The Main Forms of Advanced Training of Soviet Censors in the Second Half of the 1940s (proceeding from the materials of the State Archives of Kirovohrad Oblast)

Abstract

The article aims to study the main forms of advanced training of Soviet censors in the second half of the 1940s. The scientific novelty is presented by the fact that the problem has not been studied in Ukrainian historiography in such a statement and within such a chronological framework. The research methodology is grounded on a combination of general scientific (analysis, synthesis, and generalization) and specialhistorical (historical-typological, historical-systemic, and historical-genetic) methods. The research is based on the principles of historicism, systematicity and scientific knowledge. It has been found that professional training of censors was carried out directly at the workplace. Several forms of advanced training were applied in parallel, namely: professional training, seminars, meetings of censorship workers (at regional, republican and all-Union levels) and the party education system. The main forms of control over the level of information assimilation by the censors necessary for the implementation of the tasks set before them by the Soviet authorities have been highlighted and considered. In particular, such forms of control included passing technical minimums and execution of training exercises on knowledge of the “List of information prohibited for publication in the open press”. The analysis of the sources proved that the majority of the censorship employees were self-taught, since no educational institution in the country trained specialists for the needs of Soviet censorship. The lack of experience and practical skills of employees of censorship bodies affected the quality of the censorship system work in general. Therefore, the Holovlit of the Ukrainian SSR controlled the professional training of censors constantly. The regime had to spend a lot of time training all new employees and regularly monitor the performance of the tasks assigned to them. The employees of the censorship bodies systematically raised their ideological and political level because they were to become the conductors of the comprehensive ideological control of the Soviet government and interfere in the creative process, professional activity and private life of citizens.