N. I. Levitsky’s Letter to A. I. Lysakovsky about the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Representatives in the Petrograd Military Censorship Commission (1916)

Print PDF

Document publication

УДК 94(470)+82-6+930.23

DOI 10.28995/2073-0101-2021-2-581-592

Igor K. Bogomolov

Institute of Scientific Information on Social Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russian Federation

N. I. Levitsky’s Letter to A. I. Lysakovsky about the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Representatives in the Petrograd Military Censorship Commission (1916)

Abstract

The article publishes a letter from the chairman of the Petrograd Military Censorship Commission, Nikolai Ivanovich Levitsky, to the manager of the Press and Information Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Alexander Iosifovich Lysakovsky (dated December 22, 1916). In the letter, Levitsky insists on the need to include representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the military censorship commission on a permanent basis. At the time, a different scheme was in effect: Levitsky sent diplomatic materials (newspaper and magazine articles, books, pamphlets, and cartoons) for verification to the Press and Information Department, which made its decision on their further fate. Levitsky pointed out the complexity and slowness of this scheme, which led to delays in printing, dissatisfaction of authors and editors. The main problem, Levitsky acknowledged, was insufficient competence of censors in foreign policy matters. Meanwhile, by the end of 1916, the topic of diplomatic censorship had become quite relevant. As the war drew to a close, more and more material appeared in press about the post-war world order and Russia's future relations with its allies and adversaries. Against this background, Levitsky advocated the inclusion of representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as censors. The idea itself was not new: in the autumn of 1916, the headquarters of the Northern Front had submitted a project to reform the Petrograd military censorship in order to improve its efficiency. The main focus of the project was on expanding its staff and creating new departments in the Petrograd Military Censorship Commission. The representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was also to be included in the commission. Levitsky’s proposals followed the emerging trend: enhanced staffing and centralization of the military censorship, closer interaction of departments in order to increase its effectiveness. Lysakovsky approved the suggestion. Since January 1917, five officials of the ministry had been sent to the Petrograd Military Censorship Commission for daily and round-the-clock viewing of the press. However, this cooperation did not last: after the February Revolution, Foreign Ministry officials were released from the censorship work following the actual cessation of the preliminary censorship of press in Petrograd. Nevertheless, the unrealized project became a harbinger of future organization of press censorship after the Bolshevik’s assumption of power. The published document shows that the February Revolution was only a break in the process of censorship centralization and strengthening control over the press by the Russian state.

Keywords

Historical sources, World War I of 1914–18, military censorship, Petrograd Military Censorship Commission, Nikolay Levitsky, Alexander Lysakovsky, Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Download the article: pdf

References

BEL’KOVA, G. I. Petrograd – glavnyi tsentr tsenzury v gody Pervoi mirovoi voiny [Petrograd – the main center of censorship in the days of the First World War. In Russ.]. IN: Kultura. Nauka. Obrazovanie, 2016, no. 2(39), pp. 133–137.

DUBENTSOV, B. B. Tsenzura pechati v Petrograde: preobrazovanie nadzornykh uchrezhdenii v 1919 godu [Censorship of press in Petrograd: The transformation of supervisory institutions in 1919. In Russ.]. IN: Noveishaya istoriya Rossii, 2019, vol. 9, no. 3, pp. 712–724.

LAVRUK, P. P. Mestnaya voenno-tsenzurnaya komissiya Petrogradskogo voennogo okruga: zashchita tain v gody Pervoi mirovoi voiny [Local Military Censorship Commission of the Petrograd Military District: Protection of secrets in the days of the First World War. In Russ.]. IN: Trudy nauchno-issledovatel’skogo otdela Instituta voennoi istorii. T. 10: Zashchita informatsii [Proceedings of the Research Department of the Institute of Military History. Vol. 10: Protection of information. In Russ.]. St. Petersburg, Branko publ., 2014, pp. 365–385.

KOSOI, M. Voennaya tsenzura pochtovoi korrespondentsii Petrograda v period pervoi mirovoi voiny [Military censorship of postal correspondence in Petrograd during the First World War. In Russ.]. IN: Sovetskiy kollektsioner. Sbornik statei [The Soviet collector. Collected articles. In Russ.]. Moscow, Radio i svyaz’ publ., 1987, pp. 56–74.

About the authors

Bogomolov Igor Konstantinovich, PhD in History, Institute of Scientific Information on Social Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences, senior researcher, Moscow, Russian Federation, +7-499-124-28-83, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Submitted 12.01.2021, published (for citation):

BOGOMOLOV, I. K. Pis'mo N. I. Levitskogo A. I. Lysakovskomu o predstavitelyakh MID v Petrogradskoi voenno-tsenzurnoi komissii. 1916 g. [N. I. Levitsky’s Letter to A. I. Lysakovsky about the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Representatives in the Petrograd Military Censorship Commission (1916). In Russ.]. IN: Vestnik arhivista / Herald of an Archivist, 2021, no. 2, pp. 581-592. doi 10.28995/2073-0101-2021-2-581-592

You can read completely article in the russian historic-archival magazine “The Herald of an Archivist”. Read more about terms of subscription here.

Полностью материал публикуется в российском историко-архивоведческом журнале ВЕСТНИК АРХИВИСТА. Ознакомьтесь с условиями подписки здесь.