Soviet Union Table of Contents
As of 1987, several party and government organizations exerted control over the media and the arts. Censorship extended from the central party departments and government ministries to their republic and regional counterparts. The CPSU Central Committee Secretariat contained various departments and committees that supervised distinct sectors in the media and the arts (see Secretariat , ch. 7). A government organization, the Main Administration for Safeguarding State Secrets in the Press (Glavnoe upravlenie po okhrane gosudarstvennykh tain v pechati-- Glavlit; see Glossary), had to sanction any work published in more than nine copies. Government ministries responsible for large cultural institutions as well as state committees also concerned themselves with the regulation of state information (see Administrative Organs , ch. 8). The government news organs--the Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union (Telegrafnoe agentstvo Sovetskogo Soiuza--TASS) and the News Press Agency (Agentstvo pechati novosti--Novosti)-- limited information disseminated to domestic and foreign newspaper wire services. Ultimately, government institutions involved in censorship responded to CPSU directives. The party ensured that only approved information appeared publicly. Underground materials existed, but the Committee for State Security (Komitet gosudarstvennoi bezopasnosti--KGB) and the Ministry of Internal Affairs actively opposed the dissemination of any unsanctioned material. The party, government organizations, and security organs combined with the other official censorship controls to guarantee party domination over the mass media and the arts.
Data as of May 1989