The role of governmental censorship departments in the Russian Empire at the beginning of the 20TH century
The author of the article describes the role of the provincial censorship departments in the historically difficult pre-revolutionary period in the Russian Empire at the beginning of the 20th century. The author shows the attempts of the emperor and the government to control the printed publications in order to avoid the spread of the revolutionary movement and at the same time to direct the printing business into the legal channel. Orders and bills are listed that removed powers from central authorities, for example, from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and transferred them into the hands of representatives of the provincial and city authorities, which were entitled to stop, arrest, or ban printing houses, libraries, and reading halls if they considered any information published by these institutions as “dangerous” for the empire. Punishment was also introduced for public calls for violation by military personnel of their duties. If, according to a court order, the publisher or printing house was fined, then it was the responsible publisher who paid the amount indicated by the court. If the circulation of a periodical was recognized by the censorship committee as containing “harmful” information, then responsibility was assigned to all leading persons: the publisher proper, the head of the printing house or book department, retail distributors. The period of the outbreak of the First World War, the time of the tightening of censorship and the introduction of military censorship when it was allowed for the military authorities to interfere into the civil publishing affairs is also touched upon.