Censorship In The Soviet Union
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Censorship in the
Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
was pervasive and strictly enforced. Censorship was performed in two main directions: * State secrets were handled by the
General Directorate for the Protection of State Secrets in the Press Main Directorate for the Protection of State Secrets in the Press under the Council of Ministers of the USSR (russian: Главное управление по охране государственных тайн в печати при СМ С ...
(also known as Glavlit), which was in charge of censoring all publications and broadcasting for state secrets *Censorship, in accordance with the official ideology and politics of the
Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. A ...
was performed by several organizations: **
Goskomizdat Goskomizdat (Russian: Госкомиздат, an abbreviation for Государственный комитет по делам издательств, полиграфии и книжной торговли СССР, ''Gosudarstvenny komitet po ...
censored all printed matter: fiction, poetry, etc. **
Goskino Goskino USSR (russian: link=Yes, Госкино СССР) is the abbreviated name for the USSR State Committee for Cinematography (Государственный комитет по кинематографии СССР) in the Soviet Union. It w ...
, in charge of cinema ** Gosteleradio, in charge of radio and television broadcasting **The
First Department The First Department (russian: Первый отдел) was in charge of secrecy and political security of the workplace of every enterprise or institution of the Soviet Union that dealt with any kind of technical or scientific information (p ...
in many agencies and institutions, such as the State Statistical Committee (
Goskomstat The Federal State Statistics Service (russian: Федеральная служба государственной статистики (Росстат), ''Federal'naya sluzhba gosudarstvennoi statistiki (Rosstat)'') is the governmental statistics ...
), was responsible for assuring that state secrets and other sensitive information only reached authorized hands.


Destruction of printed matter

The Soviet government implemented mass destruction of pre-
revolutionary A revolutionary is a person who either participates in, or advocates a revolution. The term ''revolutionary'' can also be used as an adjective, to refer to something that has a major, sudden impact on society or on some aspect of human endeavor. ...
and foreign books and journals from libraries. Only "special collections" (''
spetskhran Spetskhran (russian: Спецхран an abbreviation for "Special Storage Section", отдел специального хранения) were limited access collections and archival reserves in libraries and archives of the Soviet Union, as part ...
''), accessible by special permit granted by the
KGB The KGB (russian: links=no, lit=Committee for State Security, Комитет государственной безопасности (КГБ), a=ru-KGB.ogg, p=kəmʲɪˈtʲet ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)əj bʲɪzɐˈpasnəsʲtʲɪ, Komitet gosud ...
, contained old and
politically incorrect ''Political correctness'' (adjectivally: ''politically correct''; commonly abbreviated ''PC'') is a term used to describe language, policies, or measures that are intended to avoid offense or disadvantage to members of particular groups in socie ...
material. Libraries were registered and an inspectorate set up to ensure compliance; items regarded as harmful were weeded from the collections. Books that were considered harmful failed to promote the worker's class consciousness and willingness to work hard, contained religious propaganda and pro-tsarist ideas. Towards the end of Soviet rule,
perestroika ''Perestroika'' (; russian: links=no, перестройка, p=pʲɪrʲɪˈstrojkə, a=ru-perestroika.ogg) was a political movement for reform within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) during the late 1980s widely associated wit ...
led to loosened restrictions on publishing. Soviet books and journals also disappeared from libraries according to changes in
Soviet history The history of Soviet Russia and the Soviet Union (USSR) reflects a period of change for both Russia and the world. Though the terms "Soviet Russia" and "Soviet Union" often are synonymous in everyday speech (either acknowledging the dominance ...
. Often Soviet citizens preferred to destroy politically incorrect publications and photos because those connected to them frequently suffered persecution, such as its
persecution of Christians The persecution of Christians can be historically traced from the first century of the Christian era to the present day. Christian missionaries and converts to Christianity have both been targeted for persecution, sometimes to the point of b ...
. After the arrest of
Lavrentiy Beria Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria (; rus, Лавре́нтий Па́влович Бе́рия, Lavréntiy Pávlovich Bériya, p=ˈbʲerʲiə; ka, ლავრენტი ბერია, tr, ;  – 23 December 1953) was a Georgian Bolshevik ...
in 1953, all subscribers to the second edition (1950–1958) of the ''
Great Soviet Encyclopedia The ''Great Soviet Encyclopedia'' (GSE; ) is one of the largest Russian-language encyclopedias, published in the Soviet Union from 1926 to 1990. After 2002, the encyclopedia's data was partially included into the later ''Bolshaya rossiyskaya e ...
'' obtained a page to replace the one containing the ''Lavrentiy Beria'' article; the new page extended information on George Berkeley.


