The Censorship of Press in Petrograd: Transformations of Supervising Institutions in 1919

Abstract

The article explores the transformations of Petrograd institutions in charge of press censorship carried out in 1919. The author pays attention to previously little-known facts about the transfer of supervisory functions in the field of publishing. It was established that the Commissariat of press, agitation, and propaganda, which continued to perform the role of press censorship in Petrograd in the first half of 1919, was later transformed into the Department of press, agitation, and propaganda of the Petrograd Soviet. Back in September, the Petrograd branch of the state publishing house began to supervise the press. In early October, the St. Petersburg Committee of the RCP (b) prepared mobilization for the southern front and adopted a resolution on eliminating the Department of press, propaganda, and propaganda. The transferal of functions of press censorship to the Petrograd office of the state publishing house was issued by its resolutions, but in November its Board, in the presence of V. V. Vorovsky (the head of the State publishing house) and at the initiative of I. I. Ionov (head of the Petrograd office), decided to offer Petrograd Council to establish the Department of the press as it was already organized in Moscow and prescribed by the resolution of SNK of July 22/24, 1919.