Skip to content

Litizdat (Literary and Publishing Department of the Political Directorate of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic)

Литиздат (Литературно-издательский отдел политического управления РВСР)

Litizdat (Literaturno-izdatel'skii otdel politicheskogo upravleniia RVSR) was established in June 1919 by order of the Department of the Political Directorate (PUR) of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic (RVSR). A formal decree approved its existence in October that year. Due to the hierarchy of Litizdat's formation, its title is often abbreviated as Litizdat PUR RVSR on publications it issued. As the main publishing arm for the Red Army and the Red Navy, Litizdat distributed a total of 7.5 million posters and postcards between 1919 and 1922. After the Russian Civil War, Litizdat PUR was dissolved and its functions were divided into a succession of state publishing entities. In 1921, the key functions of Litizdat were assigned to the Department of Military Literature (Litrevsor) and by 1924, Litrevsor gave-way to the State Military Publishing House (Gosudarstvennoe voennoe izdatel'stvo), Voenizdat-Voengiz.

Fuentes

Smele, J. (2015). Historical dictionary of the Russian civil wars, 1916-1926: Volume 1. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.
White, S. (1998). The bolshevik poster. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Ermolaev, H. (1997). Censorship in Soviet literature: 1917-1991. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.
Siegelbaum, L. H., & Suny, R. G. (1995). Making workers Soviet: Power, class and identity. Cornell University Press.
Kopytin, A. I. (1969). Sovetskii voin, no. 21: Polka v stroiu. Military Publishing House, USSR Ministry of Defense.
Butnik-Siverskij, B. S. (1960). Sovetskij plakat epochi graždanskoj vojny: 1918-1921. Moskva: Izd. vsesojuznoj knižnoj palaty.