Censor from the Oriental Institute
The article is devoted to Eugene G. Spalvin, Professor of the Department of Japanese Literature, Oriental Institute, and the author of unique teaching materials on the Japanese language. At the beginning of the 20th century, the General Administration of Press asked the Office of the Amur Region’s Governor General to entrust the Board of the Oriental Institute with the task of censoring publications in Oriental and European languages, which later was successfully implemented for several years. E. G. Spalvin and his colleagues were engaged in censorial work and analysis of readership. The professors’ reports contained a lot of information on foreigners living on the territory of the Russian Far East. The Censorship Department of the Oriental Institute headed by E. G. Spalvin practised censorship of Japanese newspapers, which often contained negative publications about the Russian Empire and were not always desirable to enter the territory of Russia. After the beginning of the Russo-Japanese War (1904), the Censorship Department of the Oriental Institute ceased to function.