Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Top-down Extraction of Bottom-up Messages: Surveillance

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Media and Communication in the Soviet Union (1917–1953)

  • 274 Accesses

Abstract

This chapter reviews Soviet surveillance with its disciplining, managerial, and protective functions. When the open channels of communication between the state and society were disrupted by secrecy, censorship, repression, and the totalism of the system with no private sector, independent media, or political opposition available, top authorities sought information needed for administration and security through tacit surveillance. The security police, party secretaries, military political departments, and soviet and media agencies regularly submitted to the top authorities confidential reviews on the political mood of the citizens (and various groups like the church), on political and economic conditions of the provinces, and on private correspondence and unpublished letters to newspapers. Among other practices we discuss here the use of informants, cataloguing of “the alien elements” and inspection of private mail. Specific to Soviet surveillance was its wide thematic embrace (including the monitoring of economy and administration performance), oversized scale, and repressiveness.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 119.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 159.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 159.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Berelovich, Aleksei, and Viktor P. Danilov, eds. 2000. Sovetskaia derevnia glazami VChK-OGPU-NKVD, 1918–1939: Dokumenty i materialy [The Soviet Countryside Through the Eyes of the ChK-OGPU-NKVD, 1918–1939: Documents and Materials]. Vol. 2. Moscow: ROSSPEN.

    Google Scholar 

  • “[Correspondence Summary, 1–15 July 1924].” Central State Archives of Historical Political Documentation, St. Petersburg (TsGAIPD SPb), f. R-16 (The Leningrad Provincial Committee of VKP(b)), op. 5, d. 5912.

    Google Scholar 

  • Danilov, Viktor P., Roberta T. Manning, and Lynne Viola, eds. 2002. Tragediia Sovetskoi Derevni: Kollektivizatsiia i raskulachivanie [The Tragedy of the Soviet Village: The Collectivization and Dispossession of the Kulaks]. Vol. 4. Moscow: ROSSPEN.

    Google Scholar 

  • Finkel, Stuart. 2004. An Intensification of Vigilance: Recent Perspectives on the Institutional History of the Soviet Security Apparatus in the 1920s. Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History 5 (2): 299–320.

    Google Scholar 

  • Foucault, Michel. 1977. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. London: Allen Lane.

    Google Scholar 

  • Haustov, Vladimir N. 2001. Razvitie sovetskikh organov gosudarstvennoi bezopasnosti: 1917–1953 gg [Development of the Soviet organs of state security: 1917–1953]. Cahiers du Monde russe 42 (2–4): 357–374.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hoffmann, David L., and Yanni Kotsonis, eds. 2000. Russian Modernity: Politics, Knowledge, Practices. New York: St. Martin’s Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Holquist, Peter. 1997. ‘Information Is the Alpha and Omega of Our Work’: Bolshevik Surveillance in Its Pan-European Perspective. Journal of Modern History 69 (3): 415–450.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2003. State Violence as Technique: The Logic of Violence in Soviet Totalitarianism. In Stalinism: The Essential Readings, ed. David L. Hoffmann, 129–156. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Izmozik, Vladlen S. 1995. Glaza i ushi regima: Gosudarstvennyi politicheskii kontrol’ za naseleniem Sovetskoi Rossii 1918–1928 gg. [Eyes and Ears of the Regime: The State Political Control over the Population of Soviet Russia in 1918–1928]. St. Petersburg: Sankt-Peterburgskii Universitet Ekonomiki i Finansov.

    Google Scholar 

  • De Jasay, Anthony. 1998. The State. Indianapolis, IN: Liberty Fund.

    Google Scholar 

  • Khaustov, Vladimir N., et al., eds. 2003. Lubi͡anka, Stalin i VChK-GPU-OGPU-NKVD. Y͡anvar’ 1922—Dekabr’ 1936. [Lubianka, Stalin and ChK-GPU-OGPU-NKVD in January 1922–December 1936]. Moscow: Materik.

    Google Scholar 

  • Khlevniuk, Oleg. 2004. The History of the Gulag: From Collectivization to the Great Terror. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2015. Letters to Stalin. Practices of Selection and Reaction. Cahiers du Monde russe 56 (2–3): 327–344.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kosheleva, Liudmila N., Oleg V. Naumov, and Larisa A. Rogovaia. 1992. Materialy fevral’sko-artovskogo plenuma TsK VKPb 1937 goda [Materials of the February-March Plenum, 23 February 1937]. Voprosy istorii 4–5: 3–36.

