Censorship (1855-1964) Flashcards
What is Censorship?
The suppression of information by the state or government. ie. Banning of opposition texts
What does the word Glasnost mean?
Openness
Under the Tsars what was the technical name for newspapers and publications state sanctioned to provide info on official items?
Ruskii
Give one statistic that shows Censorship was relaxed under Alexander II
1855: 140 Periodicals were published
1855: 1020 Books Published
1864: 1836 Books Published
1872: Karl Marx’s Das Kapital was allowed to be published
Explain why Censorship was ignited again under Alexander III, what was the reasoning or cause?
Censorship was clamped down more by the state. This was because of the death of his father Alexander II. His son blamed his father’s death on the liberalism seeping through in publications. He reversed many of his father’ liberal policies.
Nicholas II reverted to Glasnost, a relaxation of openness with publications in 1894. Why was this clamped down again in 1905.
Bloody Sunday & the ensuing 1905 Revolution. Nicholas II clamped down on publications that attacked or challenged the regime.
“Political discussions of the Duma were put into print and as such showed progress” - What is misleading with this statement?
Although their discussions were put into print, the Tsar personally omitted or changed their printed word. This was to ensure he had control over what they did and did not share.
In what manner did most of the Russian soldiers gain their news from the frontline during WW1
Censorship was heavy during WW1, so most soldiers gained their knowledge or the war or what was occurring back at home from ‘foreign broadcasts’
What was established by the Bolsheviks in 1921 in order to promote their vision and perception of the USSR?
Agitprop - The Agitation & Propaganda Department.
Name one writer who struggled to survive with freedom to write under Lenin’s Dictatorship.
Zemyatin
Under Stalin literary groups were closed down. The USW was established in 1932. What did this stand for?
Union of Soviet Writers
Within the USW writers were told they had to fit the principles of ‘Socialist Realism’ - What did this term mean?
The ‘official’ way of
representing, through
writing and the visual
arts, the heroic efforts
of workers and peasants
to ensure the success of
communism.
Give one example of a writer under Stalin & later Khrushchev who changed their beliefs to fit in with the USW
Boris Pasternak
What method was used by the Communist Regime if USW members did not conform?
Arrest, Exile, Sent to Labour Camps, Execution & Show Trials.
Stalin controlled information from outside during World War II. Give two methods and ways that he did this
Radio Airways were distorted with foreign broadcasts, news was fabricated or fictionalized, restrictions placed on arts that did not conform.
What was the New Soviet Man as a Communist Propaganda & Censorship ideal?
The ideal Soviet citizen:
hard working, law abiding,
moral and supportive of
the Communist Party
Give a statistic that shows censorship was relaxed under Khrushchev
By the late 1950’s, 65,000 Books were published per year (This was twice the number that came out in the 1920’s)
By 1959, libraries had grown. There were 135,000 libraires that had 8000 million books, a 10x increase from 1913.
