Metadata language
Cenzura a nauka historyczna w Polsce 1944-1970
Subtitle:Censorship and the Science of History in Poland 1944–1970
Creator: Contributor:Instytut Historii Polskiej Akademii Nauk
Publisher:Wydawnictwo Neriton ; Instytut Historii PAN
Place of publishing: Date issued/created: Description:Bibliogr. s. 343-351. Indeks ; 358 s. ; 25 cm ; Streszcz. ang.
Subject and Keywords:Cenzura -- Polska -- 1945-1970 [KABA] ; Historiografia -- Polska -- 1945-1970 [KABA]
Abstract:
When the communists were taking power in Poland, already in August 1944 they began to establish a censorship system. Initially, the planned censorship was proposed to be a democratic one, partly based on the rules effective in the interwar period (confiscation of a whole print run under the valid laws after the text publication). The project was presented by Jerzy Borejsza. The state authorities, however, soon resigned from the project, looking for a total subjugation of all publications to the propaganda purposes of the communist party. At the turn of 1944/45, at Jakub Berman’s invitation, there came to Poland the representatives of the Soviet censorship organ (the Chief Agency for Protection of Military and State Secrets, known for short as Glavlit) who worked out a project of regulation and legal acts that became the basis for the establishment in January 1945 of the Central Bureau of Press Control, renamed in November 1945 the Main Office of Control of Press, Publications and Shows; Polish acronym: GUKPPiW). Following the regulations of 1945, it operated until 1990. The censorship office in Poland faithfully carried out orders of the governing communist party (initially, the Polish Worker’s Party – PPR, then the Polish United Workers’ Party – PZPR), supervised the implementation and functioning of a multi-institutional system to suppress or prohibit freedom of speech or writing. The system was constructed in such a way that censorship interferences were based not on the legal laws but on generally unknown internal regulations formulated by the GUKPPiW on the basis of guidelines prepared by the Central Committee of the PZPR. The main point was that it was authors who were held responsible for censoring of their own published texts. In science a special role was played by scholars holding managerial positions (directors of institutes, members of directorial boards and scientific councils, chiefs of departments and chairs). These people determined research texts by scholars already at their preliminary stage and restrained their authors in their subject matter and interpretations, eliminating everything considered unaccepted by the authorities. Written texts on history were censored from their very beginning, at university chairs and institutes and in the institutes of the Polish Academy of Sciences. In a similar way operated editorial staff of scientific publishers. It was only seldom that editors knew the internal regulations of the censorship office, but they had a good grasp of what could be and what could not be published. The main rule was to comply with the official Marxist methodology and with the ideology and current policy of the state authorities. Papers of the first secretaries of the PZPR, comments by representatives of the authorities, articles by historians associated with the communist leadership, previously approved reports submitted at the party’s conventions and conferences, reviews of scientifi c books – all these determined the obligatory canon of interpretations, defined what was allowed and what was not. All texts to be published were systematically monitored by the censorship office whose main role was to make sure that all institutions and individuals involved in the censoring system were fulfilling their duty. In most of the cases censors corrected small errors of their predecessors. When the interference was more serious and publishers resisted the censor’s demands, their adequate superior authorities intervened (of the Party’s, government, university, academic ones, etc.). Interferences in minor matters had a form of “friendly” caution but in more serious cases the persons violating rules could have been dismissed from their posts or fired.
IH PAN, sygn. III.2708 ; IH PAN, sygn. III.2707 Podr. (Arch.) ; click here to follow the link
Language: Language of abstract: Rights:Licencja Creative Commons Uznanie autorstwa-Bez utworów zależnych 4.0
Terms of use:Zasób chroniony prawem autorskim. [CC BY-ND 4.0 Międzynarodowe] Korzystanie dozwolone zgodnie z licencją Creative Commons Uznanie autorstwa-Bez utworów zależnych 4.0, której pełne postanowienia dostępne są pod adresem: ; -
Digitizing institution:Instytut Historii Polskiej Akademii Nauk
Original in:Biblioteka Instytutu Historii PAN
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