The article discusses the reception of Franz Kafka’s novels and the so-called “dark literature”, popular after 1956, by the censorship board. It presents the discussions around Kafka’s work and various interpretational strategies used to secure this literature a place in the culture of People’s Republic of Poland. The article presents analyses of the censors’ reviews of Kafka’s (but also Sartre’s or Faulkner’s) novels and offers insight into the censorship process and the literary life of the late 1950s in general.
The present article is a contribution to the history of post-war preventive censorship in the Polish People’s Republic, as well as an attempt to grasp the full scale of manipulations perpetrated against both authors and audience of the censored media — literally of ‘fabricating’ of other people’s texts. The purposes of institutional censorship were constant, prior to and after 1956. In brief, they consisted in: permanent, preventive control of all mass media, of each, even the most simple, piece of information publicised in any way. The censorship, in its official capacity, was interested in publications in all walks of life. The scale of the censoring is astonishing, even today. The presence of introductory, preventive censorship in Poland was commonly known, but its actual scale, basis and content of interferences or confi scations were kept secret from public. It was a mechanism precisely controlled through secret or confi dential regulations. important is the evaluation of meticulousness of the censorial interferences of the ‘red pencil’ and their accuracy to the intentions of the authors of regulations — decision-makers from the Polish United Workers’ Party or state institutions. These regulations determined a field of activity for a censor; they regulated information meant for a Jan Kowalski, an ordinary Polish citizen. They reveal ‘obsessions’ of the state authorities in the period of Polish Stalinism, for instance in the specifi c scope of state secrets. The control over the expression was only one of many duties of the censorship. An important matter was to present a consultative role of the office, appraisal of the work done by editorial staff, publishers, writers, journalists and even scientific researchers. Censure reduced or intensified its operation according to the actual situation in the country and the policy of the state authorities. There was a difference between its work before and after ‘the Thaw’ of October 1956. Each of the two periods had its own censoring obsessions and priorities. After the parliamentary elections of January 1947 a monopoly over the propaganda information was imposed, in a spilit of Stalinism leaving its stamp on almost all spheres of public life. Censorship played in the process a role of orthodox guard of the unreal image of the political system being imposed on the country. After 1956, in the wake of the October Thaw, its role changed a little but did not weaken. It is evident in the fact that censors themselves began to call into question some of the regulations but it had no infl uence on the core of censoring operations. The decree on censorship was not changed. The extent of censorial control was not thoroughly specified and the scale of information manipulation was not reduced. After a short reorganizational chaos censors carried out their duties on the basis of methods worked out in the first years of the existence of the office. The final year of 1958 was marked by an evident end of the Thaw, the ban on criticising ‘the Party line’, and a beginning of the so-called Little Stabilisation, in maintaining of which censorship was to play an important role, thus the usefulness of its existence for the regime was not discredited.
The article analyzes the censorship board’s reception of Kazimierz Truchanowski’s novel cycle The Mills of the God, published between 1961 and 1967. The analysis gives an insight into the interesting process of the growing tolerance – and indifference – of censorship board towards this kind of hermetic, non-epic prose: far from the official cultural course, but at the same time not coming into open conflict with it. Review of censors’ reception of the subsequent parts of Truchanowski’s novel can be seen as a contribution to the history of the so-called “socparnasizm” as well as to the history of the growing pragmatism of the censorship board (and its de-ideologization).
The main goal of the article is to offer a description of cryptotexts of theatre staging handbooks and dramatic works created in Poland during the socialist realism period. A cryptotext is a secret text which is the result of a purposeful act of subterfuge. In the article, I present selected cryptotexts – reviews produced in the Ministry of Culture and Art (MKiS) and censorship reviews of the dramatic works submitted for evaluation to the Voivodship Control Bureau for Press, Main Office of Control of Press, Publications and Shows (WUKPPiW). The archives contain evaluation of works which have been published in subsequent years as well as those which remained only in their draft form. Analysis of the evaluations of ministry officials reveal the mechanisms for allowing and withholding submitted dramatic works and a theatre staging handbook which shows the practices of publishing theatrical works. An analysis of different evaluations of the same text allows for a hypothesis that the main aim of cryptotexts was the evaluation of ideological correctness of submitted works. Despite this main function it is possible to point out specific passages in the statements by the WUKPPiW officials which are similar to statements of Ministry officials. In both cases the evaluation pertains to the content and the planned fulfilment of the work and plays mainly a didactic function.