Soviet censorship of literature

Works of print such as the press, advertisements, product labels, and books were censored by
Glavlit Main Directorate for the Protection of State Secrets in the Press under the Council of Ministers of the USSR (russian: Главное управление по охране государственных тайн в печати при СМ С ...
, an agency established on June 6, 1922, ostensibly to safeguard top secret information from foreign entities but in reality to remove material the Soviet authorities did not like. From 1932 until 1952, the promulgation of
socialist realism Socialist realism is a style of idealized realistic art that was developed in the Soviet Union and was the official style in that country between 1932 and 1988, as well as in other socialist countries after World War II. Socialist realism is ch ...
was the target of Glavlit in bowdlerizing works of print, while anti-Westernization and
nationalism Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a in-group and out-group, group of peo ...
were common tropes for that goal. To limit peasant revolts over
collectivization Collective farming and communal farming are various types of, "agricultural production in which multiple farmers run their holdings as a joint enterprise". There are two broad types of communal farms: agricultural cooperatives, in which member ...
, themes involving shortages of food were expunged. In the 1932 book ''Russia Washed in Blood'', a
Bolshevik The Bolsheviks (russian: Большевики́, from большинство́ ''bol'shinstvó'', 'majority'),; derived from ''bol'shinstvó'' (большинство́), "majority", literally meaning "one of the majority". also known in English ...
's harrowing account of
Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...
's devastation from the
October Revolution The October Revolution,. officially known as the Great October Socialist Revolution. in the Soviet Union, also known as the Bolshevik Revolution, was a revolution in Russia led by the Bolshevik Party of Vladimir Lenin that was a key moment ...
contained the description, "frozen rotten potatoes, dogs eaten by people, children dying out, hunger," but was promptly deleted.Ermolaev, Herman (1997). ''Censorship in Soviet Literature (1917-1991)''. Lanham u.a.: Rowman & Littlefield, Boston. 78. Also, excisions in the 1941 novel ''
Cement A cement is a binder, a chemical substance used for construction that sets, hardens, and adheres to other materials to bind them together. Cement is seldom used on its own, but rather to bind sand and gravel ( aggregate) together. Cement mix ...
'' were made by eliminating Gleb's spirited exclamation to English sailors: "Although we're poverty-stricken and are eating people on account of hunger, all the same we have Lenin." As peasant uprisings defined pre-
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
Soviet censorship, nationalism defined the period during the war. Defeats of the
Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after ...
in literature were forbidden, as were depictions of trepidation in Soviet military characters. Pressure from ''
Pravda ''Pravda'' ( rus, Правда, p=ˈpravdə, a=Ru-правда.ogg, "Truth") is a Russian broadsheet newspaper, and was the official newspaper of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, when it was one of the most influential papers in the co ...
'' prompted authors like
Alexander Alexandrovich Fadeyev Alexander Alexandrovich Fadeyev (russian: link=no, Алекса́ндр Алекса́ндрович Фаде́ев; – 13 May 1956) was a Soviet writer, one of the co-founders of the Union of Soviet Writers and its chairman from 1946 to 1954 ...
to redact a section in '' The Young Guard'' where a child reads in the eyes of a dying Russian sailor the words "We are crushed." Since
Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secreta ...
regularly read ''Pravda'', which was itself censored by Glavlit, it was wise for an author to obey ''Pravda''’s advice. With the start of the
Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
, a curse on anti-Westernization was proclaimed, mirroring the American
