Odesa in the Grip of “Red” Censorship (1918–1920)

Abstract

The current research paper provides a comprehensive analysis of the formation and functioning of “Red” censorship in Odesa from 1918 to 1920 – one of the most dramatic periods in the city’s history, marked by the end of the Great War, civil strife, revolution, multiple changes of power, and the establishment of the Bolshevik dictatorship. Based on a wide range of sources, the legal, institutional, and practical mechanisms for controlling the press and information space applied by Soviet power at various stages of its presence in Odesa are studied. The authors demonstrate that, from the first days of the Bolshevik regime, censorship became a key instrument of political domination and an integral part of the “Red Terror”. The shutdown of periodicals, the confiscation of printing houses, and the persecution of editors and journalists were performed both administratively and extrajudicially, with the active participation of revolutionary committees, revolutionary tribunals, military authorities, and the Cheka bodies. Particular attention is paid to the wiping out of the oldest and most influential Odessa newspapers, as well as the struggle of the authorities against the socialist, Ukrainian, anarchist, and satirical press. This work gives a detailed analysis of three periods of Soviet power in Odesa (1918, 1919, and 1920), identifying the specifics of censorship policy in each period, and demonstrating the evolution of the Bolsheviks’ attitude toward previously allied political forces – the Mensheviks, Socialist Revolutionaries, Borbists, and anarchists – who were forced out of legal public space as the dictatorship strengthened. The phenomenon of the underground press as a form of resistance to censorship pressure is considered separately. The authors conclude that the “temporary” restrictions on freedom of speech promised by the Bolsheviks evolved into a stable and centralized system of control, culminating in the creation of a party-state censorship apparatus. The Odesa experience clearly demonstrates that suppression of press freedom became a fundamental basis of the Soviet model of social governance and a significant factor in the destruction of the city’s cultural and intellectual diversity.