“GLAVLIT”

Evening Star, Issue 20959, 25 November 1931, Page 12

“GLAVLIT”

RUSSIA'S CENSORSHIP DEPARTMENT

A REPRESENTATIVE ON EVERY NEWSPAPER At the bottom of the last page of every Soviet newspaper there is an inconspicuous line which would be baffling to the uninitiated reader (writes Frank Parker Stockbridge, in the American Press). Take, for example, any issue of the Moscow ‘lzvestia”—the official organ of the Government of the Soviet Union —and you will find in the lower left-hand corner of the closing page the legend; “ Plenipotentiary of the Glavlit, No. V 6,817.” If you turn to the ‘ Pravda ’ —the official organ of the Communist Party —you will notice the same legend with a different number, such as “V 5,767.” That mysterious word _ “ Glavlit,” stands for a most mysterious institution ot the Bolshevist dictatorship, namely, the Censorship Department. The word “plenipotentiary” simply indicates that attached to the particular periodical is a trusted commissar of t’mt department—a special censor who is in most cases one of the editors of the publication, and in all cases a Communist in good standing with the ruling group. The number merely identifies him.

When you consider the fact that every printing press in the country is owned, controlled, and operated by the Soviet authorities; when it is borne in mind that every publication, periodical or otherwise, bears the imprint of the Glaylit; when it is further remembered that the power in llussia is absolutely in the hands of a monopolistic political party and that no individual or group can publish anything which is not strictly Bolshevist in character; only then may one gain some remote conception of the unlimited scope of the censorship in Soviet Russia, and appreciate the extent to which all sources of information and all channels of opinion are bottled up in that country. The Glavlit is intimately connected with the Press Bureau of the Central Committee of _ the Communist Party, of which Stalin is Secretary-General. This Press Bureau is the august tribunal in matters of news and opinion. When _ the Leningrad or Odessa Soviet decided to launch a new publication or a new publishing firm, it must be approved by Stalin’s Bureau. When an important cominissar makes a speech or grants an interview, it must pass through that bureau before appearing in print. Before an important member of the party or the Government receives a foreign correspondent, he must secure permission from the Central Committee. Frequently such statements are censored prior to their release. When they happen to be especially controversial, Stalin himself will apply his pencil to them, occasionally prohibiting their appearance in the Press. Stalin is the editor-in-chief of the whole Soviet Union.