Siberia and the Exile System/Volume 2/Appendix B
APPENDIX B
THE RUSSIAN PRESS CENSORSHIP
The censorship of the press in Russia may seem, at first thought, to have no direct connection with the Siberian exile system; but a moment's reflection will convince any one, I think, that it has, upon political exiles, a most important bearing; inasmuch as it is precisely this forcible repression of thought, speech, and discussion in Russia that drives so many men—and especially so many young men—into political crime. The whole Russian revolutionary movement is nothing but a violent protest against cruel injustice and gag-law. Below will be found a list of cases in which Russian periodicals have been punished, or wholly suppressed, for giving voice to ideas and sentiments regarded as objectionable by the ruling class. I have made this list from my own reading of Russian newspapers and magazines, and I am well aware that it probably does not comprise more than a fractional part—perhaps not more than onetenth—of all the "warnings," "suspensions," and "suppressions" that have been dealt out to the Russian press in the course of the last decade. I hope, however, that in spite of its incompleteness and inadequacy it will be of some use as an illustration of the state of affairs that drives so many young and energetic Russians into the ranks of the revolutionists, and that is described by the Moscow liberals, in their address to Lóris-Mélikof, as "extreme dissatisfaction in urgent need of free expression."
The dates in the subjoined list are generally those of the periodicals in which I found the records of the punishments, and they are all in the Russian or Old Style, which is twelve days later than ours.
| 1881. | ||
| July 7. | The Odéssa Listók is suspended for four months. | |
| 1882. | ||
| Jan. 17. | The Moscow Telegraph receives a first warning. | |
| Jan. 19. | The St. Petersburg Gólos reappears, after a suspension of six months. | |
| Jan. 22. | The newspaper Poriádok is suspended for six weeks.
1882. Jan. 31. The Moscow Telegraph receives a second warning. Feb. 11. The St. Petersburg Gólos receives a first warning, with the prohibition of its street sales. March 26. The Moscow Telegraph is suspended for four months. April 8. Application for permission to publish a new newspaper in St. Petersburg is denied. April 15. The Poriádok gives up the struggle with the censorship and goes into liquidation. April 15. The April number of the magazine Russian Thought is seized and suppressed. May 27. Application for permission to publish a new newspaper in Ekaterinburg is denied. June 17. The Riga Véstnik publishes the following in lieu of a leading editorial: "In to-day's issue it was our intention to have had a leading editorial, urging the Esthonians to unite more closely among themselves, and with the Russians, and to work with manly energy for the Fatherland; but we have not been allowed to print it. July 1. The humorous illustrated newspaper Guslá is seized by order of the censor, and its 24th number is suppressed, for making fun of an irrigation scheme in which the censor is interested. July 1. Application for permission to publish a new newspaper, to be called the Donskói Pehéla, at Rostóf on the Don is denied. July 15. The Zémstvo, the organ of the provincial assemblies, gives up the struggle with the censorship and goes into liquidation, after an existence of a year and a half. Aug. 19. The Vostók receives a first warning for criticism of the higher clergy. Aug. 26. The Bourse Gazette receives a first warning for an editorial on the rights and duties of the press and its relations with the Government. Sept. 2. The September number of the magazine Russian Thought is seized, the whole edition of 3000 copies is confiscated, and the plates are destroyed. Oct. 31. St. Petersburg Nóvosti is fined 100 rúbles for charging an officer of the Government with brutality. Nov. 2. The November number of the magazine Russian Thought is seized and confiscated. Dec. 2. The Moscow Telegraph, having resumed publication after its suspension, again receives a first warning. Dec. 9. The Vostók receives a second warning. Dec. 9. The street sales of the Ékho are forbidden. Dec. 16. The St. Petersburg Gólos receives a second warning. Dec. 16. The street sales of the Moscow Telegraph are forbidden. 1882. Dec. 16. Permission to publish a newspaper in Nérchinsk, Eastern Siberia, is denied. Dec. 16. The Správochni Listók of Samára is suspended and its office closed. Dec. 19. The Moscow Kuriér is suspended for three months. Dec. 30. An article by Count Leo Tolstoi is torn from the May number of the magazine Russian Thought by order of the censor and burned. 