UDK 947(471.327)

 

EDN LSBPAF

 

Original article

 

Activities of the Penza Military Censorship Department during the First World War

 

Belousov S. V., Levina A. D.

 

Abstraсt

First World War 1914–1918 changed many areas of life in Russian society and led to the introduction of exceptional, emergency measures. Thus, in the Russian Empire, military censorship appeared, aimed at protecting information concerning state secrets and at systematizing correspondence according to the value judgments contained in it. The corresponding regulatory framework was approved by Nicholas II the very next day after Russia joined the war. According to the law, partial military censorship was introduced in the rear regions, which included the Penza province.

This article discusses the tasks and functions of the Penza military censorship department, its structure and organization of work. Special attention is paid to the staffing of the department, consisting of military censors and translators, as well as employees of the postal and telegraph service. A major role in establishing the work of the Penza department was played by senior military censor K.P. Mikhailov, who put a lot of effort into solving the problems that the department faced in its daily activities (poor logistics, operating hours, wage system, sanitary conditions, etc.). The regulatory legal acts (Temporary Regulations on Military Censorship, circulars and resolutions of the Headquarters of the Kazan Military District) regulating the activities of censorship bodies and materials subject to censorship are analyzed. Letters from the active army and from the rear, correspondence from prisoners of war, local periodicals, photographs, telegrams, etc. passed through the hands of the censors. A study of the activities of the Penza military censorship department allows us to better understand how censorship influenced the wartime information environment, how it shaped public opinion and how it came into the overall picture of military reality.

 

Keywords: World War I, Penza military censorship department, military censor, Russian soldiers, letters, correspondence of war prisoners

 

For citation: Belousov SV, Levina AD. Activities of the Penza Military Censorship Department during the First World War. Center and Periphery. 2024;19(3):33—42. EDN LSBPAF

 

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Information about the authors:

Sergey V. Belousov, Head of Department of General History and Social Sciences of the Penza State University (40 Krasnaya Str., Penza 440026, Russia), Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1891-8544, sergbel_1812@mail.ru

Anastasia D. Levina, Junior Researcher of Center for the Study of the History of the Penza Region of the Institute for Regional Development of the Penza Region (40 Popova Str., Penza 440046, Russia), ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-8313-2077, anst.99@bk.ru

 

Contribution of the authors:

Belousov S. V. — critical analysis, scientific editing of the text;

Levina A. D. — collection and systematization of data, writing the initial version of the article.

 

Conflict of interests: the authors declare no conflict of interests.

 

The authors have read and approved the final version of the manuscript.

 

The article was submitted 24.06.2024; approved after reviewing 26.07.2024; accepted for publication 29.07.2024.