Censorship in the Soviet Union was pervasive and strictly enforced. Censorship, in accordance with the official ideology and politics of the Communist Party was performed by several organizations: Goskomizdat censored all printed matter: fiction, poetry, etc.

Defection attempts from the Soviet Union were governed by two laws: (i) illegal traveling abroad without a passport was a crime punishable by one to three years in prison, even in cases where the destination was another Eastern Bloc country; and (ii) illegal defection to a non-Eastern Bloc state and refusal to return ...