Prepared editions of works by Adam Mickiewicz, i.e. the problems of foreign publishers with tsarist censorship in the period of Russian Partition

Abstract

Tsarist censorship in the nineteenth and in the early twentieth-centuries controlled both local publishing and publications imported from other annexed or foreign territories. Thus the significant part of volumes from lands separated from the country was not imported (in the case of Adam Mickiewicz’s publications, during the period from the sixties of nineteenth-century to 1914, it was 70%) as it was reasonably expected that they would not be released into circulation. However, 51 out of 87 editions of Mickiewicz’s works sent to the Russian Empire were questioned by Russian control offices: 34 became entirely forbidden and 17 partly censored – some extracts were erased or excised, which negatively affected the books’ appearance and discouraged potential purchasers. In order to prevent this, some foreign publishers prepared special editions of publications, which were destined to be imported to Russian annexed territories. With reference to the editions of Mickiewicz’s works there were 6 such cases.