Stefan Żeromski’s Journals concern mostly matters of intellectual (book, theatre, and exhibition reviews, writing techniques) and personal character, with the latter including some very intimate material. Żeromski was an exhibitionist in his writing. He described his autoerotic practices, his visits to brothels, details of sexual relationships with his mistresses, as well as some personal problems of his friends and acquaintances. The present analysis of the writer’s Journals focuses on how Żeromski tended to write about his intimate life, what matters and to what extent were treated as taboo by the author himself, by people from his closest circle, by readers of the manuscript version of his Journals, and finally, by editors and publishers of two 20th-century editions of his work. Taking this perspective, the close reading of Żeromski’s Journals will thus concentrate on issues such as private life, taboo, censorship and self-censorship.
The article surveys the most important samizdat literary magazines published in Wrocław in 1976–1989. Apart from outlining the profile of each of those magazines it also presents a unique group of literary publications which, though not part of the underground press, were not subject to the censor’s clearance. Finally, the article considers the aims, the methods and the effects of the Security Service operations aimed at penetrating the editorial teams of the underground magazines
The author of the above article analyses two translations of the novel by J. Korczak Król Maciuś Pierwszy, both of which were done when censorship in the Soviet Union seemed to flourish. Her consideration leads to searching for the answer to the following question: how did the influence of censorship affect the translations themselves. As it appears, numerous changes in one of the translations are not the outcome of the interference of the censorship but strategically crafted solutions on the part of the translator. What undergoes modification, apart from elements referring to God and religion, centers round individuals considered to be brutal, hardly acceptable or non‑standard for the target culture of the translation etc. On the basis of the research done the author suggests introducing the notions of a euphemistic equivalent and hidden dominant in the translation.
Celem artykułu jest ukazanie, w jaki sposób działalność cenzury wpłynęła na kształt redagowanego przez Jarosława Iwaszkiewicza periodyku „Nowiny Literackie”, wychodzącego w latach 1947-1948. Artykuł prezentuje, jak cenzura zubożyła jego program, jak to, co zostało opublikowane, różniło się od autentycznych poglądów na literaturę wyznawanych przez pisarzy związanych z tygodnikiem. Materiał badawczy stanowią ingerencje zachowane w dokumentach Głównego Urzędu Kontroli Prasy, Publikacji i Widowisk. Ujawnienie tych ingerencji pozwala ukazać pełniejsze oblicze ideowe tygodnika, odsłania próby kształtowania wizerunku pisma wbrew pogłębiającej się ideologizacji kultury – zmagania redakcji i autorów z cenzurą, ich walkę ze schematyzmem, uwydatnianie niebezpieczeństw nowej koncepcji realizmu, obronę tradycji. „Nowiny” postulowały otwarcie się na literaturę Zachodu i literaturę emigracyjną, uczestniczyły w najgłośniejszych – kontrolowanych przez cenzurę – dyskusjach toczonych wówczas na łamach prasy (spór o realizm, egzystencjalizm, formalizm, ocena Dwudziestolecia).
EN
The aim of the article is a presentation of the way censorship activities influenced the shape of “Literary News” (“Nowiny Literackie”) edited by Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz and issued from 1947 to 1948. It shows how censorship impoverished the periodical’s program, and also the divergence between what was published and the actual views on literature of the writers connected with this weekly. The research material is composed of interventions preserved in the records of The Central Bureau of Press, Publication and Show Control (Główny Urząd Kontroli Prasy, Publikacji i Widowisk). Revelation of such interventions makes it possible to sketch a fuller ideological face of the weekly, discloses the attempts to shape the image of “Literary News” against a deepening ideologisation of culture: the editors’ and authors’ struggles with censorship, their fight with conformity, their stressing the danger of the new concept of realism, and defense of tradition. “Literary News” postulated opening to Western literature and emigration literature, took part in the well-known censorship-controlled discussions waged in the papers of that time (dispute over realism, existentialism, formalism, evaluation of the Inter-War Years).
