Report of General D. P. Strukov on the establishment of military censorship in Petrograd and Petrograd Military District. 1915

Scientific article

doi 10.28995/2073-0101-2024-2-536-549

For citation

Bogomolov, Igor' K. (2024), “Report of General D. P. Strukov on the establishment of military censorship in Petrograd and Petrograd Military District. 1915”, Herald of an Archivist, no.2, pp. 536-549. doi 10.28995/2073-0101-2024-2-536-549

Bogomolov, Igor' K., Institute of Scientific Information on Social Sciences, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia

Report of General D. P. Strukov on the establishment of military censorship in Petrograd and Petrograd Military District. 1915

Abstract

The article publishes the report of the chairman of the Petrograd Military Censorship Commission, General D. P. Strukov, to the Chief of the Petrograd Military District on the organization of military censorship in the capital (July 9, 1915). By this time military censorship in Petrograd was a complex and multilevel structure, covering not only the press and correspondence, but also theater, cinema, public speeches and reports. Under the "Provisional Regulations on Military Censorship," adopted with the outbreak of World War I, censors had broad powers and could ban virtually any printed material, stop the forwarding of any correspondence, and prohibit any speech or theatrical production. However, this did not avoid numerous mistakes and contradictory decisions when censoring newspapers and magazines. It was not uncommon for one censor to authorize an article for publication and another to prohibit it. Significant difficulties also arose in the censorship of postal and telegraphic correspondence. Due to the widespread and chronic shortage of qualified personnel, postal and telegraph offices and post offices did not have time to review thousands of letters and telegrams, both internal and external. The "backlogs" of correspondence that had already formed in the first month of the war attracted the attention of the command and the censorship leadership. Meetings were held, censors were transferred to the "problem" areas, but the problem was solved slowly, and the "backlogs" generally increased. Letters and telegrams were delayed for months and often did not reach their addressees, which caused great irritation in the society and in the army. Representatives of the censorship called for a multiple increase in the funding of censorship offices and increase in the staff to solve the problem of "deposits" and complete control of internal and external correspondence. The supporter of such a campaign was General Strukov, who proposed in his report of July 9, 1915, to increase the number of censors by 450 people, to raise their salaries, and to establish a full review of all letters and telegrams. In addition, Strukov proposed to change the structure of military censorship in the capital: to subordinate all military censorship commissions of the Petrograd Military District to a single head, subordinate in his turn to the commander of the VI Army. With the help of such "unity of command" the General intended to eliminate the problem of contradictory decisions, unnecessary correspondence and conflicts between departments. Strukov's proposals were realized only partially: in 1915-1916 the number of censors was practically doubled, the maintenance of military censorship venues was improved. However, the problems of censorship - inconsistency, unjustified rigidity, selectivity and constant delay of correspondence - remained for the whole period of the First World War.

Keywords

Historical sources, World War I, 1914-1918, military censorship, Petrograd Military Censorship Commission, Petrograd Military District, Major-General D. P. Strukov, "Temporary Regulations on Military Censorship" of July 20, 1914.

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About the authors

Igor' K. Bogomolov, PhD (in History), Institute of Scientific Information on Social Sciences, Russian Academy of Sciences, Senior Researcher, Moscow, Russia, 8-499-124-28-83, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

The article was received in the editorial office on 25.12.2023, recommended for publication on 20.03.2024.