No. 77, p. 75g—On eliminating Glavlit's sabotaging system of withdrawing literature (Com. Mekhlis).

The TsK VKP(b) condemns Glavlit's practice of arbitrary, bordering on sabotage, mass withdrawal of literature. For example, in the Tatar Republic a collection of algebraic problems by Shaposhnikov and Valtsov and a collection of problems in geometry by Rybkin et al. were withdrawn. In Bashkiria they withdrew a Party charter, a resolution of the Seventeenth Congress of the VKP(b), and works by Lenin and Stalin. The situation is no better in Dagestan, where enemies deprived the republic's workers of the classics of Marxism-Leninism translated into local languages. In all these instances the literature was withdrawn on the grounds that at the end of the books the names were listed of translators who had turned out to be politically tainted.

The withdrawal of books as a kind of exhibitionist vigilance, in particular under the pretext of the translator's faultiness, has led in the national republics to overzealous bunglers and wreckers withdrawing a huge portion of the standard textbooks, Russian classics, and even official Party documents.

Apart from that, Glavlit has been publishing in huge print runs for wide use lists of authors, books, and brochures that are supposed to be removed. Summary lists include insignificant, trifling little books by local authors whom no one has ever read. The authors of these, it could be said, little books, never considered themselves writers. In its wrecking actions, Glavlit has enrolled them as “writers.”

This criminal practice has only played into the hands of our enemies. The VKP(b) Central Committee resolves:

1. To ban henceforth the withdrawal of any literature without a special decision of the TsK VKP(b). Only Glavlit and its local organs henceforth can withdraw literature, in each individual case with the sanction of the TsK.

The withdrawal of books and brochures written by local authors and published by local publishing houses shall be brought about, in each individual case, at the decision of the regional Party committee, district Party committee, and the TsK of the Communist Parties of the national republics.

2. To forbid the unauthorized publication by Glavlit in large print runs of various kinds of lists of withdrawn literature. Henceforth the lists of literature subject to withdrawal for various reasons, including outdated literature, shall be released as needed, and in each individual case with the permission of the TsK.