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Russian Postal Censorship in Finland 1914-1918.
This resource is dedicated to Russian Censorship in Finland during WWI. We are a group of collectors from around the world, who share information to mutual benefit for free use for all. In return this access we ask you, please report items that have interesting use or dating compaired to the information on this homepage.
In the catalogue section you shall find the latest gathered information of the various Censor Stamps, Censor Tapes, Wax Seals used by the censors, and the information we have about the personal initials and signatures they used.
In the chapter “Articles” you shall find a number of information that should help you to understand the way the censorship was organized and carried out. Also under “Articles” you shall find a timeline covering the period, with links to the Bulletins issued by Finland’s Postal Administration. Both scan of the original paper found in the archives of the Posti Museo, in Finnish and Swedish language, and a translation to English.
At the outbreak of WWI an important route for mail from Finland to western Europa was broken, when the railway line between St. Petersburg and Berlin was closed due to the declaration of War between Russia and Germany. Accordingly, all Finnish and much Russian mail to Scandinavia, UK and North America was directed to go via Tornio. Even mail to Germany was passing via this route until stopped on 21 September 1914.
Censoring of mail to abroad began by holding all mail from Finland and Russia from 8 August 1914 at Tornio. Actual censorship then began on 15 August 1914 when mail was opened, read. resealed, and released for transmittal to Sweden and beyond. Registered letters were not to be held for more than 24 hours, whereas censoring of the collected ordinary mail was not completed until 21 August.
This cover passed Tornio Censor Office on the first day of censoring outbound mail from Finland 15 Aug. 1914. After reading the contents, the censor resealed the cover with a wax seal from Tornio Post Office, due to no censor tapes were available the first day of censoring. After reclosing the censor made a handwritten note in Swedish “Öppnadt af krigscensuren” (Opened by war censor).
Up to now 16 covers with this handwritten text have been reported. < link > If you have a similar cover in your collection, or a good scan of one of these then please report this to us,
Locations and periods
Finland was split into ten censorship districts, and in general incoming mail was censored at the receiver’s district.
Here is a cover censored on the first day of active censoring at Helsinki. This registered cover came from Reval, (Tallinn) Russia, routed via St. Petersburg to Helsinki, where it was postmarked after censoring: 5 IX 14 12.f .
The postmark wrongly reads (19)19. It was mailed to Sordavala and readdressed to Hanko. The wax seal was damaged, which often is a problem with these old covers.
The next step of censorship started with the opening of the Helsinki office that was active from 5 September 1914. By the beginning of November a further eight offices were opened.
Initially the Helsinki office mainly censored Finnish military and incoming Russian mail. Mail from other countries was untouched and it accumulated until 26 September 1914, when orders were issued to deliver the foreign mail to Helsinki for inspection.
On 2 October 1914 the Wiborg office was opened. It was for handling mail between Finland and the Empire, especially Fieldpost letters and later also general mail for the Wiborg province.
Censoring of domestic mail began 13 October 1914, and was censored at the office in the province of the mail receiver.
Censoring of domestic mail ceased on 20 March 1917, but censoring of mail to Russia and foreign destinations continued until the outbreak of the Civil war in Finland.
The censorship offices closed gradually after this date leaving Tornio and Helsinki in operation until final date: 28 January 1918