In view of changing political and economical situation in Poland during the last 150 years, the role and development of press maps in transmission the information is being addressed. Maps published in the newspapers, to a large extent reflected the main topics addressed by the press as well as features of transmission policy of the time. The number of maps published substantially increased during the times of military conflicts and political changes. The press maps, together with the maps addressing criminal and lately common terrorist's activities, played the most important role among all published maps. Besides providing the information and allowing understanding the background of the events, in some cases the press maps played educational role and in other cases, through the mass media they became accessible to the general public. The early 1990s brought a gradual increase in number of maps published. The political changes in Poland after 1989 resulting in, among others, the introduction of market economy, suppression of censorship and state mass media monopoly, did have significant impact on the development of Polish press and indirectly also on journalistic cartography. Furthermore the use of computers revolutionized the processes of preparing maps.
Meanders and paradoxes of interwar film censorship in Poland The article concerns film censorship in Poland in the interwar period. The first detailed rules on censorship appeared in February 1919. Due to the small level of film production, these provisions related primarily to distribution and screenings. The detailed instructions for censors from 1920 cited in the text contain a long list of prohibitions concerning the presentation of scenes and images “contrary to law and public morality.” In practice, film was subject to political, moral, military, religious, and also artistic censorship. The article presents the ways to circumvent censorship guidelines used by distributors and cinema owners, as well as a critical evaluation of the activities of this institution in the eyes of film publicists.
PL
Meanders and paradoxes of interwar fi lm censorship in Poland The article concerns film censorship in Poland in the interwar period. The first detailed rules on censorship appeared in February 1919. Due to the small level of film production, these provisions related primarily to distribution and screenings. The detailed instructions for censors from 1920 cited in the text contain a long list of prohibitions concerning the presentation of scenes and images “contrary to law and public morality.” In practice, film was subject to political, moral, military, religious, and also artistic censorship. The article presents the ways to circumvent censorship guidelines used by distributors and cinema owners, as well as a critical evaluation of the activities of this institution in the eyes of film publicists.
The present article is a contribution to the history of post-war preventive censorship in the Polish People’s Republic, as well as an attempt to grasp the full scale of manipulations perpetrated against both authors and audience of the censored media — literally of ‘fabricating’ of other people’s texts. The purposes of institutional censorship were constant, prior to and after 1956. In brief, they consisted in: permanent, preventive control of all mass media, of each, even the most simple, piece of information publicised in any way. The censorship, in its official capacity, was interested in publications in all walks of life. The scale of the censoring is astonishing, even today. The presence of introductory, preventive censorship in Poland was commonly known, but its actual scale, basis and content of interferences or confi scations were kept secret from public. It was a mechanism precisely controlled through secret or confi dential regulations. important is the evaluation of meticulousness of the censorial interferences of the ‘red pencil’ and their accuracy to the intentions of the authors of regulations — decision-makers from the Polish United Workers’ Party or state institutions. These regulations determined a field of activity for a censor; they regulated information meant for a Jan Kowalski, an ordinary Polish citizen. They reveal ‘obsessions’ of the state authorities in the period of Polish Stalinism, for instance in the specific scope of state secrets. The control over the expression was only one of many duties of the censorship. An important matter was to present a consultative role of the office, appraisal of the work done by editorial staff, publishers, writers, journalists and even scientific researchers. Censure reduced or intensified its operation according to the actual situation in the country and the policy of the state authorities. There was a difference between its work before and after ‘the Thaw’ of October 1956. Each of the two periods had its own censoring obsessions and priorities. After the parliamentary elections of January 1947 a monopoly over the propaganda information was imposed, in a spilit of Stalinism leaving its stamp on almost all spheres of public life. Censorship played in the process a role of orthodox guard of the unreal image of the political system being imposed on the country. After 1956, in the wake of the October Thaw, its role changed a little but did not weaken. It is evident in the fact that censors themselves began to call into question some of the regulations but it had no infl uence on the core of censoring operations. The decree on censorship was not changed. The extent of censorial control was not thoroughly specified and the scale of information manipulation was not reduced. After a short reorganizational chaos censors carried out their duties on the basis of methods worked out in the first years of the existence of the office. The final year of 1958 was marked by an evident end of the Thaw, the ban on criticising ‘the Party line’, and a beginning of the so-called Little Stabilisation, in maintaining of which censorship was to play an important role, thus the usefulness of its existence for the regime was not discredited.
