Establishment of the Saint-Petersburg Censorship Committee

The Saint-Petersburg Censorship Committee of the Ministry of Education was established on July 2 (14), 1804.

By the Censorial Statutes of 1804, censorship was under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education, which guided Censorship Committees in university cities. Professors acted as censors. At that time, there was no university in Saint-Petersburg, and the Committee had to engage "educated persons" who lived in the capital.

The duties of the Saint-Petersburg Censorship Committee included censorship of publications intended for printing (except for the Bible and other religious books, works on church history and church administration in Slavic and Russian); handwritten plays; foreign magazines and other periodicals; geographical and topographic maps, drawings, sketches, plans, paintings, portraits, musical plays. The Committee supervised the booksellers and printing houses; issued certificates of loyalty to the founders of printing houses; requested permission from the Emperor for contested works; confiscated the entire circulation of a published work if it did not correspond to the Censorial Statutes; prosecuted both the censor and the author; confiscated all copies of a published work, which had "some abstracts or pages" subject to prohibition, allowed its release for sale after correction; prosecuted the initiators of the issue, as well as printing houses without the legal right to print manuscripts, library keepers for promoting books prohibited by censorship; kept a list of reviewed manuscripts and books.

In 1819, after the founding of Saint-Petersburg University, the Committee came under its control. In 1826, the new Censorial Statutes ("Iron") came into force. Its initiator was Admiral A. Shishkov, the Minister of Education. By this document, the Saint-Petersburg Committee was called the Main Censorship Committee. The "Iron Statutes" had a short life. On April 22 (May 4), 1828, it was replaced by the new Censorial Statutes. By a decree of January 14 (26), 1863, the Saint-Petersburg Censorship Committee passed from the Ministry of Public Education to the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

In 1906, the Petersburg Censorship Committee received the name of the Petersburg Press Committee. The Minister of Internal Affairs got the right to invite persons from other offices (excluding the legal department) to join it for more effective supervision of media. On July 26 (August 8), 1911, a representative from the Ecclesiastical Department joined the Saint-Petersburg Committee. They reviewed and approved all publications about faith and church and canonical works. Since 1912, the Committee included representatives of the Military and Naval Ministries to examine publications of a military character.

The Chairman of the Petersburg (Petrograd) Committee at different times were: N. N. Novosiltsev (1804-1810); S. S. Uvarov (1810-1821); D. P. Runich (1821-1826); K. M. Borozdin (1826-1832); Prince M. A. Dondukov-Korsakov (1832-1842); T. P. Volkonsky (1842-1845); M. N. Musin-Pushkin (1845-1856); Prince G. A. Shcherbatov (1856-1858); I. D. Delyanov (1858-1860); N. V. Medem (1860-1862); V. A. Tsee (1862-1863); M. N. Turunov (1863-1865); A. G. Petrov (1865-1885); E. A. Kozhukhov (1885-1895); S. I. Kossovich (1896-1898); Prince N. V. Shakhovsky (1898-1899); A. A. Katenin (1899-1913); S. I. Vissarionov (1913-1915); N. I. Levitsky (1915-1917).

The Saint-Petersburg Press Committee was dissolved by a decree on the abolishment of censorship in Russia issued by the Provisional Government on April 27 (May 10), 1917.

Lit.: Гринченко Н. А. Организация цензуры иностранной в I четверти XIX в. // Книжное дело в России в XIX — начале XX века: Сб. науч. тр. СПб., 2004. Вып. 12; То же [Электронный ресурс]. URL: http://opentextnn.ru/old/censorship/russia/dorev/libraries/book/index.html@id=2361; Гриченко Н., Патрушева Н., Фут И. Цензоры Санкт-Петербурга: (1804—1917) // НЛО. 2004. № 69; То же [Электронный ресурс.] URL: http://magazines.russ.ru/nlo/2004/69/grin37.html; Ерошкин Н. П. История государственных учреждений дореволюционной России. М., 1983; Патрушева Н. Г. Учреждение Главного управления по делам печати (1865 г) и начало его деятельности // Книжное депо в России во второй половине XIX — начале XX века. Сб. науч. тр. Вып. 4. Л., 1989, С. 29—36; Полянская Л. И. Архивный фонд Главного управления по делам печати. Обзор // Лит наследство, М., 1935, Т. 22-24, С. 603-634; Раскин Д. И. Исторические реалии российской общественной жизни и русского гражданского общества в XIX веке // Из истории русской культуры, М., 1996 Т. 5 (XIX век). С. 716—731; Чернуха В. Г. Главное управление по делам печати в 1865-1881 гг. // Книжное депо в России во второй половине XIX — начале XX века. Сб. науч. тр. Вып. 6. СПб., 1992. С. 20—40; Foot I. P. St-Petersburg censorship commitee, 1828-1905. Oxford, 1992. 

Based on the Presidential Library’s materials:

Полное собрание законов Российской империи, с 1649 года. СПб., 1830.Т. 28. № 21388. С. 439.