Censorship in the Soviet Union

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. 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. 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. 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.