Glavlit was the Main Administration for Literature and Publishing Houses of the RSFSR People's Commissariat of Education. Established by a decree of the RSFSR Sovnarkom dated 6 July 1922, it exercised advanced [or prepublication] and current control (censorship) over publishing operations, as well as issuing authorizations to open publishing houses and periodicals, determining the nature of publishing operations and the volume of output produced, and approving executive personnel (editors and members of editorial boards). Glavlit drew up an annual general plan for publishing house output, including sheet quantities and the distribution of literature by field and audience categories. It also exercised control over the content of works and the import of literature from abroad. In addition, radio broadcasts, exhibitions, and public lectures were subject to Glavlit censorship. Publications by the Comintern, GIZ (State Publishing House), Glavpolitprosvet (Main Political Education Committee), the newspaper Izvestia , and works of the USSR Academy of Sciences were exempted from advance inspection. In 1937 Glavlit became a secret agency. It repeatedly changed names; the last one was the Main Administration for the Safeguarding of State Secrets in the Press under the USSR Council of Ministers. It was abolished in 1991.