“The Black Tuesday” of Boris Firsov: Materials about television censorship in the mid-1960s

Abstract

The article publishes archival documents on the history of Soviet television censorship and ideological control in the 1960s. The basic case is the conflict surrounding the program “Literary Tuesday”, which was created by the Leningrad Television Studio. The program of January 4, 1966 discussed issues of the modern literary process, the norms of spoken and written Russian, as well as the problems of preserving traditional culture. The authorities criticized the release of the television program. As a result, a number of employees responsible for the preparation of the material (including the studio director, Boris Firsov) were fired. The preface to the published documents reproduces a brief history of the studio’s confrontation with local party organs. The preface to the published materials reproduces a brief history of the studio’s confrontation with local party organs. It began because of the director’s conflict with the Leningrad regional committee of the CPSU, which occurred even before his appointment to a leading position in the field of television. In addition, the general context of cultural and television transformations of the period is analyzed, as well as the details of the “Literary Tuesday” program itself and its subsequent criticism. The published materials below reveal new details of this story, add new information to the process of television censorship, and also indicate to the work of the agencies that controlled the television process in the 1960s.