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Soviet information bureau. History of the Sovinformburo Message from the Sovinformburo

Formed under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR on June 24, 1941. In political and ideological terms, it was directly subordinate to the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks.

The main task of the Bureau was to compile reports for radio, newspapers and magazines about the situation at the fronts, the work of the rear, and the partisan movement during the Great Patriotic War.

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During the war years

The Soviet Information Bureau was formed under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR on June 24, 1941. The structure of the Sovinformburo included: a military department, a translation department, a propaganda and counter-propaganda department, a department of international affairs, a literary department, etc. The Sovinformburo supervised the work of war correspondents, was engaged in information support for USSR embassies and consulates abroad, foreign broadcasting corporations and radio stations, telegraph and newspaper agencies, societies of friends of the USSR, newspapers and magazines of various directions.

Since the war, in the mass consciousness in the USSR, the Sovinformburo has been associated with the All-Union Radio announcer Yu. B. Levitan. He read daily radio reports that began with the phrase “From the Soviet Information Bureau.”

During the war years, a literary group was formed as part of the Soviet Information Bureau. Many famous Soviet writers and journalists participated in its work. Among them are N. Virta, Vs. Ivanov, V. Inber, V. Kataev, B. Lavrenev, L. Leonov, N. Nikitin, A. Novikov-Priboy, P. Pavlenko, E. Petrov, B. Polevoy, O. Savich, L. Seifullina, S. Sergeev-Tsensky, K. Simonov, V. Stavsky, N. Tikhonov, A. Tolstoy, K. Trenev, P. Tychina, A. Fadeev, K. Fedin, K. Finn, K. Chukovsky, M. Shaginyan, M. Sholokhov, I. Ehrenburg and many others. German anti-fascist writers W. Bredel and F. Wolf also collaborated with the Sovinformburo.


	Act of Military Surrender May 8, 1945

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The broadcast studio, which transmitted daily reports from the fronts, was located in Sverdlovsk in the fall of 1941, together with announcers Yuri Levitan and Olga Vysotskaya. It was technically impossible to broadcast from Moscow - all radio towers near Moscow were dismantled, as they were good reference points for German bombers. The Ural studio was located in the basement, all employees lived in barracks nearby. Information for radio broadcasts was received by telephone, the signal was relayed by dozens of radio stations throughout the country, which did not allow direction finding of the head radio station. In March 1943, the studio was moved to Kuibyshev, where the Radio Committee was located.

Post-war period

In 1946, the staff increased to 370 people. In 1946, in accordance with the resolution of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks and the Council of Ministers of the USSR dated October 9, 1946, the Sovinformburo was transferred to the jurisdiction of the Council of Ministers of the USSR. The main attention of the Sovinformburo after the end of the war was focused on covering the domestic and foreign policies of the USSR abroad and events in people's democracies. For the work of the Sovinformburo to publish literary materials about the life of the USSR in foreign countries, its representative offices were established.

In 1953, in accordance with the resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR dated March 28, 1953, the Sovinformburo, with the rights of the Main Directorate, became part of the USSR Ministry of Culture.

In March 1957, the Sovinformburo was transferred to the jurisdiction of the State Committee for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries under the Council of Ministers of the USSR.

By resolution of the CPSU Central Committee of January 5, 1961, the Sovinformburo was liquidated and the Novosti Press Agency (APN) was created on its basis.

Chairmen

1941-1945 - Shcherbakov Alexander Sergeevich
1945-1947 - Lozovsky Solomon Abramovich
1947-1948 - Ponomarev Boris Nikolaevich

Inaccuracies in Sovinformburo information

Programs


	From the Soviet Information Bureau. 30 March 1945
	The troops of the 2nd Belorussian Front completed the defeat of the Danzig group of Germans and captured the city and fortress of Gdansk (Danzig).
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An excerpt characterizing the Sovinformburo