1883. Jan. 2. The Nóvgorod Listók suspends "as a result of causes over which its editors and publishers have no control." Jan. 5. The Straná is suspended for four months because it has manifested "a pernicious tendency and taken a most discouraging view of the state of affairs in the country." Jan. 12. The third number of the Moscow Zritel is seized and confiscated. Jan. 20. The Moscow Telegraph receives a second warning. Jan. 27. The review Annals of the Fatherland receives a second warning " for sympathizing with socialistic doctrines and for dwelling on the dark side of Russian life." Feb. 17. The St. Petersburg Gólos receives a third warning, and is suspended for six months, on account of its "mischievous tone in discussing the affairs of the Empire and the reforms of the last quarter of a century." March 3. The censorship of the Donskói Gólos is transferred from Nóvo-Chérkask to Moscow [a distance of 740 miles], and the publisher notifies subscribers that the next number, and all subsequent numbers, of the paper will be delayed until the proofs can go to Moscow and back — about sixteen days. March 24. The Odéssa Listók is forbidden to publish any articles whatever relating to the internal affairs of the Empire. March 24. The Kharkóf newspaper Yúzhni Krái announces that, as a result of "causes over which the editor has no control, the leading editorial article intended for to-day's number cannot be printed." March 24. The Moscow Telegraph is finally suppressed on account of its "absolutely pernicious tendency." June 9. The magazine Nabliudátel receives a first warning for its "manifestly prejudicial tendency." June 27. The Moscow Zritel receives a first warning for an article upon internal affairs. July 14. The Gazéta Gátsuka receives a first warning, with the prohibition of street sales, for an attack on the editor of the Moscow Gazette, Mr. Katkóf. 1883. July 21. Mr. L. A. Polónski, editor and publisher of the suppressed newspaper Straná, makes the following announcement. "The editor is forced to announce that, as a result of the embarrassing position in which he is placed by the suspension of the paper in the midst of the receipt of annual subscriptions, there is left to him no means of indemnifying subscribers other than by the offer of a volume of his collected sketches and essays, which is now in course of publication." July 28. The Rússki Kuriér receives a first warning, for its "prejudicial tendency as manifested in its criticisms of imperial institutions, and for the false light thrown by it on the conditions of peasant life." Aug. 11. The publisher of the Ékho is allowed to return from exile in Western Siberia. Sept. 1. The proprietor of the suspended newspaper Gólos decides to give up the struggle with the censorship and go into liquidation. Sept. 8. The St. Petersburg Nóvosti receives a first warning for expressing sympathy with the suppressed newspaper Gólos. Oct. 6. Editors are forbidden to put dots or asterisks in places where the censor has crossed out matter. Oct. 13. On the 3d of February the censorship of the Donskói Gólos was transferred from Nóvo-Chérkask — its place of publication — to Moscow. This necessitated sending all proof sheets to the latter city before publication, at a loss of from fifteen to twenty days' time. For a while the editor struggled along as best he could, getting out his paper at irregular intervals as his copy came back from Moscow, and all the time two to three weeks behind the current news of the day. At last, on the 13th of October, he publishes the following cautious announcement: "The editor and proprietor of the Donskói Gólos, as a result of certain circumstances, will publish no more numbers of that paper until there is a possibility of getting it out with greater regularity. Of this the subscribers will receive due notice." Nov. 30. A journalist named Rántsef is expelled from St. Petersburg for an article upon Poland, written by him and published in the Nóvosti. Dec. 15. The Minister of the Interior refuses to allow the St. Petersburg Gólos to be revived under the editorial management of a former member of its staff. Dec. 22. The magazine Russian Thought receives a first warning for "pernicious tendency." 1884. Jan. 15. The street sales of the St. Petersburg Listók are forbidden. Jan. 15. The street sales of the St. Petersburg Sufflér are forbidden. Jan. 22. An application for permission to publish a monthly magazine in Tomsk, Western Siberia, is denied. Feb. 1. The Rússki Kuriér receives a second warning. Feb. 1. The Vládikavkáz Térek suspends publication voluntarily as the result of an order transferring the censorship of it from its place of publication to Tiflis. The editor announces that he "will suspend until a more favorable time for newspapers." Feb. 19. The street sales of the St. Petersburg Nóvosti are forbidden. March 1. The Gazéta Gátsuka receives a first warning for its "unquestionably pernicious tendency." The street sales of the Sovrémmenia Izvéstia are again permitted. April 22. The St. Petersburg Vostók is warned a third time, and is suspended for four months on account of its "continued and audacious attacks on the higher clergy, and