Latvijas Vēsturnieku komisijas raksti - 21.sējums - Valsts prezidenta ...

450 Padomju okupācija Latvijā (1944–1990)
Censorship of Exile Literature in the Latvian SSR
(1958–1990)
Heinrihs Strods
Summary
After the coup of the radical Communists (Bolsheviks) in Russia in October 1917,
the isolation of Russia (USSR) from the rest of the world (the capitalist world) that
was regarded as the realm of the evil, was ensured, among other methods, by the
USSR censorship, which was permanent and secret. In 1944–1956, the censorship
of Latvian literature was in the hands of the USSR Main Literature Board (USSR
MLB) in Moscow, but in 1956, with a special resolution by the USSR Council of Ministers,
the USSR MLB opened a special censorship office in Riga as well – mostly
for censuring of Latvian exile publications, although it censured also the printed matter
in foreign languages mailed to authorities and individuals in the Latvian SSR.
Initially, the Special Censorship Office was located in the main Post Office in Riga,
Lenin Street 21, eventually to be moved outside Riga City limits to the post office at
the airport.
The present paper, based on materials from the USSR MLB Archives in Moscow
and its affiliate, the Main Literature Board of Latvia, analyses the censorship
of foreign, mostly exile publications in the Riga Special Censorship Office
in the period from 1958 to 1990. Since censorship materials were destroyed
in one year, in five years, or at the “x” hour, the range of the available documents
imposed restrictions on the researcher, allowing, however, drawing some
conclusions.
The Special Censorship Office of the LMLB was subordinated to the USSR MLB
and the censors working in the LMLB were staff members of the latter. Same as the
censorship of foreign literature in the USSR MLB, the Special Censorship Office of the
LMLB was under the charge of the leading triangle: the Propaganda Department of LCP
CC, the 6th Operative-Technical Department of the Latvian SSR State Security Committee,
and the Main Literature Board of the Latvian SSR. Exile foreign literature that was
withdrawn from printed matter mailed from abroad, confiscated from private persons,
from hand-to-hand sellers second-hand book-shops, and detained at the customs first
of al found its way to the 6th Operative-Technical Department of the LSSR KGB and
after “processing” it was transferred to the Special Censorship Office. Based on almost
ten regulations and instructions issued by the USSR MLB, a small portion of the mailed
exile and foreign literature was approved for consumption, part of it was handed over
to the LCP CC to help in the organizing of counter-propaganda, and another portion