Censorship in Postwar Fiction of the Kazakh SSR (1945-1956)

Abstract

This study examines censorship in postwar Kazakh fiction (1945-1956) through the institutional practices of GLAVLIT in the Kazakh SSR and other republican and all-Union cultural actors. Drawing on archival materials from censorship and literary institutions, it analyzes how literary production was shaped, restricted, and negotiated within the framework of late Stalinist cultural policy. Rather than treating censorship solely as a repressive mechanism, the thesis approaches it as a complex system of interaction between state institutions, editors, and writers. The research focuses on specific cases of intervention in literary texts, including bans, revisions, and ideological corrections, revealing the criteria by which works were deemed politically acceptable or “distorted”. Special attention is paid to the language of censorship directives and the notion of “reality” imposed by official discourse. Methodologically, the thesis engages with approaches from institutional history and is informed by actor-network theory to trace the relationships between institutional actors, texts, and ideological frameworks. This allows for a more nuanced understanding of censorship not as a one-directional force, but as a dynamic process embedded in broader cultural and political networks.