Second Red Scare McCarthyism is the practice of making false or unfounded accusations of subversion and treason, especially when related to anarchism, communism and socialism, and especially when done in a public and attention-grabbing manner. The term origina ...
to some extent. For instance, in the 1950 edition of ''The Ordeal of Sevastopol'', censors made over three hundred cuts, screening the book's references to Frenchmen as "a people of very lively imagination", and the chivalrous treatments which the French gave to Russian prisoners—such as eating in the passenger's lounge and being given a hundred francs per month—were extracted from the text. Historically, Russia has been technologically inferior to the West, which is demonstrated by
Glavlit Main Directorate for the Protection of State Secrets in the Press under the Council of Ministers of the USSR (russian: Главное управление по охране государственных тайн в печати при СМ С ...
editing out a section of ''Sevastopol'' which enviously describes
London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
's technological accomplishments in flattering detail. Religious intolerance and atheism was another goal of post-World War II censorship, and was an extension of anti-Westernization. In the children's novel ''Virgin Soil Upturned'', references to God making mist out of tears shed by the poor and hungry were rescinded. The "
Khrushchev Thaw The Khrushchev Thaw ( rus, хрущёвская о́ттепель, r=khrushchovskaya ottepel, p=xrʊˈɕːɵfskəjə ˈotʲ:ɪpʲɪlʲ or simply ''ottepel'')William Taubman, Khrushchev: The Man and His Era, London: Free Press, 2004 is the period ...
", beginning in 1953 with Stalin's death, brought liberation of previously banned literature, and greater liberty to the authors writing during this time. Glavlit's authority to censor literature decreased after they became attached to the
USSR Council of Ministers The Council of Ministers of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics ( rus, Совет министров СССР, r=Sovet Ministrov SSSR, p=sɐˈvʲet mʲɪˈnʲistrəf ɛsɛsɛˈsɛr; sometimes abbreviated to ''Sovmin'' or referred to as the '' ...
in 1953. The nascence of
de-Stalinization De-Stalinization (russian: десталинизация, translit=destalinizatsiya) comprised a series of political reforms in the Soviet Union after the death of long-time leader Joseph Stalin in 1953, and the thaw brought about by ascension ...
—the government's remission of Stalin's policies—is evident by censors replacing his name in '' For the Power of the Soviets'', with words like "the party," or "the Supreme Commander." Anti-Westernization was also suppressed, and in 1958 "Sevastopol," became divested of cuts meant to hide the West's technological advancement and Russia's backwardness. When
Solzhenitsyn Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn. (11 December 1918 – 3 August 2008) was a Russian novelist. One of the most famous Soviet dissidents, Solzhenitsyn was an outspoken critic of communism and helped to raise global awareness of political repress ...
's ''
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich ''One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich'' (russian: links=no, italics=yes, Один день Ивана Денисовича, Odin den' Ivana Denisovicha, ) is a short novel by the Russian writer and Nobel laureate Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, first p ...
'', a novel about a prisoner's brutal experience in the
gulag The Gulag, an acronym for , , "chief administration of the camps". The original name given to the system of camps controlled by the GPU was the Main Administration of Corrective Labor Camps (, )., name=, group= was the government agency in ...
, was released to the public in 1962, it was clear that socialist realism was disappearing. However, censorship was not completely absent from this era. Emmanuil Kazakevich's 1962 novel, ''Spring on the Oder'', was posthumously injected in 1963 with descriptions of American bigotry, selfishness, and racism which was not in the novel originally. These examples of anti-Westernization indicate that works were still expurgated for propaganda, but censorship still declined with Khrushchev's de-Stalinization.


Censorship of images

Repressed persons were routinely removed not only from texts, but also from photos, posters and paintings.


