Fighting Words

'Fighting Words is the best study by far of the legal and political aspects of censorship in the Russian Empire. Charles A. Ruud brings detail, rigour, and legal expertise to his subject, and all students of Russian literature and history should be familiar with this book. The new introduction brings the book up to date on several key issues.' -- William Mills Todd III, Harry Tuchman Levin Professor of Literature, Harvard University

First published in 1982, Fighting Words focuses on the most common form of censorship in Imperial Russia: the governmental system that screened written works before or after publication to determine their acceptability.

Censorship took many forms in Imperial Russia. First published in 1982, Fighting Words focuses on the most common form: the governmental system that screened written works before or after publication to determine their acceptability. Charles A. Ruud shows that, despite this system, the nineteenth-century Russian Imperial government came to grant far more extensive legal publishing freedoms than most Westerners realize, adopting a more liberal attitude towards the press by permitting it a position recognized by law.

Fighting Words also reveals, however, that the government fell far short of implementing these reforms, thus contributing to the growth of opposition to the Tsarist regime in the second half of the nineteenth century and the first few years of the twentieth. Now back in print with a new introduction by the author, Fighting Words is a classic work offering insight into the press, censorship, and the limits of printed expression in Imperial Russia.