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Decree on Press was adopted
On October 27 (November 9) 1917 the Council of People’s Commissars adopted a Decree on Press, which stipulated that all press agencies which called to resistance or disobedience to the government, sowed discord, incited people to criminal actions, were subjected to closure. The decree was published on October 28 (November 10) in the “Temporary Worker and Peasant Government Newspaper”, “Izvestia”, and “Pravda”.
In the decree the actions of the Soviet power were motivated by the concern that the young government was unable to resist bourgeoisie and its press; underscoring that the suppression of the activities of the dissident press — was a temporary measure, “all administrative pressures on the press will be eliminated, ensuring it a complete freedom within the limits of liability in court, in accordance with the widest and most progressive law in this respect”, even in critical times “the restraint of the press is permissible only within absolutely necessary limits”.
Under the decree, to closure were subjected the editions: “which called to an open resistance and disobedience to the workers and peasants’ government; sowed discord by a slanderous distortion of facts; induced to actions of criminal nature, i.e. punishable offences.
The Decree of the Council of People’s Commissars on Press met a hostile reception from the petty bourgeois Socialists-Revolutionary Party (SRs, Esers) and the Party of Mensheviks. However despite this fact, with a majority of votes the All-Russian Central Executive Committee (VTsIK) adopted the Bolsheviks’ resolution, which approved the Decree on Press.
First and foremost, under the decree were abolished the editions, which represented interests of large capital and its political parties. Along with closures, the Soviet power was anxious to undermine the financial basis of non-Bolsheviks newspapers, since the latter had well-equipped presses, paper supplies and qualified personnel at their disposal.
In Petrograd were closed major non-Bolsheviks presses, which published the newspapers “Retch” (“The Speech”), “Novoye Vremya” (“The New Times”), “Birzheviye vedomosti” (“The Stock Market Bulletin”), “Russkaya volya” “The Russian Will”, “Petrogradskiy listok” (“The Petrograd Leaflet”), “Novaya Rus’” (“The New Russia”), “Zhivoye Slovo” (“The Living Word”), “Kopeika” (“The Kopeck”) etc. In Moscow the owners were deprived of presses of the newspapers “Russkoye Slovo” (“The Russian Word”), “Russkiye Vedomosti” (“The Russian Bulletin”), “Ranneye Utro” (“The Early Morning”), “Moskovskiy Listok” (“The Moscow Leaflet”) etc. Presses in Yekaterinburg, Nizhniy Novgorod, Odessa, Kharkov and many other cities were confiscated.
Later under the Decree of January 28 1918 was established the Revolutionary Tribunal of Press, which was assigned to “consider crimes of press agencies and individuals, committed against people via press”, i.e. “through informing of false or distorted facts concerning public life phenomena”. As a result of its activities, almost all bourgeois newspapers in Petrograd had been already closed by July 1918. Right then, commissariats for agitation, propaganda and press — first bodies of the centralized press, were set up.
Lit.: Жирков Г. В. Советская цензура периода комиссародержавия: 1917–1919 гг. // История цензуры. М., 2001; Книгоиздание в России в первые годы Советской власти // Тараканова О. Л. История книги. Гл. 19. П. 19.1; То же [Электронный ресурс]. URL: http://www.hi-edu.ru/e-books/HB/19-1.htm; Молчанов Л. А. Газетная пресса России в годы революции и Гражданской войны (окт. 1917–1920 гг.). М., 2002; О печати: Декрет Совета Народных Комиссаров [Электронный ресурс] // Конституция РФ. Гарант-Сервис. 2003-2018. URL: http://constitution.garant.ru/history/act1600-1918/5305/; Федотов М. А. Становление законодательства о СМИ // Позитивное право массовой информации. Научно-практический комментарий к законодательству Российской Федерации о СМИ. М., 2003.
Based on the Presidential Library’s materials: