Russian modernism and censorship: Notes on the issue

The article presents cautious complaints about the tradition of neglecting the issue of censorship’s persecution of modernist publications. An approximate range of printed and handwritten sources for the description of censorship practices is outlined. The preliminary list of poetry collections for which official restrictions were implied and/or imposed is provided. With the help of archival sources, the history of the prohibition and subsequent release of the two issues of the main Symbolist magazines, “Vesy” and “Zolotoye Runo”, is reconstructed. The algorithm of the supervisory mechanism concerning the periodical after the abolition of the preliminary censorship is described in detail — from the first signal about a text with prohibited content through the collection of expert opinions to collegial discussion and directly to repressive measures. A separate paragraph describes the role of a member of the Moscow Censorship Committee, who played a key role in both stories and how the properties of this role changed depending on personal acquaintance with the author of the text, which was being prohibited. Among the unexpected circumstances that unite these cases is the absolute peacefulness of censorship, which in fact profaned both the orders of higher authorities and the obvious violation of current legislation, limiting the punishment to a ridiculously low fine and, in fact, levelling their complaints.