Soviet censorship of film

Censorship of film was commonplace since the USSR's inception. Beginning with the
Russian Civil War , date = October Revolution, 7 November 1917 – Yakut revolt, 16 June 1923{{Efn, The main phase ended on 25 October 1922. Revolt against the Bolsheviks continued Basmachi movement, in Central Asia and Tungus Republic, the Far East th ...
(1917–1922), censoring film effectively advanced
socialist realism Socialist realism is a style of idealized realistic art that was developed in the Soviet Union and was the official style in that country between 1932 and 1988, as well as in other socialist countries after World War II. Socialist realism is ch ...
, a mode of art production that positively portrays
socialism Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...
and constituents of socialist nations. As propaganda tools directed at the masses—particularly the illiterate—themes of anti-Westernization and nationalism depicted socialist realism in films by negatively portraying elements of capitalist countries while positively depicting the Soviet Union. Elements of anti-Westernization included censoring religion and technological superiority, while signs of weakness in the Soviet military like lost battles or frightened soldiers were expurgated to further nationalistic goals. Film censorship peaked during the rule of Stalin (1941–1953). Acting as the chief censor for films, Stalin was demanding meticulous revisions in a way befitting his interpretation, as if a co-author. One famous letter Stalin wrote to
Alexander Dovzhenko Oleksandr Petrovych Dovzhenko or Alexander Petrovich Dovzhenko ( uk, Олександр Петрович Довженко, ''Oleksandr Petrovych Dovzhenko''; russian: Алекса́ндр Петро́вич Довже́нко, ''Aleksandr Petro ...
pertained to ''
The Great Citizen ''The Great Citizen'' (russian: Великий гражданин, Velikiy grazhdanin) is a 1938 Soviet biopic film directed by Fridrikh Ermler. A fictionalized biography of Sergei Kirov (the character's name is Shakhov), the film was intended as ...
'', a film about the
Purge Trials The Great Purge or the Great Terror (russian: Большой террор), also known as the Year of '37 (russian: 37-й год, translit=Tridtsat sedmoi god, label=none) and the Yezhovshchina ('period of Yezhov'), was Soviet General Secret ...
. Stalin's letter made several intrusive revisions on the characters, props, and vital scenes such that the entire film needed restructuring. More moderate cases were recorded, such as a picture by
Ivan Pyryev Ivan Aleksandrovich Pyryev (russian: Ива́н Алекса́ндрович Пы́рьев; – 7 February 1968) was a Soviet-Russian film director and screenwriter remembered as the high priest of Stalinist cinema. He was awarded six Stali ...
, where Stalin only changed the title from ''Anka'' to ''The Party Card''. However, movies which Stalin thought did not cohere with socialist realism were denied being released to the public; ''The Party Card'' was not such a film. This picture's screenplay was written during the time of a national campaign to renew individual party cards, and losing one amounted to a serious lack of Soviet discipline. Anka, the main character, has her card stolen by her lover, who is the surreptitious son of a
kulak Kulak (; russian: кула́к, r=kulák, p=kʊˈlak, a=Ru-кулак.ogg; plural: кулаки́, ''kulakí'', 'fist' or 'tight-fisted'), also kurkul () or golchomag (, plural: ), was the term which was used to describe peasants who owned ove ...
. Kulaks were farmers resisting Stalin's crop
collectivization Collective farming and communal farming are various types of, "agricultural production in which multiple farmers run their holdings as a joint enterprise". There are two broad types of communal farms: agricultural cooperatives, in which member ...
, and Anka's lover uses the party card for iniquitous purposes. In the final scene of the movie she confronts him at gunpoint and, after he ignominiously begs forgiveness, she has him arrested by the authorities. By vilifying kulaks, Stalin aimed to diminish public sympathy for them. Socialist realism is promoted since, at the end of the movie, her loyalty to the party takes precedence over her romantic feelings; therefore, Stalin approved its production. However, not all films earned his approval. One example is the 1940 film, '' The Law of Life'', which was retracted from cinemas after ten days because it negatively portrayed a
Komsomol The All-Union Leninist Young Communist League (russian: link=no, Всесоюзный ленинский коммунистический союз молодёжи (ВЛКСМ), ), usually known as Komsomol (; russian: Комсомол, links=n ...
leader by depicting him as hypocritical and abusing his power. Stalin organized a military tribunal which castigated the scenarist Aleksandr Avdeenko, accusing him of inaccurate representations of Soviet reality. While nothing was said of the director, Avdeenko was jettisoned from the party. However, directors were not always spared, as in the case of Margarita Barskaia. Her film ''Father and Son'' features a factory director who prioritizes his work over educating his son, Boris. Portraying Boris as an unhappy child and the father—a war hero—as a slothful parent was regarded as slanderous by a film reviewer. After her movie was removed from cinemas she was arrested, and died in the gulag. While Glavlit censored literature, Stalin micro-managed the film industry. He made "recommendations" on what should be included, edited, or deleted entirely. If ignored, similar consequences to those that befell Margarita were meted out. However, while he was obsessed with films, Stalin was uneducated on film production. Due to this ignorance, Stalin thought of the director as a mere technician who carried out instructions. Therefore, he dictated that camera angles should not be shot from below, or above the actor, but always at eye level. Stalin's callowness over the importance of the director's work was of great benefit to the filmmakers since, "with few exceptions, they survived." The centrality of Stalin in film censorship lasted to his death in 1953, but the strictness of Soviet censorship did not survive him. Khrushchev succeeded Stalin as the USSR's Premier, and articulated de-Stalinization in his
secret speech "On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences" (russian: «О культе личности и его последствиях», «''O kul'te lichnosti i yego posledstviyakh''»), popularly known as the "Secret Speech" (russian: секре ...
to the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. At this point, censorship finally began to diminish; this was known as the "Khrushchev Thaw." Film output grew to 20 pictures in 1953, 45 in 1954, and 66 in 1955. Movies now introduced themes that were formerly considered taboo, like conflicted characters. In the 1959 film '' Ballad of a Soldier'', Alyosha, the main character, experiences a conflict between his lover and his obligations to the military. The off-screen text at the end of the film reads, “He could have become a worker…grown wheat and adorned the earth with gardens. But all he managed in his short life was to become a soldier.” While restrictions on film still pervaded during the “Khrushchev Thaw”, they were significantly fewer than under Stalin.