This paper deals with some texts from the archives of two authors from different periods. These texts were not published by the authors in their lifetime. The reason was not some kind of censorship, especially in the case of Vasil Popovich, who probably had some scruples dealing with events from the private life of his opponent Konstantin Jireček. Asen Hristoforov, a writer who was expelled from the University and sent to a labor camp, did not offer texts about his time in the labor camp for publishing. However, in this published texts there are hints about the repressions he suffered and about his disapproval of the communist regime. At the same time, there was a tension between his criticism and his attempt to partially accept the official perspective towards some events and political figures of Bulgarian communist past.
Gdansk Pomerania supervising the transfer of information was considered very important in shaping the mood among both Kashubians and immigrant population after 1945. Widely understood "topic Kashubian", Kashubian regionalism was a "special" difficult "stretch" for the Gdansk censorship. Censors suspiciously approached the specifics of the Kashubian region, deletions, or assessments periodicals guided by prejudice against Kashubians. Representatives of censorship perceived intelligence community of the Kashubians as reluctant socialist power, as potential supporters of German "revisionism". The term regionalism Kashubian replaced the term separatism. Reluctantly treated deep attachment to their own language, traditions, family, respect for property, a natural in this community ideological and religious conservatism, distrust of "outsiders". The actions of the censors in Gdansk see bias against the community, the specifics and views censors did not understand and did not accept. As a result of the thaw in 1956, for the Kashubian related to the regionalism recognized the opportunity to speak about their own needs. It appeared in the form of initiatives biweekly "Kaszëbë" published by the Association of Kashubian in the years 1957–1961. Periodical constantly was "suspect" in the eyes of Gdansk censorship, often erected Kashubian journalists objection to promote its pages separatism. The existence of this title was a kind of censorship for the missed time experiment "thaw" extremely troublesome surveillance. None of wybrzeżowych periodicals, was not so "worked on" by the censors. In censorship it was concluded that the magazine did not fulfill reported by its initiators purposes - declarations of editorial work on the approximation of the biweekly problems Kashubians Polish population, according to the Gdansk censorship and the remaining unrealized. This, clearly differed publications "Kaszëbë" many-fits publications, was not appreciated by the censors, and the difference lies in the fact that the periodical raised issues that interested Kashubians. Issuing "Kaszëbë" even without "separatist inclined towards" was discontinued, besides the active participation of censorship, at the end of 1961.
In Polish art history, there are two approaches to the “Arsenał” exhibition of August 1955. One, rooted in the debates around it, presents the “Arsenał” as the beginning of a political “thaw” – an act of emancipation, a demonstration of young artists who rebelled against the socialist realism. The other approach to the show or, rather, to the “thaw” as a whole, rejects an interpretation of artistic processes and choices as autonomous activities. Instead, with reference to the theory of Michel Foucault, the “Arsenał” is considered as a result of a reconfiguration of scattered power relations, stimulated by the changing strategies of the institutional power system. The present paper follows the latter approach. Foucault claims that power relations are combined with three interconnected types of human relations: defining the hierarchy of tasks and division of labor, compelling obedience, and performing “communicative binding,” i.e. purposeful action that affects the actors’ knowledge of the world and of themselves. After 1954, power relations in Poland were strategically changing: the system of labor division and the distribution of art, including all the related benefits, was still centralized, but the ineffective administrative control relaxed, while the production of meaning changed as well – the communist party modified its rhetoric referring to art and the range of artistic choice grew together with the options of communication. Still, the liberalization of the system and abandoning the Moscow version of the socialist realism in cultural policy did not mean any real increase of the freedom of choice. Using state exhibition institutions and the press, which was the main channel of communication between the authorities and the masses, the communist regime continued to control the aesthetic consciousness of the artists. An analysis of both printed and visual messages found in the press of the period, specialist periodicals and daily newspapers alike, has revealed a surprising similarity of the official discourse and the aesthetic choices made by the participants of the “Arsenał” – in particular those choices which were later interpreted as attempts to reject the socialist realism and launch a new beginning. It seems that the young artists were “positively censored,” i.e. the regime succeeded in creating an aesthetic reality which they accepted. What is more, they considered it subversive as an emanation of liberty. The selection of the aesthetic modes favored by the authorities took place in an unconscious way already at the stage of creation, before particular works of art were accepted by the ”Arsenał” jury and before they were actually controlled by the institutions of censorship.