its unpermissible judgments concerning church government." April 29. The Annals of the Fatherland, the ablest and most important review in the Empire, is permanently suppressed on the ground that its policy is hostile to the Government and to social order. May 6. The Gazeta Gdtsuka receives a second warning for the "prejudiced character" of its editorials and "for presuming to question the justice of the first warning." May 20. The street sales of the Mirskói Tolk are forbidden. May 20. The street sales of the Svet i Téni are forbidden. May 24. Constantine Staniukóvich, the editor of the St. Petersburg magazine Diélo, is exiled to Western Siberia and the magazine suspended. June 10. The street sales of the Moscow Rússkia Védomosti are forbidden. June 13. The St. Petersburg Eastern Review receives a first warning for giving false information with regard to the actions and dispositions of the Siberian authorities. July 1. The St. Petersburg Nediélia receives a first warning for speaking with approval of the French Revolution, in an editorial article entitled "A Great Anniversary." July 8. A correspondent of the Irkútsk newspaper Sibír [Eastern Siberia] is arrested by order of an isprávnik, to whom one of his letters happens to be distasteful, and sent under guard by étape to his home one thousand versts away. July 29. All the numbers of the magazine Annals of the Fatherland, for the last twenty years, are excluded from the libraries of all ecclesiastical schools. 1884. Aug. 5. The St. Petersburg Voskhód receives a first warning "for daring to criticize unfavorably the laws and measures of the Government, falsely interpreting their aim and significance, and inciting hostility between one class of citizens and another." Aug. 19. The street sales of the St. Petersburg Nóvosti are again permitted. Aug. 26. The street sales of the Moscow Rússkia Védomosti are again permitted. Sept. 9. An official list is published of three hundred volumes of Russian books withdrawn from all public libraries by order of the censorship. Sept. 16. The Gazéta Gátsuka receives a third warning and is suspended for one month on account of its "prejudiced tendency." Sept. 23. The Official Messenger announces the permanent suppression of the Muzikálni Mir, the Remesló, the Moscow Gazéta, the Moscow Nediélia, and the Polish newspaper Przyjaciel Mlodziezy. Nov. 11. The street sales of the Minúta are forbidden. Nov. 18. The Armenian newspaper Ardagank is suspended for eight months. 1885. Jan. 10. The Svetóch is suspended on account of its "unqualifiedly pernicious" tendency. Jan. 27. The lower house of the parliament of Finland [the Seim] petitions the Tsar for freedom of the press, but is denied. Jan. 31. The street sales of the Ékho are forbidden. Feb. 18. The dramatic censorship withdraws its objection to the performance of Shakspere's two revolutionary tragedies, "Julius Caesar" and "Coriolanus," and they are given for the first time in Moscow. Feb. 24. The censorship of the Ekaterínoslav newspaper Dnéiper is removed to Moscow, and the paper suspends. Feb. 24. The Ékho is deprived, for a term of eight months, of the right to print advertisements, and gives notice of its suspension. Feb. 28. The Moscow magazine Russian Thought gives notice that, on account of the prohibition of the censor, Count Tolstoi's "Then What is to be Done?" cannot be published in that periodical. March 24. The newspaper Sibír hints at an occurrence in a certain monastery, "about which the whole city is talking," but concerning which it cannot print a word "for reasons beyond our control." April 7. The Sovrémmenia Izvéstia is suspended for one month. 1885. May 26. The magazine Nabliudátel receives a second warning for its "manifestly prejudiced tendency." July 4. The Jewish magazine Voskhéd receives a second warning for "audaciously unfavorable criticism"' of certain laws and regulations relating to the Russian Jews. Sept. 1. Permission to publish a newspaper in the town of Krasnoyársk, Eastern Siberia, is denied by the Minister of the Interior, without the assignment of any reason. Sept. 15. The St. Petersburg medical newspaper Health is suppressed absolutely. Sept. 15. The Tiflis newspaper Drosbá is suppressed absolutely. Sept. 22. The Eastern Review of St. Petersburg receives a third warning and is suspended for two weeks because it "misrepresents the actions of Siberian officials." Sept. 29. The street sales of the St. Petersburg Nóvosti are forbidden. Oct. 17. A circular letter from the chief bureau of censorship forbids the publication of any news and the expression of any opinion with regard to the celebration of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the emancipation of the serfs. Oct. 20. The newspaper Life is forbidden to print advertisements, and its street sales are forbidden. Oct. 27. An unpopular man named Alexander Schmidt is appointed by the Government to fill a chair as professor in the university of Dórpat. The students, unable to express their disapproval and dissatisfaction in any other way, insert the following advertisement in the Dórpat Gazette, and the censor approves it without looking up the reference: "2 Timothy iv. 14."