concept
Imperial Russian Press Censorship
the censor
also: цензура
The government censorship apparatus that reviewed and cut Russian press copy under the Tsarist regime of Chekhov's day. Referenced glancingly in a joke likening a changed wife to text struck out by a censor.
Reading notes
- Two Novels §12 half struck out by the censor
A glancing reference to the Imperial Russian press censorship of Chekhov's day, under which newspaper copy was routinely cut by government censors before publication -- here applied wryly to marriage itself.
- To V. N. Davydov, December 1887. Moscow. §4 send it to the censor
Under the Imperial Russian theatrical censorship regime, a new play could not be staged until a licensed censor had reviewed and approved the script, a process distinct from (though administratively related to) the press censorship of printed matter. Submission required a formal petition; Chekhov is arranging for Davydov, already positioned to forward the manuscript, to notify him once it is sent so the petition can follow in step.
- To V. N. Davydov, December 1887. Moscow. §4 Cerberuses
A wry classical jab at the censors, likening them to Cerberus, the three-headed hound guarding the underworld: without a petition bearing the required revenue stamps, Chekhov jokes, the censors won't even open a submitted play.
- To S. F. Rassokhin, 17 December 1891. Moscow. §4 copied out in two copies and send it to the censor
Before any play could be licensed for public performance in Imperial Russia, a manuscript had to clear the dramatic censor's office -- a separate arm of the general press-censorship apparatus, dedicated to stage works. The standard procedure required submitting multiple fair copies (here, two), typically accompanied by a petition; theatrical agents like Rassokhin, who kept copyists on hand and knew the office's paperwork requirements, routinely handled this step for playwrights as a matter of course. Compare the fuller account of the same process at (returning Lazarev-Gruzinsky's "Who Won," with a sample censorship petition) and the earlier Kalkhas/"Swan Song" censorship copy bound for this same office at.