Censorship in the Soviet Union 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 (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 was performed by several organizations: Goskomizdat censored all printed matter: fiction, poetry, etc. Goskino, in charge of cinema Gosteleradio, in charge of radio and television broadcasting The First Department in many agencies and institutions, such as the State Statistical Committee (Goskomstat), 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 and foreign books and journals from libraries. Only "special collections" (spetskhran), accessible by special permit granted by the KGB, contained old and "politically incorrect" material. Libraries were registered and an inspectorate set up to ensure compliance; items regarded as harmful were weeded from the collections.Rogers A. Robert. (1973). Censorship and Libraries in the Soviet Union. Journal of Library History, Philosophy, and Comparative Librarianship, 8(1), 22–29. Towards the end of Soviet rule, perestroika led to loosened restrictions on publishing.
Soviet books and journals also disappeared from libraries according to changes in Soviet history. Often, Soviet citizens preferred to destroy politically incorrect publications and photos because those connected to them frequently suffered persecution, such as in the case of persecution of Christians.
After the arrest of Lavrentiy Beria in 1953, all subscribers to the second edition (1950–1958) of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia 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, 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.Blium, A. V. (Arlen Viktorovich), and Donna M. T. Cr Farina. "Forbidden Topics: Early Soviet Censorship Directives." Book History 1 (1998): 268-282. From 1932 until 1952, the promulgation of socialist realism was the target of Glavlit in bowdlerizing works of print, while anti-Westernization and Soviet nationalism were common tropes for that goal. To limit peasant revolts over collectivization, themes involving shortages of food were expunged. In the 1932 book Russia Washed in Blood, a Bolshevik's harrowing account of Moscow's devastation from the October Revolution 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 were made by eliminating Gleb's spirited exclamation to English sailors: "Although we're poverty-stricken and are eating people on account of hunger, [still] we have Lenin."
As peasant uprisings defined pre-World War II Soviet censorship, nationalism defined the period during the war. Defeats of the Red Army in literature were forbidden, as were depictions of trepidation in Soviet military characters. Pressure from state-run Pravda prompted authors like Alexander Alexandrovich Fadeyev 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."Ermolaev, Herman (1997). Censorship in Soviet Literature (1917-1991). Lanham u.a.: Rowman & Littlefield, Boston. 124.
With the start of the Cold War, a curse on anti-Westernization was proclaimed, mirroring the American Second Red Scare 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.Ermolaev, Herman (1997). Censorship in Soviet Literature (1917-1991). Lanham u.a.: Rowman & Littlefield, Boston. 109. Historically, Russia has been technologically inferior to the West, which is demonstrated by Glavlit editing out a section of Sevastopol which enviously describes London'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.Ermolaev, Herman (1997). Censorship in Soviet Literature (1917-1991). Lanham u.a.: Rowman & Littlefield, Boston. 137.
The "Khrushchev Thaw", beginning in 1953 with Stalin's death, brought some liberalization of censorship laws, 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 in 1953. The nascence of de-Stalinization—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's One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, a novel about a prisoner's brutal experience in the gulag, 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 supposed American bigotry, selfishness, and racism, which was not in the novel originally.Ermolaev, Herman (1997). Censorship in Soviet Literature (1917-1991). Lanham u.a.: Rowman & Littlefield, Boston. 167. These examples of anti-Westernization indicate that works were 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 (1917–1922), censoring film effectively advanced socialist realism, a mode of art production that positively portrays socialism 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 (1924–1953).
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 pertained to The Great Citizen, a film about the Moscow show trials. Stalin's letter made several intrusive revisions on the characters, props, and vital scenes such that the entire film needed restructuring.Kenez, Peter (2001). Cinema and Soviet Society: From the Revolution to the Death of Stalin, I.B. Tauris Publishers. London and New York. Print.133. More moderate cases were recorded, such as a picture by Ivan Pyryev, 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.Kenez, Peter (2001). Cinema and Soviet Society: From the Revolution to the Death of Stalin, I.B. Tauris Publishers. London and New York. Print. 133.
Kulaks were farmers resisting Stalin's crop requisition, 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 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, Barskaia either committed suicide on 23 July 1939 following a meeting where she was excommunicated from the film-making profession, or was arrested and died in a gulag camp.Kenez, Peter (2001). Cinema and Soviet Society: From the Revolution to the Death of Stalin, I.B. Tauris Publishers. London and New York. Print. 139.
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."Kenez, Peter (2001). Cinema and Soviet Society: From the Revolution to the Death of Stalin, I.B. Tauris Publishers. London and New York. Print. 131.