Prince Vasily looked questioningly at the princess, but could not understand whether she was understanding what he told her or was just looking at him...
“I never cease to pray to God for one thing, mon cousin,” she answered, “that he would have mercy on him and allow his beautiful soul to leave this world in peace...
“Yes, that’s so,” Prince Vasily continued impatiently, rubbing his bald head and again angrily pulling the table pushed aside towards him, “but finally... finally the thing is, you yourself know that last winter the count wrote a will, according to which he has the entire estate , in addition to the direct heirs and us, he gave it to Pierre.
“You never know how many wills he wrote!” – the princess said calmly. “But he couldn’t bequeath to Pierre.” Pierre is illegal.
“Ma chere,” said Prince Vasily suddenly, pressing the table to himself, perking up and starting to speak quickly, “but what if the letter was written to the sovereign, and the count asks to adopt Pierre?” You see, according to the Count’s merits, his request will be respected...
The princess smiled, the way people smile who think they know the matter more than those they are talking to.
“I’ll tell you more,” Prince Vasily continued, grabbing her hand, “the letter was written, although not sent, and the sovereign knew about it.” The only question is whether it is destroyed or not. If not, then how soon will it all be over,” Prince Vasily sighed, making it clear that he meant by the words everything will end, “and the count’s papers will be opened, the will with the letter will be handed over to the sovereign, and his request will probably be respected. Pierre, as a legitimate son, will receive everything.
– What about our unit? - asked the princess, smiling ironically, as if anything but this could happen.
- Mais, ma pauvre Catiche, c "est clair, comme le jour. [But, my dear Catiche, it is clear as day.] He alone is the rightful heir of everything, and you will not get any of this. You should know, my dear, were the will and the letter written, and were they destroyed? And if for some reason they are forgotten, then you should know where they are and find them, because...
- This was all that was missing! – the princess interrupted him, smiling sardonically and without changing the expression of her eyes. - I am a woman; according to you, we are all stupid; but I know so well that an illegitimate son cannot inherit... Un batard, [Illegitimate,] - she added, hoping with this translation to finally show the prince his groundlessness.
- Don’t you understand, finally, Katish! You are so smart: how do you not understand - if the count wrote a letter to the sovereign in which he asks him to recognize his son as legitimate, it means that Pierre will no longer be Pierre, but Count Bezukhoy, and then he will receive everything in his will? And if the will and the letter are not destroyed, then nothing will remain for you except the consolation that you were virtuous et tout ce qui s"en suit, [and everything that follows from here]. This is true.
– I know that the will has been written; but I also know that it is invalid, and you seem to consider me a complete fool, mon cousin,” said the princess with the expression with which women speak when they believe that they have said something witty and insulting.
“You are my dear Princess Katerina Semyonovna,” Prince Vasily spoke impatiently. “I came to you not to pick a fight with you, but to talk about your own interests as with my dear, good, kind, true relative.” I’m telling you for the tenth time that if a letter to the sovereign and a will in favor of Pierre are in the count’s papers, then you, my dear, and your sisters, are not the heir. If you don’t believe me, then trust people who know: I just spoke with Dmitry Onufriich (he was the house’s lawyer), he said the same thing.
Apparently something suddenly changed in the princess’s thoughts; her thin lips turned pale (the eyes remained the same), and her voice, while she spoke, broke through with such peals that she, apparently, herself did not expect.
“That would be good,” she said. – I didn’t want anything and don’t want anything.
She threw her dog off her lap and straightened the folds of her dress.
“That’s gratitude, that’s gratitude to the people who sacrificed everything for him,” she said. - Wonderful! Very good! I don't need anything, prince.
“Yes, but you are not alone, you have sisters,” answered Prince Vasily.
But the princess did not listen to him.
“Yes, I knew this for a long time, but I forgot that except baseness, deception, envy, intrigue, except ingratitude, the blackest ingratitude, I could expect nothing in this house...
– Do you know or don’t you know where this will is? - asked Prince Vasily with an even greater twitching of his cheeks than before.
– Yes, I was stupid, I still believed in people and loved them and sacrificed myself. And only those who are vile and nasty succeed. I know whose intrigue it is.
The princess wanted to get up, but the prince held her hand. The princess had the appearance of a person who had suddenly become disillusioned with the entire human race; she looked angrily at her interlocutor.
“There is still time, my friend.” You remember, Katisha, that all this happened by accident, in a moment of anger, illness, and then forgotten. Our duty, my dear, is to correct his mistake, to make his last moments easier by preventing him from committing this injustice, not letting him die in the thoughts that he made those people unhappy...
“Those people who sacrificed everything for him,” the princess picked up, trying to get up again, but the prince did not let her in, “which he never knew how to appreciate.” No, mon cousin,” she added with a sigh, “I will remember that in this world one cannot expect a reward, that in this world there is neither honor nor justice.” In this world you have to be cunning and evil.
- Well, voyons, [listen,] calm down; I know your beautiful heart.
- No, I have an evil heart.
“I know your heart,” the prince repeated, “I value your friendship and would like you to have the same opinion of me.” Calm down and parlons raison, [let's talk properly] while there is time - maybe a day, maybe an hour; tell me everything you know about the will, and, most importantly, where it is: you must know. We will now take it and show it to the count. He probably already forgot about it and wants to destroy it. You understand that my only desire is to sacredly fulfill his will; I just came here then. I'm only here to help him and you.
– Now I understand everything. I know whose intrigue it is. “I know,” said the princess.
- That’s not the point, my soul.
- This is your protegee, [favorite,] your dear princess Drubetskaya, Anna Mikhailovna, whom I would not want to have as a maid, this vile, disgusting woman.
– Ne perdons point de temps. [Let's not waste time.]
- Ax, don't talk! Last winter she infiltrated here and said such nasty things, such nasty things to the Count about all of us, especially Sophie - I cannot repeat it - that the Count became ill and did not want to see us for two weeks. At this time, I know that he wrote this vile, vile paper; but I thought that this paper meant nothing.
– Nous y voila, [That’s the point.] why didn’t you tell me anything before?
– In the mosaic briefcase that he keeps under his pillow. “Now I know,” said the princess without answering. “Yes, if there is a sin behind me, a great sin, then it is hatred of this scoundrel,” the princess almost shouted, completely changed. - And why is she rubbing herself in here? But I will tell her everything, everything. The time will come!

