Nõukogude tsensuurisüsteemi loomine ja organisatsiooniline väljakujunemine Eesti NSV-s 1940-41 ja 1944-53
Date
2005
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Tartu Ülikool
Abstract
Description
The purpose of this study was to give a picture of the installation of Soviet censorship
system, Glavlit (the exact name of the apparatus in Estonian was ENSV Kirjandus- ja
Kirjastusasjade Peavalitsus or ENSV KKP) in Estonia. The years selected for the
analysis were 1940-41 and 1944-53. Estonia „entered“ the Soviet Union in 1940 and
the totalitarian, stalinist power regime started to settle in.
The main hypothesis of this study was that the ENSV KKP worked inefficiently
during these first years of its existence; in other means, it did not work as well as the
leaders of the Communist Party (and also the leaders of Glavlit`s head administration
in Moscow) wanted it to work.
The main hypothesis was confirmed: the ENSV KKP did not work as efficiently as it
should have due to poor working conditions, incompetent staff and the shortage of
staff, as well as the lack of publishers and libraries interested in co-operation. Mostly
it is seen in the sphere of „cleaning“ the libraries from ideologically unsuitable
literature. The censors were reproached because of inefficient work by the leaders of
the ENSV KKP as well as the head administration of Glavlit (in Moscow).
The KKP staff consisted of approximately 30 people during the period researched and
the staff was divided into administrative office and the censors. The number of
censors varied as the rearrangements took place in the structure of the organisation,
being the smallest (8) during the autumn of 1944 and the greatest (24) during 1953.
In addition to full-time workers the help of local censors was used in the districts.
To educate the censors, weekly meetings were held where mistakes and new
prescriptions from Moscow were discussed. The ENSV KKP also arranged courses and seminars where local censors where invited as well.
Despite of everything the ENSV KKP working in the post-war stalinistic era lacked
staff, the working conditions were poor and the newspaper editors and libraries did
not tolerate the censors. Due to that the tasks assigned by the Party were not fully
executed.
Keywords
bakalaureusetööd, ajakirjandus, tsensuur, ajakirjandusvabadus, tsensorid, Eesti, 1940-1945, 1944-1953