Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union

TASS headquarters in Moscow
TASS building entrance

The Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union (Russian: Телеграфное агентство Советского Союза, Telegrafnoye agentstvo Sovetskovo Soyuza; abbr. TASS), 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 TASS Report (Russian: Сообщение ТАСС, Soobshcheniye TASS).

It was established on 25 July 1925 by a decree Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. Tass was created from the Russian Telegraph Agency (ROSTA), the first state news agency in Soviet Russia. The agency was frequently infiltrated by the Soviet intelligence and security agencies, the NKVD and GRU. Many of its employees also voluntarily served as information sources of intelligence to the NKVD (later, the KGB).

After 1971, TASS was elevated to the status of State Committee at the Government of the Soviet Union. Tass had affiliates in 14 Union republics (Russian republic was covered by Tass itself):

Over the history other affiliates 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: 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).

See also

National media in the former Eastern Bloc
Overview
Eastern Bloc information dissemination · Broadcasting in the Soviet Union · Mass media in Communist Czechoslovakia
Newspapers
Central newspapers of the Soviet Union · Pravda (Russian SFSR) · Zvyazda (Byelorussian SSR) · Rudé právo (Czechoslovakia) · Pravda (Slovakia) · Laiko Vima (Albania)  · Mladá fronta DNES (Czechoslovakia) · Neues Deutschland (East Germany) · Rahva Hääl (Estonian SSR) · Neuvosto-Karjala (Karelo-Finnish SSR) · Sovetskaya Latviya (Latvian SSR) · Czerwony Sztandar (Lithuanian SSR) · Kauno Tiesa (Lithuanian SSR) · Zëri i Popullit (Albania) · Esti Budapest (Hungary) · Trybuna Ludu (Poland) · Scînteia (Romania) · Komsomolskaya Pravda (Russian SFSR) · Pionerskaya Pravda (Russian SFSR) · Trud (Russian SFSR) ·
TV
TV-First (Byelorussian SSR) · ČT1 (Czechoslovakia) · ČT2 (Czechoslovakia) · DFF (East Germany) · DFF2 (East Germany) · ETV (Estonian SSR) · LTV1 (Latvian SSR) · Lietuvos Televizija (Lithuanian SSR) · Televizioni Shqiptar (Albania) · Bulgarian National Television · Efir 2 (Bulgaria) · m1 (Hungary) · m2 (Hungary) · TVP1 (Poland) · TVP2 (Poland) · TVR1 (Romania) · TVR2 (Romania) · Soviet Central Television (Russian SFSR) · Soviet TV Channel 1 (Russian SFSR) · UT1 (Ukrainian SSR) ·
Radio
Rundfunk der DDR (Berliner Rundfunk (East Germany) · Deutschlandsender (East Germany) · Radio DDR 1 (East Germany) · DT64 (East Germany)) · Radio Berlin International · Eesti Raadio (Estonian SSR) · Latvijas Radio 1 (Latvian SSR) · Lietuvos radijas (Lithuanian SSR) · Radio Tirana (Albania) · Radio Bulgaria · Horizont (Bulgaria) · Kossuth Rádió (Hungary) · Radio Polonia · Program 1 Polskiego Radia (Poland) · Radio România Actualităţi (Romania) · Radio România Cultural (Romania) · Radio3Net (Romania) · Radio Moscow (Russian SFSR) ·
Misc
TASS (Russian SFSR wire service) · RIA Novosti (Russian SFSR press agency) · Gosteleradio (Russian SFSR TV/Radio) · Belarusian Telegraph Agency (Byelorussian SSR wire service) · ELTA (Lithuanian SSR wire service) · Soviet Information Bureau