While such conversations took place in the reception room and in the princess's rooms, the carriage with Pierre (who was sent for) and with Anna Mikhailovna (who found it necessary to go with him) drove into the courtyard of Count Bezukhy. When the wheels of the carriage sounded softly on the straw spread under the windows, Anna Mikhailovna, turning to her companion with comforting words, was convinced that he was sleeping in the corner of the carriage, and woke him up. Having woken up, Pierre followed Anna Mikhailovna out of the carriage and then only thought about the meeting with his dying father that awaited him. He noticed that they drove up not to the front entrance, but to the back entrance. While he was getting off the step, two people in bourgeois clothes hurriedly ran away from the entrance into the shadow of the wall. Pausing, Pierre saw several more similar people in the shadows of the house on both sides. But neither Anna Mikhailovna, nor the footman, nor the coachman, who could not help but see these people, paid no attention to them. Therefore, this is so necessary, Pierre decided to himself and followed Anna Mikhailovna. Anna Mikhailovna walked with hasty steps up the dimly lit narrow stone staircase, calling Pierre, who was lagging behind her, who, although he did not understand why he had to go to the count at all, and even less why he had to go up the back stairs, but , judging by the confidence and haste of Anna Mikhailovna, he decided to himself that this was necessary. Halfway up the stairs, they were almost knocked down by some people with buckets, who, clattering with their boots, ran towards them. These people pressed against the wall to let Pierre and Anna Mikhailovna through, and did not show the slightest surprise at the sight of them.
– Are there half princesses here? – Anna Mikhailovna asked one of them...
“Here,” the footman answered in a bold, loud voice, as if now everything was possible, “the door is on the left, mother.”
“Maybe the count didn’t call me,” Pierre said as he walked out onto the platform, “I would have gone to my place.”
Anna Mikhailovna stopped to catch up with Pierre.
- Ah, mon ami! - she said with the same gesture as in the morning with her son, touching his hand: - croyez, que je souffre autant, que vous, mais soyez homme. [Believe me, I suffer no less than you, but be a man.]
- Right, I'll go? - asked Pierre, looking affectionately through his glasses at Anna Mikhailovna.
- Ah, mon ami, oubliez les torts qu"on a pu avoir envers vous, pensez que c"est votre pere... peut etre a l"agonie. - She sighed. - Je vous ai tout de suite aime comme mon fils. Fiez vous a moi, Pierre. Je n"oublirai pas vos interets. [Forget, my friend, what was wronged against you. Remember that this is your father... Maybe in agony. I immediately loved you like a son. Trust me, Pierre. I will not forget your interests.]

“From the Soviet Information Bureau...” - this phrase, said more than once during the Great Patriotic War by the great Levitan, is etched in the memory of many generations.
From June 24, 1941 until May 9, 1945, every day of millions of Soviet citizens began and ended with messages from the Sovinformburo. The whole country knew the name of the main announcer who read the reports - Yuri Levitan. It was from the Sovinformburo that both the country and the whole world learned about the events on the main front of the Second World War. To outmaneuver the master of disinformation Goebbels required an equally sophisticated strategy. Starting with front-line reports and newspapers for allied countries, and ending with leaflets for Wehrmacht soldiers. Through the Sovinformburo, the USSR convinced the allies not to delay in opening a second front. Alexey Tolstoy, Mikhail Sholokhov, Alexander Fadeev, Ilya Erenburg, Boris Polevoy, Konstantin Simonov wrote for the Sovinformburo... Sovinformburo correspondent, writer Evgeny Petrov died during a business trip to the front.
What the fourth estate and globalization are will be debated later, in 60 years. But it was the Great Patriotic War that confirmed that the word is also a weapon, sometimes even more powerful. The first name on the list of enemies of the Third Reich was Levitan.

THE SOVIET INFORMATION BURO (Sovinformburo) was formed on June 24, 1941 under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR and the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks on the basis of the resolution of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR and the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks "On the creation and tasks of the Soviet Information Bureau." His main task was to manage the coverage of international, military events and events in the internal life of the country in periodicals and on the radio. In total, more than two thousand reports were heard during the war. Through 1,171 newspapers, 523 magazines and 18 radio stations in 23 countries, Soviet embassies abroad, friendship societies, trade unions, women's, youth and scientific organizations, the Sovinformburo introduced readers and listeners to the struggle of the Soviet people against fascism , and in the post-war period - with the main directions of the domestic and foreign policy of the Soviet Union.

How it was

The extreme nature of the situation that developed in June 1941 necessitated the need to intensify propaganda and explanatory work both in the USSR and in anti-fascist countries. The task was set to search for means and opportunities to influence the public of these states in order to promote the unity of democratic forces to fight fascist aggression on a global scale.

The fact that the head of the new organization - NIB - was a candidate member of the Politburo of the Central Committee, Secretary of the Party Central Committee A.S. Shcherbakov, indicates that very important importance was attached to this area of ideological work. S.A. Lozovsky was his deputy and at the same time worked as Deputy People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the USSR.

A room was immediately allocated for the Sovinformburo in the Central Committee, several people from Sherbakov’s apparatus were seconded to the SIB, and writers Afinogenov and Fadeev were invited to help at the first stage of work. Establishing the functioning of a new organization in the current conditions was not an easy task.

When creating the Sovinformburo, he was entrusted with three tasks completely different in form, although uniform in their focus. The compilation and publication of military reports based on the materials of the High Command was carried out mainly by the General Staff and then by a special group that worked in the apparatus of the Propaganda and Agitation Directorate of the Central Committee of the All-Russian Karelia (Bolsheviks) to collect additional facts and compile information for the main report of the General Staff.

It turned out to be more difficult to solve the second task - to inform the public of foreign countries about the events taking place on the Soviet-German front and about the work of the Soviet rear. The Sovinformburo had no connections; everything had to be created anew. Meanwhile, opponents of the USSR, starting with Germany, had a powerful propaganda apparatus, a large number of radio stations, and the press. The allies of the USSR just as quickly created their own huge propaganda organ. The Sovinformburo was faced with the task, in an extremely short time, “to find and find connections all over the world - newspapers, magazines, radio stations, agencies, etc. - through which information about the Soviet Union and materials about it can be transmitted.”

Great difficulties lay in the selection of personnel: knowledge of foreign languages, experience in propaganda work and, of course, personal data were required. Shcherbakov immediately warned Lozovsky that he would not allow people to be taken away from the front and instructed: “Look for people yourself who could work and who are not at the front.”