    Google Scholar 

  • “[Local Survey of the Ukrainian OGPU].” 1927. Central State Archives of St. Petersburg (TsGASPb). f. R-4370 (The Department of Labor of the Executive Committee of the Leningrad Provincial Council of the Working People Deputees) op. 5, d. 4.

    Google Scholar 

  • “[Military Report on Petrograd Province, 1–15 March 1921].” Central State Archives of Historical Political Documentation, St. Petersburg (TsGAIPD SPb). f. R-16 (The Leningrad Provincial Committee of VKP(b)), op. 5, d. 4319.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mlechin, Leonid. 2008. KGB: Predsedateli organov gosbezopasnosti; Rassekrechennye sud’by [KGB: The Heads of the Organs of State Security; Declassified Destinies]. Moscow: Tsentropoligraf.

    Google Scholar 

  • Plekhanov, Aleksandr M. 2004. VChK-OGPU: Otechestvennye organy gosudarstvennoi bezopasnosti v period novoi ekonomicheskoi politiki, 1921–1928 [ChK-OGPU: Soviet Organs of State Security during the Period of the New Economic Policy, 1921–1928]. Moscow: Kuchkovo Pole.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shearer, David R. 2009. Policing Stalin’s Socialism: Repression and Social Order in the Soviet Union, 1924–1953. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shearer, David R., and Vladimir N. Khaustov. 2015. Stalin and the Lubianka: A Documentary History of the Political Police and Security Organs in the Soviet Union, 1922–1953. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tepliakov, Aleksei G. 2008. Mashina terrora: OGPU-NKVD Sibiri v 1929–1941 gg [The Terror Machine: The OGPU-NKVD of Siberia in 1929–1941]. Moscow: Novyi Khronograf, AIRO-XXI.

    Google Scholar 

  • Velikanova, Olga. 2013. Popular Perceptions of Soviet Politics in the 1920s: Disenchantment of the Dreamers. Basingstoke: Palgrave.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2018. Mass Political Culture under Stalinism: Popular Discussion of the Soviet Constitution of 1936. London: Palgrave.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vinogradov, Vladimir. K. 2000. Informatsionnye materialy OGPU za 1923–1929 gg. [Informational Materials of OGPU for 1923–1929]. In Sovetskaia derevnia glazami VChK-OGPU-NKVD, 1918–1939: Dokumenty i materialy v 4-kh tomakh. Vol. 2, 1923–1939, edited by Aleksei Berelovich and Viktor Danilov, 25–53. Moscow: ROSSPEN.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weiner, Amir, and Aigi Rahi-Tamm. 2012. Getting to Know You: The Soviet Surveillance System, 1939–57. Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History 13 (1): 5–45.

    Google Scholar 

  • Werth, Nicolas. 1999. A State Against Its People. In The Black Book of Communism, ed. Stephane Courtois et al., 33–268. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Werth, Nicolas, and Sergei V. Mironenko, eds. 2004. Istoriia Stalinskogo Gulaga: Massovye repressii v SSSR [The History of Stalin’s Gulag: Mass Repressions in USSR]. Vol. 1. Moscow: ROSSPEN.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zabava, Aleksandr. 2018. Osobyi Otdel GPU-OGPU (1922–1934) [The Special Department of GPU-OGPU, 1922–1934]. Istoricheskii Forum. Accessed March 28, 2019. http://forum.mozohin.ru/index.php/topic,544.0.html.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. History Department, University of North Texas, Denton, TX, USA

    Olga Velikanova

Authors
  1. Olga Velikanova
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Olga Velikanova .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. SFB 1288 ‘Practices of Comparison’, Bielefeld University, Bielefeld, Germany

    Kirill Postoutenko

  2. Department of History, Bielefeld University, Bielefeld, Germany

    Alexey Tikhomirov

  3. Department of History, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany

    Dmitri Zakharine

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Velikanova, O. (2022). Top-down Extraction of Bottom-up Messages: Surveillance. In: Postoutenko, K., Tikhomirov, A., Zakharine, D. (eds) Media and Communication in the Soviet Union (1917–1953). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-88367-6_25

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-88367-6_25

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-88366-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-88367-6

  • eBook Packages: HistoryHistory (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation