[From Memoirs. (c) 1990 by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. Translated by Richard Lourie]

[Sakharov began writing for scientific journals around 1947, but every article had to be free of secret information and, worse, had to get past GLAVLIT, the state censor.]

GLAVLIT had an interminable list of subjects forbidden not only in the interests of secrecy but also out of political considerations. It was forbidden to publish information about crimes, alcoholism, health conditions, education, the water supply, suicides, the supply and production of nonferrous metals, precise data on the population's nutrition and income, movie-and theater-attendance figures. Data about measures to safeguard the environment and information about natural disasters and accidents could not be published without special permission. GLAVLIT's imprimatur was also required for all literary works and for just about everything published in the country, down to advertisements and the labels on matchboxes.