It was necessary to breathe life into the created Sovinformburo and organize its practical work. The structure of the NIB was created on the day of its inception. Already on June 25, 1941 A.S. Proposals on the structure and staff of the Sovinformburo with a note from S.A. were sent to Shcherbakov. Lozovsky: “Please approve.” “When we started working,” S.A. Lozovsky wrote in 1942 in the Note “On the reorganization of the apparatus of the Sovinformburo,” “we did not know how widely our materials would penetrate the radio and press of capitalist countries...

Four days after the creation of the Soviet Information Bureau, the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks again returned to the issue of it, and on June 28, 1941 made the decision: “To approve comrades Dyatlovsky V.M., Petukhov P.I., Sedunov S.N. to work in the Sovinformburo ., Dyatlova G.S., Osminina V.S., Senyushkina N.P., Kobrina G.D., Zhukova V.P., Tsygankova K.M.

NIB during the war

The fact that during the first week of the war the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks twice addressed issues related to the organization of the Sovinformburo (SIB) is evidence that great importance was attached to the activities of the Sovinformburo. In addition, one can see a hasty reaction to do something that was not done on time, although the situation and reports of competent government officials already at the beginning of 1941 repeatedly raised the question of the need to take a closer look at how issues of information and propaganda were being resolved in the closest neighbors. In this case, special attention was paid to the analysis of the structure of the British Ministry of Information and the German Ministry of Propaganda. When the Great Patriotic War began, it became obvious that the relevant Soviet services had a very vague idea of the scale of propaganda that Germany was waging on foreign countries...
At the beginning of the war, the main task of Soviet foreign policy propaganda was to convince the public and the ruling circles of “Western democracies” that the failures of the Red Army were temporary. A lot depended on the success of solving this problem, in particular the positive approach of the United States and England to the issue of military and other supplies to the USSR from these countries.

Despite many mistakes and shortcomings, in general, Soviet propaganda work in foreign countries achieved certain results. At a meeting of the Information Bureau on June 30, 1943, it was stated that propaganda in the USA and Canada was proceeding successfully, not only articles were used, but also materials as the basis for their own publications by American and Canadian newspapers and agencies...
After the Sovinformburo moved to Kuibyshev in October 1941, the work of this organization became significantly more complicated. New challenges arose in connection with increased propaganda on the radio, as well as increased cooperation with the British Ministry of Information and the US Bureau of War Information. As before, the main task of the ISS was to prepare and compile military reports for radio, newspapers and magazines. The SIB covered the situation at the fronts, the work of the rear, the partisan movement in the Soviet and foreign media, and supervised the activities of the Anti-Fascist Committees.

At the same time, the evacuation of the Sovinformburo apparatus and foreign correspondents to Kuibyshev led to the creation of a kind of information vacuum and gave rise to a lot of problems for journalists. A stream of letters went from Kuibyshev to the head of the SIB, A.S., who remained in Moscow. Shcherbakov with requests to inform in more detail and promptly about the events. Department of International Affairs of the Sovinformburo and its head G.F. The Saksin did everything they could. But the interest in the events near Moscow, in the defeat of the Germans who stood almost on the threshold of the capital of the USSR, was so great that the 56 political reviews prepared and transmitted from November 10 to December 10, 1941 to 13 countries could not satisfy it.

“The Sovinformburo was instructed to continuously prepare a wide variety of materials about the USSR for people living abroad,” recalls the famous journalist and SIB employee Ernst Henry. - Report about what is happening on the Soviet-German front, how things stand in the rear, what Soviet workers, collective farmers, and intellectuals think and do during the war, how and what Soviet culture breathes at this time. In other words, it was supposed to keep a diary of historical events taking place and bring this diary to the attention of the foreign public.

The second was by no means so simple: it was incomparably more complicated than the first.

The fact was that most people in the West knew little about the Soviet Union, believed in the most stupid fables, some simply did not want to know anything. I was then in London an authorized representative of the Sovinformburo and the editor-in-chief of a Soviet newspaper published in English, and I remember how difficult it was to break through this wall of misunderstanding and ignorance.

I remember how complicated the conditions became for us when in 1942 the question arose about opening a second front, firmly promised to the Soviet Union by England and America for that year or, in any case, for the spring of 1943. The Sovinformburo from Moscow sent article after article by Soviet authors asking the same question: where is the second front? Why isn’t it being opened, although given the extreme tension of the Red Army’s forces, it is urgently needed? When will it open? Writers, military men, and ordinary people asked.

The articles of Ehrenburg, who knew how to write for the West hardly like anyone else, made a special noise. He was directly called the number one European publicist, and Goebbels, according to rumors, convened special meetings to decide how to respond to him. Ehrenburg’s deep personal knowledge of Western countries, Ehrenburg’s polished style, and his ability to hit an enemy with a rapier delighted even obvious opponents of the USSR, as English journalists told me more than once during meetings somewhere on Fleet Street, the newspaper quarter of London. I bombarded Moscow with telegrams: quickly and more Ehrenburg! And I’m still amazed at how much he could write without sacrificing quality.

The main thing for us then was to let people abroad know what gigantic efforts the Soviet Union was making to end the war victoriously as quickly as possible, what sacrifices had already been made and are being made week after week. It was also necessary to honestly report the discontent in the circles of the Soviet public caused by the constant delays in the opening of the second front; explain that the allies of the USSR, in connection with the concluded agreements, have no right to delay landing on the continent, that help is needed not in words, but in deeds.

By that time, the representative offices of the Sovinformburo in other anti-Hitler countries were doing the same work as we did in London.

