Glavlit

Establishment and Name Changes

Glavlit was established by decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR on June 6, 1922. Its initial official name was the Main Administration for Literary and Publishing Affairs (Главное управление по делам литературы и издательств, abbreviated Главлит/Glavlit), placed under the People's Commissariat of Education (Narkompros). Its stated purpose was "the unification of all types of censorship of printed works."

Over the decades, its subordination and official name changed repeatedly: in 1933 it became the Administration of the Plenipotentiary of the USSR Council of People's Commissars for the Protection of Military and State Secrets in the Press; in 1946 it was transferred to the Council of Ministers; from March to October 1953 it was briefly subordinated to the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) as the 11th Main Directorate before returning to the Council of Ministers. In 1966 it was renamed the Main Directorate for the Protection of State Secrets in the Press under the USSR Council of Ministers (Главлит СССР). In August 1990 it was reorganized as ГУОТ (Main Directorate for the Protection of State Secrets in the Press and Other Mass Media), and was finally dissolved in 1991. Despite all these changes, the abbreviation "Glavlit" (Главлит) remained in semiofficial and everyday use from its founding to its abolition.

Functions and Operations

Glavlit's core function was pre-publication censorship. Every book, newspaper, magazine, poster, theater ticket, and all other printed matter required the approval of a Glavlit official before publication. Approved materials were stamped at three stages: "No disclosure of military or state secrets" (manuscript), "Permitted to print" (proofs/galleys), and "Permitted to release" (final signal copy). Authors never saw the censor's comments directly: they were folded into unified editorial decisions.

Glavlit defined the grounds for prohibiting publication: (a) agitation or propaganda against Soviet power and the dictatorship of the proletariat; (b) disclosure of state secrets; (c) incitement of nationalist and religious fanaticism; (d) pornography. In practice, these grounds were interpreted broadly and varied with the political climate. Individual censors exercised considerable discretion, and paranoid readings were not uncommon: in the 1930s, censors were instructed to scrutinize visual art for "skillfully concealed attacks by the class enemy" hidden in contours, shadows, and ornamentation.

Beyond pre-publication review, Glavlit issued permits for opening publishing houses and periodicals, approved editorial boards and chief editors, controlled the import of foreign literature and export of Soviet literature, supervised the removal of "politically harmful" works from libraries, bookstores, and museums, and exercised control over radio, television, public lectures, and exhibitions.

Structure and the "Perechen"

Glavlit's central apparatus grew from 86 staff in 1927 to 197 in 1934. By 1947 the central office employed 233 people, while local organs across the country employed 2,120 full-time staff plus 3,750 part-time censors in rural districts. The central apparatus was divided into specialized departments: military (1st), foreign literature (2nd), foreign correspondents (3rd), central publishing (4th), regional publishing (5th), central newspapers/radio/TASS (6th), and removal of harmful literature (7th). Glavlit representatives were stationed at every publishing house, newspaper editorial office, printing plant, radio station, telegraph agency, customs post, and central post office.

In 1925, Glavlit issued the first classified "List of Information Constituting a Secret and Not Subject to Dissemination" (the Perechen). The initial 16-page document contained 96 secrets. By 1936 the list had grown to 372 items, with another 300 added in 1937 alone. Prohibited subjects extended far beyond military information to include grain harvest figures, inflation rates, disease incidence, crime statistics, and other economic and social indicators.

Spetskhran and Library Censorship

Glavlit administered the spetskhran (special storage) system, classifying and sequestering materials deemed unfit for open library access. Censors regularly compiled and distributed nationwide lists of "politically harmful" publications to be removed from open shelves and transferred to restricted-access special collections, available only to authorized researchers. In 1958 alone, Glavlit reviewed 1.6 million copies of library holdings, sent 6 million copies to spetskhran, and destroyed over 250,000 copies of "extremely hostile" foreign publications.

The 1937 Purge

During the Great Purge, Glavlit itself was subjected to a sweeping purge. Its chief, Sergey Ingulov (Сергей Ингулов), was accused by Lev Mekhlis, head of the press department of the Central Committee, of protecting "enemies of the people" and concealing "anti-Party acts." Ingulov was dismissed, arrested by the NKVD, and executed. Sixty people were dismissed from the central apparatus, of whom seventeen were expelled from the Party. The purge was framed as a necessary cleansing of "politically dubious" elements from the censorship apparatus.

Glasnost and Dissolution

Mikhail Gorbachev's policy of glasnost fundamentally eroded Glavlit's authority. From late 1988 censorship standards were relaxed, and in June 1987 the Soviet government publicly announced that Glavlit had been "liquidated" and its ten thousand employees "dismissed" (though in reality it continued to operate under new names and organizational forms). In August 1990 it was formally reorganized as ГУОТ, and on October 25, 1991, the Law on the Press and Other Mass Media abolished the Soviet system of pre-publication censorship. After the dissolution of the USSR, successor structures to Glavlit persisted in some Central Asian post-Soviet states. Soviet dissidents referred to Glavlit as the "Ministry of Truth," after George Orwell's 1984."