The Materials of Postal Censorship of 1946–1949 as the Source of Research of Operation «West» («Zapad») (1947)

Postal censorship was important measure of political control used by the Soviet secret services over the dissemination of information and for clarifi cation of society's reaction to important events. Despite the resumption of the pre-war practice of selective re-reading of letters in January 1946, KGB in the western regions of Soviet Ukraine and Belarus, as well as the Lithuanian, Latvian, and Estonian SSRs, continued to read 100% of outgoing correspondence. The massive one-time deportation operation «West» («Zapad») was also the object of postal censorship. The author's aim is to analyze the stored and discovered materials of postal censorship (perlyustraciya korespondencii) as a source for the study of Operation «West». The methodology of the article is based on a combination of general historical methods, elements of content and discourse analysis, as well as a quantitative approach to historical research. The scientifi c novelty lies in the analysis of such a unique complex of archival sources as the materials of postal censorship, carried out through the prism of the analysis of public and information resonance caused by the largest mass deportation «West» in October 1947. Finding state. It was established that the population of Western Ukraine became aware of the preparatory measures for the future deportation at the end of June 1947. Soviet special services failed to comply with the conspiracy regime during the organizational stage of Operation «West». The mass deportation had the effect of an information blast in private correspondence. It was found that from June 1947 to early 1949, at least 39,605 private letters were confi scated in order to stop the spread of information about the mass evictions, which were either destroyed or used for operational purposes by the Ministry of State Security (MGB). The public outcry, directly related to the eviction, lasted until March 1948 inclusive, and indirectly – at least until the end of the same year. That is, before the beginning of a new stage of the deportation campaign against the «OUN families», sanctioned by the order of the MGB of the USSR of October 20, 1948. The stored postal censorship material has considerable informational potential for further research of the deportation practices of the communist totalitarian regime, especially for the history of everyday life and personal survival strategies during the repression.