Koenigsberg - Kaliningrad 1945-1947

Confidential History of Kaliningrad Region.
Red Pencil of Censorship
I have read in book “Confidential History of Kaliningrad Region” a chapter called “Red Pencil of Censorship”.
In this chapter there are facts about history of state censorship in Kaliningrad Region in the USSR and interesting examples about censorship from history.
Soviet censorship was well debugged and functioned. Region management by files of literature and publishing was organized in Kaliningrad in September of 1947. Censors were members of the VKP(b). The most famous chief of region management by files of literature and publishing was Ternovoy. The main aim of the work of this management was preliminary censorship of such typographical editions as books, booklets, newspapers, magazines and posters, labels, forms.
The main “weapon” of censor was red pencil, but power symbols were special allowing stamp and allowing number.
The hardest acceptable demands were established among broadcasts. A word in an ether had double control. General rule was: “Speech with microphone without text didn’t allow.”
In general, withdrawals of censors were “attempts” of giving away of state secrets and political-ideological mistakes. They are military-economic secrets, different misprints, information about climate and weather and so on. It was prohibited to mention about military men. Therefore, it was impossible to publish information about celebratory parades, presence of military men on solemn actions, sports competition with participation of military men, etc. Besides, it was prohibited to say and write about Officer’s club and hospitals. For example, censor Bezneva withdrew invitation ticket, in which there was written: “Officer’s club invites to New Year’s morning performance.”
More than that, region management by files of literature and publishing was engaged in withdrawal different printed editions from libraries and shops. Some more, censorship looked after contents of museum of local lore. And last sphere of interests of censorship bodies was theatres, circus and philharmonic society. As for me, the funniest example of censorship of theatre was cancellation of performance “Alenkiy flower”, because censor Savic-Saks said, that Ugly Monster is similar to foreigner.
As a result, every day every censor read hundreds of pages and listened radio for hours, but as a matter of fact there was nothing to do.
So, censorship in Kaliningrad region remains the longest lasting and most comprehensive censorship in the end of the 20th century.
In my opinion, it is one of the most interesting chapters in this book. I think, that this chapter is very important and useful to learn confidential history of Kaliningrad Region, because censorship was connected with all spheres of people’s life.