Issue 132 (2017)

I. Patrylak, Dr. habil. (History), Professor

Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Kyiv, Ukraine

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17721/1728-2640.2017.132.1.07

"I'D PREFERRED TO BE KILLED AT THE FRONT THAN TO LIVE THIS WAY…": "SILENCING" LETTERS IN THE SOVIET UKRAINE (based on reports of the USSR'S committee for state security concerning perlustration of the private correspondence in december 1945 – february 1947)

In this paper we summarized documents concerning the perlustration of private correspondence received and sent by servicemen from December, 1945 to February, 1947. These documents are to be found in analytical reports of People's Commissariat/Ministry of State Security of USSR. The military censorship stations were working up about 5 millions letters a month. Their reports on the perlustrated civilian and military correspondence reveal the most feared and annoying topics for Soviet authorities, as well as topical problems of population in the home front, of servicemen and students of fabric schools, of ex-servicemen and disabled soldiers. From these reports we also get know about the monthly quantity of confiscated and edited by censors letters. Numerous quotes from confiscated and "edited" letters that we found in reports of the Ministry of State Security let us to have a look at the inner world of average Soviet citizens. It is usually impossible to immerse in the everyday life of that period in absence of memoirs, diaries and authorized interviews. So we can conclude that these reports enrich substantively our knowledge about "fear of authorities" and other feelings and moods of the Ukrainian society of the first postwar months.

Key words: perlustration, private correspondence, letters, military censorship, confiscation, moods.