was published in Leipzig, Germany, on December 1, 1900. Other editions were published in Munich (1900–1902) and Geneva from 1903. When Lenin was in London (1902–1903) the newspaper was edited from a small office at 37a Clerkenwell Green, EC1, with Henry Quelch arranging the necessary printworks.

In 1903, following the split of the RSDLP, Lenin left the staff (after his initial proposal to reduce the editorial board to three - himself, Julius Martov and Georgi Plekhanov - was vehemently opposed), the newspaper fell under the control of the Mensheviks and was published by Plekhanov until 1905. The average circulation was 8,000.

Iskras motto was "Из искры возгорится пламя" ("From a spark a fire will flare up") — a line from the reply Alexander Odoevsky wrote to the poem by Alexander Pushkin addressed to the anti-tsar Decembrists imprisoned in Siberia.

Some of the staff were later involved in the Bolshevik revolution of October 1917.

Initial staff members:

• Vladimir Lenin (Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov)
• Dmitri Ilyich Ulyanov, his younger brother
• Georgi Plekhanov
• Vera Zasulich
• Pavel Axelrod (Pinchas Borutsch)
• Julius Martov (Ilija Cederbaum)
• Aleksandr Potresov

Later:

• Leon Trotsky (Lev Davidovich Bronstein)

Printing: Blumenfeld.

One of the people who financed the paper was Savva Morozov

Iskra (, Spark) was a Russian satirical weekly published in Saint Petersburg in 1859-1873.

The magazine, founded by the caricaturist Nikolai Stepanov and poet Vasily Kurochkin was a Socialist publication, targeting social inequality and the Tsarism. Yet, in its heyday it attracted a host of famost authors from diverse literary factions, including Alexey K. Tolstoy, Alexey Zhemchuzhnikov, Alexey Pleshcheyev, Lev Mei, Viktor Burenin, Liodor Palmin, Vladimir Shchiglev, Gleb and Nikolai Uspenskys, Alexander Levitov, Pavel Yakushkin, Fyodor Reshetnikov, Grigory Eliseev. Iskra became famous for its caricatures, made by the best Russian artists of the time, among them Nikolai Stepanov, Mikhail Mikeshin, Mikhail Znamensky.

Throughout its history Iskra suffered from severe censorship, and in 1865 was forced to part with Vasily Kurochkin. It was finally closed in 1873.