Postal Censorship, Surveillance, Resistance

Alex Averbuch (Editor) Alex Averbuch is assistant professor of Ukrainian literature and culture at the University of Michigan.Natalia Khanenko-Friesen (Editor) Natalia Khanenko-Friesen is director of the Canadian Institute for Ukrainian Studies and professor of modern languages and cultural studies at the University of Alberta.Jelena Pogosjan (Editor) Jelena Pogosjan is professor of modern languages and cultural studies at the University of Alberta.

• Figures and Tables ixAcknowledgments xiiiAbbreviations xvEditorial Notes xxiiiIntroduction: Writing the Self Under Watch: Epistolary Practices, Propaganda, and Political Control in Twentieth-Century Ukraine 3Alex Averbuch, Natalia Khanenko-Friesen, Jelena PogosjanPart One Articles1 Soviet Postal Censorship from the Second World War to the End of the Cold War 25Andriy Kohut2 From “Negative Statements” to “Interesting Documents”: The Transition from Military Censorship to Covert Control of Postal Correspondence in the USSR in 1946 52Jelena Pogosjan3 Weaponizing Words: Surveillance, Perlustration, Resistance, and Censorship During the Sovietization of Mennonite Communities in Soviet Ukraine (1917–34) 76Colin P. Neufeldt4 Dangerous Liaisons: Letters from and to the Soviet “Famine-Lands” as Reported in Canada’s Daily Press, 1932–33 100Jars Balan5 Internal Alienation of the Late Stalinist Regime: The Case of Peter Krawchuk 122Nataliya Bezborodova6 Stamped with Smiles: Picture Postcards as Nazi Propaganda in the Correspondence of Ukrainian Ostarbeiters 146Alex Averbuch7 “We Sent What We Could”: Postal Communication Between Ukraine and the Soviet Gulag During the Second World War and the Postwar Period 177Emily D. Johnson8 Epistolary Resistance in Trans-Border Family Letter Writing: Navigating KGB Interference in Times of Cold War 199Natalia Khanenko-FriesenPart Two AppendicesA 4 January 1940: Order of the People’s Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR, No. 0017, “On procedures for the top-secret monitoring of postal and telegraphic correspondence.” 233B 18 January 1940: Order of the People’s Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR, No. 0074, “On procedures for implementing the political control of international and domestic postal and telegraphic correspondence.” 243C 27 September 1942: Order of the People’s Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR, No. 002117, “On approving the instructions ‘On the work of the military censors of the NKVD of the USSR.’” 251D 8 January 1946: Order of the People’s Commissar of State Security of the USSR No. 008, “Announcing the ‘Instructions on the work of the political monitoring (“PK”) agencies of the NKGB.’” 269E 14 January 1946: Order of the People’s Commissar of State Security of the USSR No. 0020, “Announcing the ‘Instructions on procedures for the covert inspection (“PK”) of international postal and telegraphic correspondence.’” 319F 16 December 1952: Order of the Minister of State Security of the USSR, No. 001155, “Announcing instructions on the covert monitoring of international postal and telegraphic dispatches and intra-union postal correspondence by agencies of the MGB.” 338G 1 December 1959: Order of the Chair of the Committee of State Security of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, No. 00480, “Announcing instructions on the covert monitoring of international and domestic postal and telegraphic dispatches by agencies of the Committee of State Security of the Council of Ministers of the USSR (letter designation: PK).” 414H 25 November 1968: Order of the Chair of the Committee of State Security of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, No. 00124, “On implementing instructions on the covert monitoring of postal and telegraphic dispatches by agencies of the Committee of State Security of the Council of Ministers of the USSR.” 480I 13 November 1973: Order of the Chair of the Committee of State Security of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, No. 00115, “On approving instructions on keeping centralized records on foreign letter-writers at the 6th Department of the otu of the KGB of the Council of Ministers of the USSR.” 544J 10 February 1990: Order of the Chair of the Committee of State Security of the USSR, No. 0023, “On improving counter-intelligence investigation of the postal channel.” 563Table of Archival Holdings 571Contributors 573Index 575

“Postal Censorship, Surveillance, Resistance breaks new ground by drawing on previously unexplored sources to offer fresh insight into how censorship affected Soviet society over many decades.” - Myroslav Shkandrij, University of Manitoba