Council of People’s Commissars of the RSFSR, Statute of the Main Administration for Affairs of Literature and Publishing, RSFSR (Glavlit) and its Local Organs. June 6, 1931
This statute on censorship replaced a comprehensive document approved as early as June 1922. The 1931 version was modeled closely on the earlier one, with a few significant differences. Excluded were references to the links between Glavlit and the secret police (OGPU), while the term ‘censorship’ was replaced by ‘control’. At the same time radio broadcasts, public lectures, and exhibitions were now specifically mentioned as being under Glavlit aegis.
Original Source: L. G. Fogelevich, Osnovnye direktivy i zakonodatelstvo o pechati (Moscow, 1935), p. 110.
1. The Main Administration for Affairs of Literature and Publishing (Glavlit) is established inside the People’s Commissariat of Instruction of the RSFSR to effect political, ideological, military, and economic control’ of all kinds over printed works, manuscripts, photographs, pictures etc., as well as radio programs, lectures and exhibitions, which are intended for publication or distribution.
2. Glavlit, in order to carry out the tasks with which it is charged, forbids the issue, publication, or distribution of any works which:
(a) contain agitation or propaganda against Soviet power or the dictatorship of the proletariat;
(b) divulge state secrets;
(c) arouse nationalist or religious fanaticism;
(d) are of a pornographic character.
3. Glavlit is charged with:
(a) the general administration and inspection of local organs and representatives of Glavlit;
(b) the preliminary and subsequent control over literature which is published, both from the political and ideological, and from the military and economic, points of view, and also over radio programs, lectures, and exhibitions;
(c) the confiscation of works which are not for distribution;
(d) the issue of permits for opening publishing houses and periodical publications, the closure of publishing houses and banning of editions, the prohibition or licensing of the importation from abroad or export of literature, pictures, etc., in accordance with existing regulations;
(e) the publication of rules, regulations and instructions on the matters which it handles: these rules etc., are obligatory for all institutions, organizations, and individuals;
(f) the examination of complaints against decisions of the local organs and representatives of Glavlit;
(g) the compilation, in conjunction with the administrations concerned, of lists of information which are, by the nature of their contents, specially reserved state secrets and not subject to publication or disclosure;
(h) the compilation of a list of works banned from publication or distribution;
(i) the prosecution of persons who violate the requirements of Glavlit, its offices and representatives.
4. Preliminary control (see paragraph (b) of Article 3 above) is effected by Glavlit through its representatives at publishing houses, the editorial offices of periodicals, printing works, radio stations, telegraphic agencies, customs houses, central post offices and similar institutions.
These representatives are nominated and removed by Glavlit and are maintained at the expense of the organization in which they serve.
The preliminary control of the output of those state publishing houses which form part of the OGIZ system is effected by the managers of these publishing houses, who are representatives of Glavlit and act on the basis of a special instruction confirmed by the People’s Commissar of Instruction of the RSFSR. The managers of OGIZ publishing houses nominate responsible political editors for day-to-day control work, and these are confirmed by Glavlit.
Glavlit is, when necessary, granted the right to establish preliminary control both over the whole output, and over individual kinds of literature published by the OGIZ state publishing houses, through specially nominated representatives of Glavlit.
5. Publications of the Communist International, the Central Committee of the VKP(B), krai, oblast and raion committees of the VKP (B), together with the Izvestiia of the Central Executive Committee and the All-Union Executive Committee, the works of the Communist Academy, and those of the Academy of Sciences, are freed from the political and ideological control of Glavlit.
With regard to these publications, Glavlit and its local organs are charged with ensuring the complete preservation of state secrets by means of preliminary perusal of them.
6. Glavlit is headed by a chief under whom a collegium is set up. The membership of this collegium is confirmed by the People’s Commissariat of Instruction of the RSFSR in agreement with interested administrations.
7. In krais and oblasts, as well as in industrial centers with a well-developed network of works newspapers and a significant amount of publishing activity, local organs of Glavlit are set up, attached to the relevant public education bodies; the former conduct their work according to directives and tasks set by Glavlit.
8. The functions indicated in Articles 1 and 2 and also in paragraphs (c), (f), (g) and (h) of Article 3 of this statute are laid upon the local organs of Glavlit.
The functions of the local organs of Glavlit in the raion are conducted by an official nominated by the raiispolkom in agreement with the corresponding organ of Glavlit.
9. The local organs of Glavlit are structured analogically to Glavlit itself, while the managers are nominated and removed by the People’s Commissariat of Instruction of the RSFSR at the representation of Glavlit.
10. All printed works brought out in the RSFSR carry the imprimatur of Glavlit or its local organs (krai-lit, ob-lit, rai-lit, gor-lit, or of a representative of Glavlit).
11. The managers of printing works are obliged to submit to the Glavlit offices five copies of any printed work as soon as it leaves the presses and before it is published.
12. Published works which have not been authorized by Glavlit and its local organs are removed from distribution at the suggestion of Glavlit and its organs by the apparatus of the publishing, book-trading and distributing organizations (OGIZ-Knigotsentr, Soiuzpechat, etc.).
Source: Mervyn Matthews, ed., Soviet Government: a selection of official documents on internal policies (New York: Taplinger, 1974), pp. 71-73.