In a note dated November 4, 1941 addressed to S.A. Lozovsky journalist E. Petrov, who worked as a military correspondent of the Sovinformburo in the Moscow direction, mentioned that “if foreign journalists accredited in the USSR do not receive the latest news and do not have personal observations, they will disperse and begin to write nasty things about us. Meanwhile, almost all of them sympathize with the war we are waging and would like to help us. This is especially important in America, where the Germans are actively taking advantage of our propaganda weakness. I kindly ask you to move the matter forward.
Every day of delay in resolving the problem of servicing anchors, in my deep conviction, brings harm to our state.”

This letter did not go unnoticed, and soon the amount of materials sent to foreign countries was significantly increased.
At the beginning of 1942, the leadership of the Sovinformburo began to understand more and more acutely that the continued presence of the SIS apparatus in Kuibyshev was losing its meaning. Sources of materials for agitation and propaganda abroad were located in the capital, writers and journalists who, on instructions from the Sovinformburo, worked for the foreign press, also remained in Moscow. Lozovsky in a letter addressed to V.M. Molotov in the NKID and Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks A.S. Shcherbakova made a proposal to transfer the apparatus of the Sovinformburo back to Moscow.

On March 3, 1942, the period of stay of the Sovinformburo in Kuibyshev ended. The time has come for more active and effective work of this organization.
In 1941-1942, the authorship of the Sovinformburo consisted of approximately 80 people.
These were famous Soviet writers and journalists, public figures, as well as their own correspondents.
By June 1944, the Sovinformburo was reorganized into 11 departments, and the staff expanded to 215 people.

Liliya Fedorovna Solonetskaya came to work in the department of the Sovinformburo, which prepared military reports, as a translator of the German language in 1941, after graduating from the Institute of Foreign Languages:

“We had many talented journalists working for us. But most of them were not known to Soviet readers. I could name Glagolev, Skliznev, Akopyan, Beglov, Troyanovsky. There were very few young people in the Sovinformburo in those years, about ten people. Later, already in the mid-50s, graduates of Moscow State University, MGIMO, INYAZ and other universities began to appear. The Sovinformburo has repeatedly undergone reductions and reorganizations. For example, in 1946, only one or two people remained from the old editorial staff. They recruited new employees, but they didn’t stay long. That was the time."

From committees to commissions

Over the years of its existence, the ISS has formed several special departments involved in the processing and dissemination of information important to the state. The first place in importance was occupied by the Military Department. Here they edited military articles and correspondence for Soviet newspapers and magazines, sent them to the media, including radio, and also prepared correspondence abroad for publication in local media.
We were involved in the preparation of certificates and materials for press conferences of S.A. Lozovsky, processed materials for other departments of the ISS, and worked with foreign correspondents.
The military department of the SIB was a single military department for all central newspapers, radio and TASS. Correspondents of the Sovinformburo were entrusted with the task of daily informing the military department about the situation on the fronts and the actions of military units in decisive sectors and directions of the front. They received operational information daily from headquarters, political directorates and political departments. NIB correspondents were also stationed at military councils.
In 1941, the Counter-Propaganda Department of the Sovinformburo was also created. He was entrusted with the task of organizing propaganda to foreign countries through radio broadcasting, print, photographic and film materials, as well as actively exposing anti-Soviet fascist propaganda.
At the beginning of July 1941, the department, together with the All-Union Radio Committee, found a new form of transmitting materials, which had not been used in practice until that time - regular radio broadcasting of political reviews. At first they were broadcast only to radio listeners in the USSR, and then to foreign countries. Reviews were broadcast once a week, then 2 times a week, on a certain day and hour under the pseudonym “Averin”.
In fact, their authors were several people: Yaroslavsky, Pik, Omelchenko, Varga, Zvavich - 30 people in total. It was possible to attract senior members of the Comintern to work as commentators. In addition, through the People's Commissariat of Defense, officers who were being treated in hospitals, as well as those sent from the fronts, were involved in the preparation of articles. These materials, after processing in the NIB literary group, were sent abroad. The work of commentators would be impossible without the work of the compilers and authors of the texts. All of them were united into the Literary Department of the NIB.

From July to October 1941 alone, employees of the literary department prepared and sent 140 articles abroad. Together with specially ordered materials for bulletins in England, the USA, China and Sweden, the Sovinformburo prepared more than 400 articles during this period.
From September 9 to October 29, 1941, the head of the department was the writer and playwright A. N. Afinogenov (died from the explosion of a fascist bomb that hit the SIB building).
The writer E. Petrov, one of the authors of “12 Chairs” and “The Golden Calf”, who died in a plane crash in 1942, was also a correspondent for NIB.
The best writers and publicists of the country were the authors of the materials, among them - A. Tolstoy, M. Sholokhov, L. Leonov, I. Erenburg, B. Polevoy, K. Simonov, A. Fadeev, B. Gorbatov, K. Fedin, V. Grossman, M. Shaginyan, N. Tikhonov, V. Latsis, E. Tarle, N. Zelinsky, S. Vavilov, I. Bardin, A. Melik-Pashaev, I. Moskvin and many others.

In 1944, a special bureau for propaganda in foreign countries was created as part of the Sovinformburo.

Department of International Affairs of the Sovinformburo and its head G.F. The Saksins did everything they could to satisfy interest in the events near Moscow, in the defeat of the Germans, who stood almost on the threshold of the capital of the USSR. From November 10 to December 10, 1941 alone, 56 political reviews were prepared and transmitted to 13 countries

All the people are against fascism

Under the leadership of the Sovinformburo, anti-fascist committees and organizations worked in the union.

Almost 2 months after the start of the Great Patriotic War, on August 24, 1941, the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee announced itself.

