Martin Antonenko
A Fixture
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2008
- Messages
- 9,001
"Glawlit"
By decision of the "Council of People's Commissars" (the government of the newly founded Soviet Union), "Glawlit", the state censorship authority, was founded on July 6, 1922.
"Glawlit" is a typical Soviet acronym for the long name of the agency of the "Department of Literature and Publishing of the People's Commissariat for Education of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics".
"Glawlit" is made up of the first syllables of the words "Glawnoje" (= main administration) and "Literazije" (= reading, information, literature).
Nikolay Leonidovich Mescheryakov will be the first head of the authority...:
The Council of People's Commissars outlined the tasks of "Glawlit" as follows:
Anything that can be construed as “anti-Soviet agitation”, the "disclosure of military secrets of the Soviet Union", “excitement of public opinion through deception”, “stimulation of religious and nationalist fanaticism” as well as pornography will be banned in the future.
The first and third tasks in particular are deliberately blurred and allow for a great deal of discretion – which is used extensively. Over the years, the range of tasks has become more and more comprehensive and finally all-encompassing.
The censorship accompanied an author through all stages of publication, from the preliminary draft to the finished book..:
When it was founded, the censorship authority had 86 employees; in 1939 there were already 6,027, and in 1946 there were already 6,453.
Since 1947, the authority has been divided into seven departments or general directorates with the following tasks:
First Directorate: Deals with "state secrets" and "espionage" together with NKVD/KGB
Second Directorate: Control and Censorship of Foreign Literature in the USSR
Third Directorate: Deals with (and "controls") foreign correspondents
Fourth Directorate: Control and censorship of books, periodicals and publishing houses
Fifth Directorate: Control and censorship of everything printed in the "autonomous Soviet republics"
Sixth Directorate: Controls the distribution of information for the state news agency TASS and all newspapers and magazines.
Seventh Directorate: Controls and censors all information leaving the Soviet Union abroad.
Although the agency has changed its official name 11 times (in 1991 it will be called the "Main Department for Protection of State Secrets in the Press under the USSR Council of Ministers"), it always keeps its acronym "Glawlit"!
The respective boss of "Glawlit" lives dangerously at all times - mistakes can cost your career and sometimes even your life!
As an example, the “Glavlit” chief Sergey Borisovich Ingulov may…
…serve, who has been in charge of “Glawlit” since 1935.
Ingulov came Stalin's bloodhound Lev Mekhlis…
... in the way, who had him arrested on December 17, 1937 and shot on September 3, 1938 after a short trial as a "saboteur".
Ingulow's "confession" had, of course, been tortured out of him, and one of the many "evidences" of his "act of sabotage" was - no joke! – the fact that the coffee machine on the executive floor was broken…
"Glawlit" has innumerable journalistic and literary works as well as author careers on its conscience!
The most well-known censorship measure in the West was the 1957 ban on Boris Pasternak's...
... masterpiece “Doctor Zhivago”, the manuscript of which could be smuggled abroad by friends of Pasternak and was only published in the West (in Rome)...:
Pasternak had to refuse the Nobel Prize in Literature awarded to him for “Doctor Zhivago” in 1958 under pressure from “Glavlit” and the KGB!
It was only in 1987 that Pasternak (who died in 1960) was rehabilitated and “Doctor Zhivago” was allowed to appear in the Soviet Union!
It was only in 1989 that Pasternak's son was able to accept the Nobel Prize on behalf of his father...
"Glawlit's" long life ended only in 1989 during Gorbachev's perestroika.
The last head of the agency was Vladimir A. Boldyrew...
By decision of the "Council of People's Commissars" (the government of the newly founded Soviet Union), "Glawlit", the state censorship authority, was founded on July 6, 1922.
"Glawlit" is a typical Soviet acronym for the long name of the agency of the "Department of Literature and Publishing of the People's Commissariat for Education of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics".
"Glawlit" is made up of the first syllables of the words "Glawnoje" (= main administration) and "Literazije" (= reading, information, literature).
Nikolay Leonidovich Mescheryakov will be the first head of the authority...:
The Council of People's Commissars outlined the tasks of "Glawlit" as follows:
Anything that can be construed as “anti-Soviet agitation”, the "disclosure of military secrets of the Soviet Union", “excitement of public opinion through deception”, “stimulation of religious and nationalist fanaticism” as well as pornography will be banned in the future.
The first and third tasks in particular are deliberately blurred and allow for a great deal of discretion – which is used extensively. Over the years, the range of tasks has become more and more comprehensive and finally all-encompassing.
The censorship accompanied an author through all stages of publication, from the preliminary draft to the finished book..:
When it was founded, the censorship authority had 86 employees; in 1939 there were already 6,027, and in 1946 there were already 6,453.
Since 1947, the authority has been divided into seven departments or general directorates with the following tasks:
First Directorate: Deals with "state secrets" and "espionage" together with NKVD/KGB
Second Directorate: Control and Censorship of Foreign Literature in the USSR
Third Directorate: Deals with (and "controls") foreign correspondents
Fourth Directorate: Control and censorship of books, periodicals and publishing houses
Fifth Directorate: Control and censorship of everything printed in the "autonomous Soviet republics"
Sixth Directorate: Controls the distribution of information for the state news agency TASS and all newspapers and magazines.
Seventh Directorate: Controls and censors all information leaving the Soviet Union abroad.
Although the agency has changed its official name 11 times (in 1991 it will be called the "Main Department for Protection of State Secrets in the Press under the USSR Council of Ministers"), it always keeps its acronym "Glawlit"!
The respective boss of "Glawlit" lives dangerously at all times - mistakes can cost your career and sometimes even your life!
As an example, the “Glavlit” chief Sergey Borisovich Ingulov may…
…serve, who has been in charge of “Glawlit” since 1935.
Ingulov came Stalin's bloodhound Lev Mekhlis…
... in the way, who had him arrested on December 17, 1937 and shot on September 3, 1938 after a short trial as a "saboteur".
Ingulow's "confession" had, of course, been tortured out of him, and one of the many "evidences" of his "act of sabotage" was - no joke! – the fact that the coffee machine on the executive floor was broken…
"Glawlit" has innumerable journalistic and literary works as well as author careers on its conscience!
The most well-known censorship measure in the West was the 1957 ban on Boris Pasternak's...
... masterpiece “Doctor Zhivago”, the manuscript of which could be smuggled abroad by friends of Pasternak and was only published in the West (in Rome)...:
Pasternak had to refuse the Nobel Prize in Literature awarded to him for “Doctor Zhivago” in 1958 under pressure from “Glavlit” and the KGB!
It was only in 1987 that Pasternak (who died in 1960) was rehabilitated and “Doctor Zhivago” was allowed to appear in the Soviet Union!
It was only in 1989 that Pasternak's son was able to accept the Nobel Prize on behalf of his father...
"Glawlit's" long life ended only in 1989 during Gorbachev's perestroika.
The last head of the agency was Vladimir A. Boldyrew...