[1] Nov. 3. The Siberian Gazette in Tomsk asks permission to publish twice a week instead of once. Permission denied. Nov. 7. The St. Petersburg Grázhdanín receives a first warning on account of an editorial entitled, "The Ideas of a Sailor with regard to Naval Qualifications." Nov. 10. The Kiev newspaper Zaryá, "on account of the departure from town" [exile] "of its official editor, has suspended publication until a new editor shall have been confirmed" [by the Minister of the Interior]. Nov. 24. One of the correspondents of the Irkútsk newspaper Sibír telegraphs the editor that he has been arrested and imprisoned on account of his last letter, and that his life is in danger. Nov. 27. The Moscow newspaper Russ receives a first warning for "discussing current events in a tone not compatible with true patriotism," and for efforts "to excite disrespect toward the Government." 1 The verse is as follows: "Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil: The Lord reward him according to his works." 1885. Dec. 15. The Moscow merchant Ovchínnikof is punished for printing prayer-books without permission. 1886. Feb. 19. The Moscow Rússkia Védomosti, having been forbidden to refer editorially to the emancipation of the serfs on the twenty-fifth anniversary of that event, does not appear on that day at all, and thus commemorates it by voluntary silence. April 3. An application for leave to publish a newspaper in the East-Siberian town of Nérchinsk is denied. April 3. Street sales of the Moscow Rússkia Védomosti are forbidden. April 10. Street sales of the Sovrémmenia Izvéstia are forbidden. April 24. A correspondent of the Irkútsk newspaper Sibír is arrested by order of a Siberian isprávnik, kept two days in prison without food, flogged, put into leg-fetters, and sent back to his place of residence by étape in a temperature of thirty-five degrees below zero (Réaum.). He is not charged with any other crime than furnishing his paper with news. May 6. The editor of the St. Petersburg Police Gazette, a purely official Government organ, is arrested and imprisoned because, in an article in his paper referring to a "requiem for Alexander II.," there was a typographical error which made it read "a requiem for Alexander III." May 25. Suits are begun in the courts against the Bourse Gazette and the Week for publishing articles reflecting discredit upon Government officials. June 7. The Moscow magazine Russian Thought is warned that it will be suppressed for "pernicious tendency" if it continues to "present the dark side of Russian life." June 10. The censor in Kazán forbids the use of the word velíki [great] in connection with the French revolution of 1793. June 11. The editor of the Vólga Messenger in Kazán is forbidden by the censor to use the word intelligéntsia [the intelligent class]. June 12. The Government Messenger [the official organ of the Minister of the Interior] prints a list of nineteen periodicals "finally suppressed." June 14. Governor Baránof, of Nízhni Nóvgorod, asks the chief bureau of censorship to suppress all newspaper correspondence relating to the recent disaster to shipping on the Vólga River, upon the ground that such correspondence would "have a tendency to excite the public mind." [The disaster was the result of the shameless favoritism and mismanagement of the chief of river police in Nízhni Nóvgorod, at the time of the breaking up of the ice in the spring.] 1886. June 24. The use of Moody and Sankey hymns in Russia is forbidden. [I do not know when this prohibition took effect. I have given to it the date of the day when the fact was communicated to me by the agent in St. Petersburg of the British Bible Society.] July 10. The censorship of the Cossack Messenger, of Nóvo-Chérkask, is again transferred from the place of its publication to Moscow — distance 740 miles. Sept. 4. Mr. Kartamíshef, editor of the Siberian Messenger in Tomsk, is sentenced to three weeks' imprisonment. Sept. 21. The Irkútsk newspaper Sibír is fined 200 rúbles for publishing defamatory matter relating to the chief of police of Yakútsk. Oct. 18. The Novorossísk Telegraph is prosecuted for printing an advertisement without the permission of the police. Oct. 22. Street sales of the Moscow Rússkia Védomosti are forbidden. Nov. 5. Mr. Notóvich, editor of the St. Petersburg Nóvosti, is sentenced to three months' imprisonment; Mr. Polevói, editor of the Picturesque Review, is sentenced to two months' imprisonment; and the editor of the Petersburg Leaflet is fined 100 rúbles for libel. Nov. 27. Permission to publish a newspaper in the Baltic town of Rével is denied. Nov. 27. The Bourse Gazette receives a second warning on account of its "pernicious tendency." 