Translations

Translations of foreign publications were often produced in a truncated form, accompanied with extensive corrective footnotes. For example, in the Russian 1976 translation of
Basil Liddell Hart Sir Basil Henry Liddell Hart (31 October 1895 – 29 January 1970), commonly known throughout most of his career as Captain B. H. Liddell Hart, was a British soldier, military historian and military theorist. He wrote a series of military histo ...
's ''History of the Second World War'' content, such as the Soviet treatment of neighbouring states, many other Western Allies' efforts, the Soviet leadership's mistakes and failures, criticism of the Soviet Union, and other content, were censored out.


Control over information

All media in the Soviet Union was controlled by the state including television and radio broadcasting, newspaper, magazine, and book publishing. This was achieved by
state ownership State ownership, also called government ownership and public ownership, is the ownership of an industry, asset, or enterprise by the state or a public body representing a community, as opposed to an individual or private party. Public ownershi ...
of all production facilities, thus making all those employed in media state employees. This extended to the fine arts including the theater, opera, and ballet. Art and music was controlled by ownership of distribution and performance venues. Censorship was backed in cases where performances did not meet with the favor of the Soviet leadership, with newspaper campaigns against offending material and sanctions applied through party-controlled professional organizations. In the case of book publishing, a manuscript had to pass censorship and the decision of a state owned publishing house to publish and distribute the book. Books which met with official favor, for example, the collected speeches of
Leonid Brezhnev Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev; uk, links= no, Леонід Ілліч Брежнєв, . (19 December 1906– 10 November 1982) was a Soviet Union, Soviet politician who served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Gener ...
were printed in vast quantities while less favored literary material might be published in limited numbers and not distributed widely. Possession and use of copying machines was tightly controlled in order to hinder production and distribution of
samizdat Samizdat (russian: самиздат, lit=self-publishing, links=no) was a form of dissident activity across the Eastern Bloc in which individuals reproduced censored and underground makeshift publications, often by hand, and passed the document ...
, illegal
self-published Self-publishing is the publication of media by its author at their own cost, without the involvement of a publisher. The term usually refers to written media, such as books and magazines, either as an ebook or as a physical copy using POD (pri ...
books and magazines. Possession of even a single samizdat manuscript such as a book by
Andrei Sinyavsky Andrei Donatovich Sinyavsky (russian: Андре́й Дона́тович Синя́вский; 8 October 1925 – 25 February 1997) was a Russian writer and Soviet dissident known as a defendant in the Sinyavsky–Daniel trial in 1965. Sinyavsk ...
was a serious crime which might involve a visit from the KGB. Another outlet for works which did not find favor with the authorities was publishing abroad. It was the practice of libraries in the Soviet Union to restrict access to back issues of journals and newspapers more than three years old.


