Censorship and Censors in Serhii Efremov's Memories

S. Efremov’s memoir, “On the Days of the Past (memories)”, written more than 100 years ago, among other things, tells about the author’s relationship with censorship, convincingly proving its reactionary role in the russian Empire. The purpose of the article is to find out the role of russian tsarist censorship in blocking Ukrainian-centric materials written by the mentioned author and his like-minded people based on S. Efremov’s memoirs of 1920–1921; show the figures of censors, reveal the motives of their activities and the role in preventing the creation of Ukrainian-language journalism. The first mention of censorship in S. Efremov’s memoirs is connected with the acquaintance of the famous Ukrainian writer I. Nechui-Levytskyi, who learned to circumvent censorship. The next mention of it is associated with the creation of the publishing house at the end of the nineteenth century, which later became known as “Vik” (“Age”). Here S. Efremov witnessed the work with censorship of his comrades. Kyiv censors repaired many obstacles to Ukrainian-language publishing, rejecting most manuscripts drawn in red. In “Kievskaya Starina” (“Kievan Past”) S. Efremov had to deal directly with censorship. He developed his own experience of working with censors, which he did not have while working for the publishing house “Vik”. S. Efremov’s memoirs provide an opportunity to establish the postal address at which the Kyiv Censorship Committee was located. The documentary “On the Days of the Past (memories)” says that their author’s articles due to the sharpness and political orientation were under special control of censorship, and therefore, the head of “Kievskaya Starina” V. Naumenko had to edit them significantly before submitting to the censorship committee. S. Efremov’s first article, the legitimacy of which the author personally had to defend in the censorship committee, was a work on P. Hrabovskyi, which was published in the second issue of “Kievskaya Starina” in 1903. The censor significantly influenced S. Yefremov’s article. It appeared without ending and with large bills, as a result of which its content was significantly damaged. However, the author himself had gained some experience in communicating with censorship. His next work on the celebration on the occasion of the monument opening to I. Kotliarevskyi in Poltava was published unchanged, as the censor signed it without reading. It caused a special resonance and commotion in power structures. As a result of this publication, the censor was dismissed due to neglect of his functional duties. The memoirs allow us to find out the names of several Kyiv censors with whom the author of the memoirs dealt. Among them – Butovskyi, Hlibov, Sydorov, Nykolskyi, Florynskyi, Bulgakov. In the duel with these officials, S. Efremov’s worldview and ability to defend the interests of the Ukrainian people were hardened. He gained experience in circumventing censorship