1887. Jan. 9. The newspaper Russian Affairs is suspended for attacking Germany. Jan. 29. The Gazéta Gátsuka is suspended and its office closed and sealed by the police. Its offense is said to be the printing of two kinds of papers — one sort for St. Petersburg and one for the provinces — the latter containing articles that the censor would not allow. Jan. 29. The newspaper Russian Workman and a number of religious tracts are prohibited by the Holy Synod. April 23. The retail sale in public places of Count Tolstoi's "Powers of Darkness" is forbidden. May 7. The Tomsk Siberian Gazette is suspended for eight months. May 28. Street sales of the Sovrémmenia Izvéstia are forbidden. June 18. The St. Petersburg Bourse Gazette is suspended for one month. July 30. The Irkútsk newspaper Sibír is finally suppressed. July 30. Street sales of the Rússki Kuriér are forbidden. Oct. 8. Street sales of the Minúta and the Son of the Fatherland are forbidden. Oct. 15. The Gazéta Gátsuka is suspended for eight months. 1888. Feb. 11. Street sales of the St. Petersburg Grázhdanín are forbidden. Feb. 21. The newspaper Russian Affairs receives a first warning for "extremely indecent criticisms of the acts of the Government." Feb. 25. The Odéssa Messenger is suspended for three months. March 17. Street sales of the Bourse Gazette are forbidden. April 7. The Sarátof Leaflet is suspended for one month. April 17. Street sales of the St. Petersburg Grázhdanín are forbidden. May 1. The commission engaged in revising the penal code decides that the unauthorized publication for distribution of any work of science or art shall be punished with one year's imprisonment. May 5. The Siberian Messenger, of Tomsk, is suspended for four months. Sept. 25. The Hebrew newspaper Gatsifer, of Warsaw, is suspended for four months. Sept. 25. Street sales of the Bourse Gazette are forbidden. Nov. 20. The magazine Diélo is finally suppressed. 1889. July 30. Street sales of the St. Petersburg Nóvosti are forbidden. Aug. 1. Mr. Sharápof, editor of the newspaper Russian Affairs, is removed from his place, by the Minister of the Interior, for going abroad without notifying the chief press administration of his intention to do so. 1890. Jan. 1. The magazine European Messenger receives a first warning for publishing an article, by Vladimir Solivióf, entitled "The History of Russian Consciousness." April 1. The Nikoláief newspaper Southerner is suspended for eight months. April 29. The Moscow Gazette receives a first warning for "extremely audacious references to the imperial authorities who are at the head of the government of Finland." June 10. Street sales of the Bourse Gazette are forbidden. June 17. Street sales of the St. Petersburg Grázhdanín are forbidden. July 29. Street sales of the newspaper Minúta are forbidden. Oct. 14. The Eastern Review is suspended for four months. 1891. Jan. 22. Councilor Smirnóf, of the bureau of censorship, orders thirteen verses of the Koran to be expunged from all copies printed in Russia. Feb. 1. The Kursk Leaflet is suspended for one month. Feb. 23. Street sales of the St. Petersburg Nóvoe Vrémya are forbidden. 1891. Feb. 27. Street sales of the Son of the Fatherland are forbidden. March 6. Street sales of the St. Petersburg Grázhdanín are forbidden. March 13. The magazine Voskhód receives a third warning and is suspended for six months on account of its "extremely pernicious tendency" as shown in its publication of Mordóftsef's historical novel entitled "Between Hammer and Anvil." July 29. A Russian translation of Professor Lester F. Ward's "Social Dynamics" is burned by order of the censor.
Scientists and Travelers. Potánin, Madam Yefímenko, Kléments. University Professors. Shchápof, Pávlof, Kostomárof, Éngelhardt. Novelists and Dramatists. Palm, Dostoyéfski, Tourguénef, Mámin, Korolénko, Máchtet, Staniukóvich, Petropávlovski, Beztúzhef. Critics. Písaref, Chúiko, Sáltikof [Shchedrín], Mikháilofski, Protopópof. Poets. Riléief, Odoéfski, Polezháief, Púshkin, Lérmontof, Pleshchéief, Shevchénko, Mikháilof, Kuróchkin, Mináief, Yakubóvich, Volkhófski, Sinigúb. Political Economists, Editors, Publicists, and Translators. Hérzen, Ogaróf, Chernishéfski, Shelgunóf, Shashkóf, Lavróf , Tkáchef , Bervi [Flerófski], Pávlenkof, the two Kropótkins, Gregórief, Protopópof, Krívenko, Góltsef, Madam Pol, Shcherbín, Shchepótief, Priklónski, Yúzhakóf, Vorontsóf, Ánnenski, Aksákof [Ivan], Chudnófski, Ivánchin-Písaref, Yádrintsef. Miscellaneous. Baron Rósen [author of "Memoirs of a Russian Decembrist"], Beláief [author of "Recollections of a Decembrist"], Dall [author of the great "Dictionary of the Living Russian Tongue"], Yákushkin [a student of and writer upon Russian songs and folk-lore], Tveretínof, Khudiákof, Lesévich [writer upon philosophy and morals], Madam Kázina, Olkhan, Bardófski, Értel, Madam Kafiéro, Osipóvich. |
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