Military censorship in the Minsk military district and the beginning of the First World War

The article deals with one of the least studied issues in the history of Russia’s military censorship during the World War I, i.e. the military censorship carried out at the headquarters of military districts. Referring to previously unknown documents and materials the author outlines the introduction and operation of military censorship mechanism in one particular military district, namely, the Minsk Military District. As evidenced by the practices of military censorship in the Minsk Military District, the military authorities were quite effective in establishing formal control over correspondence at the front and in the rear that was part of the military district. However, in reality the scope of military censorship was fairly limited. Sophisticated organizational system and weak personnel of Military censorship committees ruled out effective censorship in the conditions of the war of such massive scale. Alongside with guarding military secrets, the military censorship was obliged, from the very start of the war, to actively counteract the dissemination through correspondence and periodical press of facts, views and opinions which evidenced anti-war and anti-government sentiments in the army and among civil population. However, the lack of information from the front made the population trust rumours to a greater degree than the official information coming from the commandment of the Russian army.