A Self-Administered Poison
The System and Functions of Soviet Censorship

Arlen Blyum

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Special Lecture Series 5

Legenda: Oxford, 2003
£9.50 ($14.50 US)  Paperback  34pp
ISBN: 1-900755-76-9

Censorship of the media has been a constant element in Russian cultural life throughout the ages. In the Soviet period it was institutionalized and systematized with unprecedented thoroughness and sophistication, acquiring not only proscriptive but prescriptive powers. Awareness of its workings is fundamental to the understanding of Russian culture in the twentieth century. Drawing on research in archives that have been opened only since the collapse of the USSR, Arlen Blyum, long recognized as Russia’s leading authority on this control system in all its aspects, brings fresh detail and nuance to his comprehensive survey of the subject.

A Self-Administered Poison was delivered as the Ilchester Lecture at the Taylor Institution in the University of Oxford in 2000.

The English translation is by I. P. Foote.

Reviews:

  • ‘The title of this marvellous little book relates both to Soviet propaganda and to the Soviet censorship system in general... This well-translated booklet will, I hope, stimulate more Western scholars to work in this fascinating field.’ — Martin Dewhirst, Slavonic and East European Review 84.2, 2006, 319-20

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