A public organization that united figures of science, art, and culture (S.M. Mikhoels, S.A. Lozovsky, I.S. Fefer, I.S. Yuzefovich, L.M. Kvitko, P.D. Markish, D.N. Gofshtein, L.S. Stern), worked to mobilize Soviet and world public opinion against the atrocities of Hitlerism.
The organization first announced itself at a rally in Moscow, which was broadcast on the radio. The famous theater actor Mikhoels was elected chairman. On behalf of the Committee, he sent greetings to Jewish writers and journalists in New York. It was announced at a 20,000-strong anti-fascist rally in New York. By the spring of 1942, the JAC had emerged as a very influential organization.
Executive Secretary of the JAC Sh. Epstein (died in 1945), who replaced him in this post I.S. Fefera, Deputy Executive Secretary and member of the Presidium of the JAC G. M. Kheifets, other members of the Presidium - I.S. Yuzefovich, S.M. Mikhoels and other activists of the JAC, according to researchers (G.V. Kostyrchenko, P. Sudoplatova), were at the same time agents of the NKVD, and carried out a line agreed with the state within the JAC.
The JAC informed the country's leadership about the processes taking place around the formation of the State of Israel. Based on this information, the USSR (secretly, through Czechoslovakia) provided support to Israel in the war against the Arabs (in particular, it supplied it with weapons). Soon after the formation of the State of Israel, it became clear that all the main forecasts were wrong. As a result of the elections on January 25, 1949, a government came to power in Israel that took a clearly pro-American (and not pro-Soviet, as expected) position in foreign policy.
The leaders of the JAC were repressed (the sentence was overturned in 1955, a message about rehabilitation was published only in January 1989), and the JAC itself was dissolved. Under the influence of this event, significant changes took place in the country's leadership at the very top level (Molotov, Bulganin, Mikoyan were removed from their high positions).

One of the leading roles in the fight against fascism was played by the Anti-Fascist Committee of Soviet Women. It was founded on September 7, 1941 in Moscow at the 1st All-Union Anti-Fascist Rally of Soviet Women to unite the efforts of women of the USSR and foreign countries in the common struggle against the Nazi invaders. Pilot V. Grizodubova was elected Chairman of the Committee. The decision to create the Anti-Fascist Committee of Soviet Women was formalized in Kuibyshev, where at that time most of the SIS departments were located. By December 1941, the Committee was known in many countries, in any case, some of the foreign women's organizations offered assistance and cooperation to the Committee in New Year's greetings.
The Committee did a lot of work to expand and strengthen ties with women's organizations in foreign countries. Since 1945, she has been a member of the International Democratic Federation of Women, an organization that unites women “regardless of race, nationality, religious and political views for the joint struggle to protect and win their rights as citizens, mothers, workers, in the name of protecting children, in the name of ensuring peace.” , democracy and independence of peoples” (IDF Charter).
In 1956 it was renamed the Soviet Women's Committee. The Committee included representatives of republics, regions and cities of the USSR, trade union and cooperative organizations of the country. The governing body is the plenum of the Committee, convened annually. The main directions of the committee's activities were determined by the tasks of the international democratic women's movement.
Through the Committee, Soviet women expressed their desire for peace and mutual understanding between peoples, solidarity with women of foreign countries, with fighters for democracy and social progress, and provided assistance to women's organizations in developing countries. The Committee maintained friendly relations with women's organizations in 120 countries.
Together with the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions, the KSJ published the magazine “Soviet Woman” in 10 languages. In 1973, the Committee of Soviet Women was awarded the Order of Friendship of Peoples. The chairmen of the Committee over the years were: V. S. Grizodubova (1941-45), N. V. Popova (1945-68), V. V. Tereshkova (1968 - 1987), etc. In 1992, the Women's Union became the successor of the Committee Russia.

The Anti-Fascist Committee of Soviet Youth is a public organization that was created at the end of 1941 at the 1st All-Union Anti-Fascist Youth Rally in Moscow from representatives of Komsomol, sports, student and other organizations. The formation of the Committee within the structure of the ISS took place on September 28, 1941 in Kuibyshev. The Committee received a large number of greetings from the USA, England, Canada, Uruguay, Sweden, Cuba and other countries. Relations were established with youth public organizations, as well as youth newspapers and magazines in Canada and England. One of the first actions of the Anti-Fascist Committee of Soviet Youth was an interview with foreign correspondents of the ballerina O. Lepeshinskaya. Her radio appearance in English was also organized in the USA and England. The committee represented the youth of the USSR in the international youth movement during the Great Patriotic War and after it. The Committee strengthened the cooperation of the youth of the USSR with youth organizations of foreign countries, was a member of the World Federation of Democratic Youth, the International Union of Students and actively participated in the work of the Soviet Peace Committee. He maintained contacts with more than 200 democratic youth organizations in 70 countries. In 1956 renamed the Committee of Youth Organizations of the USSR

The Sovinformburo also supervised the activities of the All-Slavic Committee, the Anti-Fascist Committee of Soviet Scientists, etc.

Let there be peace...
In 1946, the staff of the Sovinformburo increased to 370 people. First of all, the Main Editorial Office of the USA was formed, then the Main Editorial Office of Great Britain, the Main Editorial Office of France, the Main Editorial Office of Germany and Austria, the Main Editorial Office of the Near and Middle East, the Main Editorial Office of Asian countries, the Main Editorial Office of socialist countries, the Translation Department, and the Main Editorial Office of Photo Information. The departments of propaganda and counter-propaganda later became the Main Editorial Office of political publications.

