Karpovich Calls Soviet Censorship Stricter Than Control Under Czars

Thought control in Russia today is fundamentally different from the censorship that existed under the czars, Michael Karpovich, Reisinger Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures, said last night.

Karpoivch spoke before meeting of the Slavic society in Leverett house Junior common Room.

"Former Russian Monarchs merely required their subjects to keep their mouths closed, but the Soviet regime demands from everyone 'a mouth wide open in praise of the government," Karpovich declared. The reason for the difference, he explained, is that Russia today is a totalitarian state, while under the czars it was only a despotism.

Being rulers of the state officially designed "to create a new king of humanity." the soviet rulers must extend censorship to every phase of intellectual life, Karpovich said. "They cannot admit that there are any neutral spheres, or recognize the autonomy of culture," he added.

Karpovich admitted that soviet censorship has changed greatly since the Revolution and is now much stricter than it was under Lenin. He maintained, however, that the basic policy has been the same, and pointed out that as early as 1918 the Bolshevik regime abolished the study of philosophy in all universities and substituted that of dialectical materialism.

In contrast to modern though control, the czarist censorship of the 1830's, though strict, still permitted some freedom of speech, Karpovich said. he observed that Russian literature reached its culmination around 1850 despite the existing censorship.