Jamming of foreign radio stations

Due to the appearance of foreign radio stations broadcasting in Russian territory and inaccessibility for censorship, as well as the appearance of a large number of shortwave receivers, massive jamming of these stations was applied in the USSR using high-power radio-electronic equipment. It continued for almost 60 years. The Soviet radio censorship network was the most powerful in the world. All information related to radio jamming and usage of corresponding equipment was considered a state secret. On the eve of the
1980 Summer Olympics The 1980 Summer Olympics (russian: Летние Олимпийские игры 1980, Letniye Olimpiyskiye igry 1980), officially known as the Games of the XXII Olympiad (russian: Игры XXII Олимпиады, Igry XXII Olimpiady) and commo ...
in Moscow, the ''Olympic Panorama'' magazine intended to publish a photo with a hardly noticeable jamming tower located in the Fili District. Despite the photo being of a public place, it was approved for publication only after the tower was cut from it. The production of receivers with
wavelengths In physics, the wavelength is the spatial period of a periodic wave—the distance over which the wave's shape repeats. It is the distance between consecutive corresponding points of the same phase on the wave, such as two adjacent crests, tr ...
shorter than 25 meters was also controlled. Receivers with those ranges were primarily exported and were sold very rarely within the country.


Circumvention of censorship

Samizdat Samizdat (russian: самиздат, lit=self-publishing, links=no) was a form of dissident activity across the Eastern Bloc in which individuals reproduced censored and underground makeshift publications, often by hand, and passed the document ...
, allegorical styles, smuggling, and tamizdat (publishing abroad) were used as methods of circumventing censorship. For example, an underground library was functioning in Odessa from 1967 to 1982, which was used by around 2,000 readers.
Soviet dissidents Soviet dissidents were people who disagreed with certain features of Soviet ideology or with its entirety and who were willing to speak out against them. The term ''dissident'' was used in the Soviet Union in the period from the mid-1960s until t ...
were active fighters against censorship. Samizdat was the main method of information dissemination. Such organizations as the
Moscow Helsinki Group The Moscow Helsinki Group (also known as the Moscow Helsinki Watch Group, russian: link=no, Московская Хельсинкская группа) is today one of Russia's leading human rights organisations. It was originally set up in 1976 ...
and the Free Interprofessional Labor Union were also engaged in similar activities. Other forms of illegal distribution included '' roentgenizdat'' and ''
magnitizdat ''Magnitizdat'' () was the process of copying and distributing audio tape recordings that were not commercially available in the Soviet Union. It is analogous to ''samizdat'', the method of disseminating written works that could not be officially ...
'', copying and distributing music not available in the Soviet Union. There were cases of literary hoaxes, where authors made up a translated source. Poet Vladimir Lifschitz, for instance, invented a British poet named James Clifford, who allegedly died in 1944 on the Western Front. Vladimir published poetry which he claimed was written by James Clifford, but which was actually his own work. One more method was a so-called "dog method". According to this, one should include an obviously ridiculous and attention-drawing vivid episode in the work. As a result, minor nuances went unnoticed. In this manner, a movie named ''
The Diamond Arm ''The Diamond Arm'' (russian: Бриллиантовая рука ''Brilliantovaya ruka'') is a Soviet crime comedy film made by Mosfilm and first released in 1969. The film was directed by director Leonid Gaidai and starred several famous Soviet ...
'' was saved after the director,
Leonid Gaidai Leonid Iovich Gaidai (russian: Леонид Иович Гайдай; 30 January 1923 – 19 November 1993) was a Soviet and Russian comedy film director, screenwriter and actor who enjoyed immense popularity and broad public recognition in the fo ...
, intentionally included a nuclear explosion at the end of the film. The
Goskino Goskino USSR (russian: link=Yes, Госкино СССР) is the abbreviated name for the USSR State Committee for Cinematography (Государственный комитет по кинематографии СССР) in the Soviet Union. It w ...
commission was horrified and requested that the explosion be removed. After resisting for a while, Gaidai removed the explosion and the rest of the film was left almost untouched. One of the important information channels were anecdotes. Through this, folklore from people often express their critical attitude to authorities and communist ideology. Political anecdotes became widespread in the 60s and 70s.