Journalists dubbed the NIB “the tomb of the unknown journalist,” since they were practically unknown in the country, and their materials, prepared at the request of this organization, did not appear in the Soviet press. Nevertheless, the best representatives of journalism collaborated with the Sovinformburo.

It is clear that after the end of the war the topic of the articles changed - they were devoted to the life of people in the post-war Soviet Union and the restoration of the country. At the same time, the NIB also prepared sharp counter-propaganda materials exposing the policies of the emerging Cold War. The central organs of the Communist Party continued to be the main ideological adviser to the NIB.

At the same time, in the post-war years, a book department had already appeared in the NIB - the prototype of the future APN Novosti Publishing House. Actually, in the period from 1945 to 1961, the NIB gradually built the entire basis for the further work of the APN. After all, during the war, the NIB mainly published bulletins, and in the post-war years, when NIB representative offices began to open abroad, magazines and newspapers began to be published.

The first NIB representative offices abroad were opened in London, Paris, Washington, and later appeared in India and Poland. They began operating during the war, and after its end, the activities of the NIB greatly expanded geographically: publications or individual materials appeared in more and more countries. In Germany, after the opening of the NIB representative office, the newspaper “Tagliche Rundschau” began to be published. The materials that were prepared in Moscow for this newspaper were of a clearly anti-fascist nature.

In turn, the SIB received newspapers and magazines from many countries of the world, read them, translated all anti-Soviet speeches into Russian and organized counter-propaganda speeches as responses to these articles.

Despite the colossal amount of work done during the Great Patriotic War by the relatively small apparatus of the Sovinformburo, its employees themselves and everyone who was directly associated with the work of the ISS both in the Soviet Union and abroad believed that not all reserves were used and that much more could be done. The lack of a clear relationship between the SIS departments and the Anti-Fascist Committees, and every now and then arising delays in sending the necessary materials abroad, were hampered. Although the regional departments of the NIB knew better the press of the countries they dealt with, it often turned out that only a third of their materials reached the countries, two thirds went through the Anti-Fascist Committees, and they did not always meet the necessary requirements.

Lozovsky admitted that, unfortunately, we cannot organize such a speech, as was done in the English press, where journalists, scientists, and public figures begin to express their own thoughts on the issue of international politics. We don't have such customs.

All this did not contribute to improving the quality of the work of the Sovinformburo. And if during the war years this was perceived, although with criticism, but with understanding, then in peacetime it increasingly began to cause irritation among the workers of the SIS and Anti-Fascist Committees, and the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks was also dissatisfied.

In a word, clouds began to gather over the Sovinformburo. Obviously, this was also explained by the fact that the Soviet leadership believed that the international relations established during the war between Soviet public organizations and the Sovinformburo itself with foreign countries were a dangerous channel through which hostile bourgeois ideology penetrated our country.

The extensive document of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks dated June 27, 1946, which criticized the work of the Sovinformburo, nevertheless admitted:

“During the years of the Patriotic War, the Soviet Information Bureau did significant work, informing the public of foreign countries about the events taking place on the Soviet-German front and about the work of the Soviet rear. There is also no doubt that the NIB contributed through its work to strengthening the international relations of the Soviet Union.”

However, criticism of the ISS was caused not so much by shortcomings in its work, but by the fact that the closure of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee, which was part of its structure along with other committees, was being prepared. When starting a campaign against the JAC, it would be illogical to remain silent about the work of the entire NIB, much less praise it.

The formal impetus for studying the activities of the Sovinformburo and all its divisions by various commissions was the receipt of a number of anonymous letters to high government authorities. It was clear from the tone of the letters that they were written by people who were well informed and at the same time very irritated, dissatisfied with their position. It is possible that someone was not interested in S.A. remaining at the head of the ISS. Lozovsky. But we must pay tribute to the leadership of the Sovinformburo: even in the face of sharp criticism of its work from the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, it found the courage to defend its rightness, to talk about the great and useful work that was done during the war.

A tragic fate befell the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee. After inspections in August 1946, he was removed from the Sovinformburo and officially reassigned to the Council of Ministers of the USSR, and practically to the Foreign Policy Department of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. At the end of 1948, the JAC was actually closed, and many of its leading employees were arrested and shot in 1952. As already mentioned, the then head of the Sovinformburo S.A. did not escape this fate. Lozovsky.

His colleague will remember:

“Our chairman Lozovsky was declared an enemy of the people in 1949 and arrested. And all the ISS employees who worked with him, including during the war, were immediately fired... This could not but affect the general atmosphere in the team.

If we compare NIB during the war and NIB in the 50s, the difference between them was significant. During the war years, life in our organization was literally in full swing. Various conferences were organized, meetings with representatives of embassies, the best writers of the country went on business trips to the front line on behalf of the ISS and brought excellent materials. The entire creative spectrum of Moscow gathered at the NIB conference. But all this ended with the arrest of Lozovsky.

In the post-war period, many materials were made hastily, there were no problems in them, and Soviet reality was greatly embellished. It is clear that such materials were of no interest to foreign readers. The effectiveness of propaganda gradually decreased."

