Main Administration for Safeguarding State Secrets in the Press

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Main Administration for Safeguarding State Secrets in the Press of the USSR Council of Ministers (Russian: Главное управление по охране государственных тайн в печати ГУОГТП (ГУОТ), Glavnoe upravlenie po okhrane gosudarstvennykh tayn v pechati) was the official censorship and state secret protection organ in the Soviet Union. The censorship agency was established in 1922 under the name "Main Administration for Literary and Publishing Affairs at the RSFSR Narkompros", abbreviated as Glavlit. The latter term was in semiofficial use until the dissolution of the Soviet Union, although the abbreviations ГУОГТП and ГУОТ were in use as well.

Since the word "Glavlit" hints at "literature", the organization is often confused with Goskomizdat, which performed another type of censorship: it controlled the "political correctness" in fiction, poetry, etc.

1 Chronology of names
2 Functions
3 Related organizations
4 References

[edit] Chronology of names

1922: Главное управление по делам литературы и издательств при Наркомате просвещения РСФСР
1946: Управление по охране военных и государственных тайн в печати при СМ СССР
1953: Главное управление по охране военных и государственных тайн в печати при СМ СССР
1966: Главное управление по охране государственных тайн в печати при СМ СССР

[edit] Functions

The function of Glavlit was to prevent publications of information that could comprise state secret in books, newspapers and other printed matter, as well as in radio and TV broadcasting.

There existed a special list of kinds of information forbidden for publication in sources open for general public. Initially there were three major categories of secret information: military, economical and "other". In later lists these were detailed further, e.g., "finance", "politics", "science and engineering", etc. were added. The first version of the list was decreed on October 13, 1921, before the creation of Glavlit, when censorship was a duty of a department of Vecheka. This list was updated several times. There were the following categories of secrecy: "top secret" (совершенно секретные), "secret" (секретные), and "not for disclosure" (не подлежащие разглашению).

In addition, for the purposes of the law the secrets were classified into "state secrets" (государственная тайна, secrets related to the overall functioning of the state), "military secrets" (военная тайна), and "official secrets" (служебная тайна, secrets related to immediate functioning of an office or enterprise).

Glavlit performed its functions via regional offices. In the late Soviet Union, at institutions and enterprises the immediate censorship was performed by the so-called First Departments controlled by KGB. In fact, tight cooperation of Soviet secret services and Glavlit was unbroken from the very beginning.

[edit] Related organizations

Goskomizdat
First Department (also known as "secret department")
USSR State Technical Commission (Гостехкомиссия СССР, Государственная техническая комиссия по противодействию иностранным техническим разведкам, State Technical (i.e., Engineering) Commission for Counteracting Foreign Engineering Intelligences)
Military censoprship was handled by the military counterintelligence of Soviet Army.