The ritual as a series of actions specified by traditions or a given political system, defined in detail and repeatable, was also fulfilled in the communist system. There it was aimed at introducing and amalgamating the order imposed on Poland by the Soviets after WWII. It could only be achieved by strictly observing the rules of Socialist rites. And that did not only apply to, however important, the celebrations of holidays according to the communist calendar, but also to the master principles which the enforcers of the new order used towards society. The indicated research material, extracted from censorship archives, shows that regardless of the changing media policy in the first decade after WWII, from the very beginning there existed invariable rules which constituted a compass for specific choices: the ban on criticising or disturbing the good name of the authorities, starting with Generalissimo Stalin, through the leaders of the states subordinate to him, higher-ranking officials, police and the army, to udarniks. The Control Bureau for Press, Publications and Performances was one of the most active bodies in the field. In the privacy of their offices, without the publicity so common for the clamorous ceremonies and rallies, censors worked to maintain the Stalinist rituals.
On the background of the conditions of functioning of the Polish press since the mid-19th century, the paper describes cartographic and graphic methods used on press maps, with the emphasis on the quantitative methods of information presentation. The qualitative methods were mostly used in a proper way. The factors determining the level of press mapping were the skills of map makers and the limitations resulting from the letterpress printing technology. The application of computer technology and the shift to offset printing in the last decade of the 20th century overcame these obstacles. New possibilities of the creation of maps with richer content and more graphically effective emerged. Despite these new possibilities one still needs at least basic knowledge on cartographic methods and map graphics in order to be able to prepare the cartographically correct maps. The maps presented in this paper focus on the presentation of the most common mistakes, with less emphasis put on the cartographic methods and map graphics.
This study focuses on the issues surrounding the effects of censorship on the publication of Karel Hynek Mácha's work before 1848, e. g. on the basis of previously unresearched lists of books passed by the censors. It presents the way the censors dealt with each work by Mácha in chronological order, primarily focusing on the issues involved in Cikáni and Máj, the former having been rejected in February 1836, whereas the latter was passed for publication that same month. The anecdote that has been passed down regarding Mácha's informal intervention with Zimmermann the censor is most likely true, but then in contrast to the previous tradition new sources indicate that in the case of Máj the censors were responsible for some unidentified alterations in the manuscript. The study also sets the newly discovered records of the censorship of the posthumous edition of Mácha's works under preparation within the context of other reports on its preparations, and shows that censorship had no direct part to play in the lack of success of the publications, and shows that censorship had no direct part to play in the lack of success of the publication of Mácha's posthumous works in the 1840s. It also focuses on the deletions in Karel Sabina's biographical study of Mácha and deals with the question of why Mácha's Cikáni was rejected by the censors in 1836, but then passed in 1842 and 1844. A role was probably played here by the genre description of novel, which was problematic in the context of censorship legislation.
The article presents the complex impact of Francoist censorship on Luis García Berlanga’s works. In films shot during General Francisco Franco’s dictatorship, the Spanish director developed a number of auteur strategies that allowed him to express veiled criticism of the regime, which escaped the attention of censors. The game with censorship requirements became characteristic of Berlanga’s works and influenced their reception by domestic audiences, who interpreted some scenes as political allusions not intended by the author. The analysis also shows the impact of censor interference in the final form of some films and attempts at eliminating their controversial message, as well as cases of delayed Spanish distribution or the realisation of the director’s boldest projects, which were premiered or could only be shot after the fall of the dictatorship.
Based on documents preserved in the archive of Tymon Terlecki, the editor of „Polska Walcząca” („Fighting Poland”), a weekly for the Polish Armed Forces in World War II, the article addresses the issue of unofficial censorship. Pieces that had been checked and authorized for publication by both the British and Polish military censors often provoked the ire of émigré government circles, ministry officials and other institutions. Official spheres were particularly sensitive to criticism and reacted indignantly to reports that touched on thorny social or psychological issues. In his memoranda to army superiors, Terlecki stated his belief that to earn the trust of its readers the weekly may serve as an instrument of propaganda and education, but should on no account become an official government or ministerial gazette. Its duty was to voice the doubts and concerns of the soldiers, however seemingly trivial, and resist external pressure motivated by wounded sensibilities.
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