Despite all the problems of the fifties, NIB continued to develop its activities. New magazines appeared: in 1948, the first issue of the magazine “Etude Sovietik” was published in France. In 1957, the USSR magazine began publishing in the United States, later renamed Soviet Life. New ISS branches were opened in many countries around the world. At the same time, the NIB was reorganized into the Novosti Press Agency or APN. But that is another story…

Bibliography

1. “APN: FROM SOVINFORMBURO TO RIA “NOVOSTI”
60 years in the field of information stress”, Moscow

2. N.K. Petrov "Anti-fascist committees in the USSR: 1941-45."

3. Ernst Henry “Wall of Misunderstanding”, Leningrad, 1986.

Yuri Pavlovich Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee Egorov Tikhon Semyonovich Polina Semyonovna Zhigulev Alexander Makarovich Inber Vera Mikhailovna Kampov - Boris Nikolaevich Polevoy Kataev Valentin Petrovich Kvyatkovsky Alexander Pavlovich Kotlyar S.O. Yuri Borisovich Solomon Abramovich - second director (1945-1948) Milman (Romanovsky) Rafail Efimovich Navozov A.I. Petrov - Kataev Evgeniy Petrovich Polikarpov D.A. - fourth leader Ponomarev Boris Nikolaevich Konstantin (Kirill) Mikhailovich Special Bureau of Propaganda for Foreign Countries - APN - RIA-Novosti Leon Yakovlevich Emilia Isaakovna Tikhonov Nikolay Semenovich Tolstoy Alexey Nikolaevich Alexander Antonovich Fadeev Alexander Alexandrovich Fedin Konstantin Alexandrovich Yakov Semyonovich - third leader Khalip Yakov Nikolaevich Chukovsky Korney Ivanovich Sholokhov Mikhail Alexandrovich Shcherbakov Alexander Sergeevich - first director (1941-1945) Erenburg Ilya Grigorievich Ernst Henry and many others During the war October 22, 1941. . Deputy Chief Lozovsky, at a press conference in Kuibyshev, told foreign correspondents evacuated to the city on the Volga: “Today we are resuming our work in Kuibyshev. This move in no way means any weakening of Moscow's defense. On the contrary, the organization of defense will be carried out with even greater energy.”

The Soviet Information Bureau was created on the second day of the war. It was headed by the Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, First Secretary of the Moscow City Party Committee Alexander Shcherbakov. The bureau included the head of TASS Khavinson, the head of the All-Union Radio Committee Polikarpov and a group of workers from the propaganda department of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. The leading role was assigned to the telegraph agency, since it had information about what was happening not only at the fronts and in the rear, but also throughout the world. TASS was tasked with conducting counter-propaganda, for which purpose a corresponding department was created in the agency from the first days of the war.

Information Bureau reports were necessarily delivered to the Supreme Commander-in-Chief. This is evidenced by a characteristic episode, which was repeatedly recalled by the responsible head of TASS, Yakov Semenovich Khavinson. When the Nazis approached Moscow closely, the State Defense Committee decided to evacuate government institutions and foreign missions from Moscow to Kuibyshev. On the morning of October 15, one of the leaders of the Moscow City Council called Khavinson and said that, by decision of the State Defense Committee, the head of TASS should leave for Kuibyshev that evening and gave the number of his train, carriage and compartment.

The indignant Khavinson immediately called the head of the Information Bureau Shcherbakov and told him that with his departure there could be a disruption in the transmission of reports, and now this should under no circumstances be allowed to happen. However, Shcherbakov did not dare to take responsibility for violating the GKO resolution. Then the head of TASS called Deputy Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars Nikolai, who oversaw the work of TASS in the government. He listened to him and asked: “What kind of carriage do you have?” “The fourth,” Khavinson answered in confusion. “And I have the sixth. “We’ll go to Kuibyshev together,” he said.

Realizing that the country could remain in an information vacuum for a long time in the most difficult times, Khavinson decided to take a desperate step and called Molotov. At the reception he was told that he was with Stalin. Yakov Semenovich dialed the number of Stalin’s assistant and asked him to call Vyacheslav Mikhailovich on the phone for an urgent matter, for two minutes, no more. Molotov listened to him and said: “Stay until tomorrow morning, and call me in the morning.”

In the morning, the Kremlin sound rang in Khavinson’s office. “This is Stalin speaking. I am interested in how you will serve us with your information now. Its importance increases immeasurably.” Worried, Khavinson assured the Supreme Commander-in-Chief that Headquarters would receive reports much earlier and more often than before. That a courier will be on duty at TASS 24 hours a day and deliver all the latest information where you need it. “Okay,” said Stalin and hung up. So Khavinson removed the problem of his evacuation to Kuibyshev, and the transmission of reports was not interrupted for a single day.

Nevertheless, the group of TASS workers located in Kuibyshev did not stop their responsible work. In addition to transmitting Information Bureau reports coming from Moscow, she intercepted radio messages from world agencies, including broadcasts from German radio stations. The received information was analyzed and used for counter-propaganda. Great assistance was provided by those evacuated to Kuibyshev Levitan . His voice became a symbol of the most important government messages and subsequently, in order not to disturb people, he was banned from conducting regular radio broadcasts. People recorded and reproduced messages from the information bureau, and read them out to work groups. They were even painted. While in evacuation in Kuibyshev, the famous artist A.V. Volkov created the painting “At the Summary”. It depicts our fellow countrymen eagerly reading messages from the front. This painting went down in the history of Soviet art during the war period. Until the very last days of the Great Patriotic War, reports were published. They stopped being produced only after the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany.

Soviet Information Bureau
Latest military report of the Sovinformburo
Owner	state
Publisher	state
Staff Writers	from 215 to 370 people
Date of foundation	June 24, 1941
closing date	January 5, 1961
Replaced	Press Agency "Novosti"
Language	Russian, English, French, German, Spanish, Arabic
Main office	Moscow
Soviet Information Bureau on Wikimedia Commons

Story

During the war years

Post-war period

In March 1957, the Sovinformburo was transferred to the jurisdiction of the State Committee for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries under the Council of Ministers of the USSR.

By resolution of the CPSU Central Committee of January 5, 1961, the Sovinformburo was liquidated and on its basis created