Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union
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Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union at the USSR Cabinet of Ministers or TASS (Russian: Телеграфное агенство Советского Союза при кабинете министров СССР, ТАСС) was the central agency for collection and distribution of internal and international news for all Soviet newspapers, radio and television stations. It had a monopoly on official state information which was delivered in the form of "Сообщение ТАСС" (Soobshcheniye TASS), variously translated as TASS Report, TASS Communiqué, TASS Statement, or TASS Announcement.
It was established on 25 July 1925 by decree of the USSR Central Executive Committee Presidium. TASS was created from the Russian Telegraph Agency (ROSTA), the first state news agency in Soviet Russia.
Since 1971 its status was elevated to that of State Committee at the USSR Council of Ministers. TASS had affiliates in 14 Union republics (RSFSR was covered by TASS itself):
- RATAU (Russian: РАТАУ, Ukrainian SSR)
- BelTA (Russian: БелТА, Byelorussian SSR)
- UzTAG (Russian: УзТАГ, Uzbek SSR)
- KazTAG (Russian: КазТАГ, Kazakh SSR)
- Gruzinform (Russian: Грузинформ, Georgian SSR)
- Azerinform (Russian: Азеринформ, Azerbaijan SSR)
- ElTA (Russian: ЭльТА, Lithuanian SSR)
- ATEM (Russian: АТЕМ, Moldavian SSR)
- Latinform (Russian: Латинформ, Latvian SSR), current LETA
- KyrTAG (Russian: КирТАГ, Kyrgyz SSR)
- TajikTA (Russian: ТаджикТА, Tajik SSR)
- Armenpress (Russian: Арменпрес, Armenian SSR)
- Turkmeninform (Russian: Туркменинформ, Turkmen SSR)
- ETA (Russian: ЭТА, Estonian SSR)
Over the history other affiliated existed, e.g., KarelfinTAG (КарелфинТАГ), or Telegraph Agency of the Karelo-Finnish SSR.
TASS had bureaus and reporters in 110 countries, with a daily output equal to 750 newspaper pages, translated into eight (non-Soviet) languages. It had nearly 5000 employees, with about a fifth being journalists.
TASS had the following Main Editorial Boards (главная редакция): Main Editorial Board of Union Information, of Foreign Information, of Socialist Countries, of Information for Foreign Countries, of Photoinformation and Main Directorate of Communications.
In 1992, following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, it was inherited by the Information Telegraph Agency of Russia - ITAR-TASS.