See also

*
Drug policy of the Soviet Union The drug policy of the Soviet Union changed little throughout the existence of the state, other than slowly becoming more repressive, although some differences in penalties existed in the different Union Republics. However, the prevalence of drug a ...
*
Eastern Bloc information dissemination Eastern Bloc media and propaganda was controlled directly by each country's communist party, which controlled the state media, censorship and propaganda organs. State and party ownership of print, television and radio media served as an important ...
*
First Department The First Department (russian: Первый отдел) was in charge of secrecy and political security of the workplace of every enterprise or institution of the Soviet Union that dealt with any kind of technical or scientific information (p ...
*
Propaganda in the Soviet Union Propaganda in the Soviet Union was the practice of state-directed communication to promote class conflict, internationalism, the goals of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and the party itself. The main Soviet censorship body, Glavli ...
*
Socialist Realism Socialist realism is a style of idealized realistic art that was developed in the Soviet Union and was the official style in that country between 1932 and 1988, as well as in other socialist countries after World War II. Socialist realism is ch ...
Other Eastern Bloc states: *
Censorship in East Germany As with many Soviet-allied countries prior to the fall of the Berlin Wall, the government of the former German Democratic Republic (German: ''Deutsche Demokratische Republik'') applied censorship during its existence from 1949 to 1990. The censor ...
*
Censorship in the People's Republic of Poland Censorship in Polish People's Republic, Communist Poland was primarily performed by the Polish ' (''Główny Urząd Kontroli Prasy, Publikacji i Widowisk''), a governmental institution created in 1946 by the pro-Soviet Provisional Government of Nat ...
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Censorship in the Russian Empire In the Russian Empire, government agencies exerted varying levels of control over the content and dissemination of books, periodicals, music, theatrical productions, works of art, and motion pictures. The agency in charge of censorship in the Russ ...
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Freedom of the press in the Russian Federation Media freedom in Russia concerns both the ability of directors of mass-media outlets to carry out independent policies and the ability of journalists to access Source (journalism), sources of information and to work without outside pressure. M ...


References


External links

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Attacks on Intelligentsia: Censorship
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Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...
web site
Censorship in the Soviet Union and its Cultural and Professional Results for Arts and Art Libraries
*Lewis, B. E. (1977)
Soviet Taboo. Review of ''Vtoraya Mirovaya Voina, History of the Second World War'' by B. Liddel Gart (Russian translation)
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Soviet Studies ''Europe-Asia Studies'' is an academic peer-reviewed journal published 10 times a year by Routledge on behalf of the Institute of Central and East European Studies, University of Glasgow, and continuing (since vol. 45, 1993) the journal ''Soviet St ...
'' 29 (4), 603-606. * * * {{Censorship Suppression of dissent