Russian University Eases Fears of Renewed Academic Censorship

Russia’s St. Petersburg State University has reversed a previously announced policy that would have required humanities and social-science professors, just like scientists and engineers on the faculty, to submit their scholarly work to administrators for permission to publish it abroad or to present it at foreign conferences. According to today’s New York Times, the university now says that only research with military applications would have to be submitted for approval. Critics initially assailed the new policy as foreshadowing a return of Soviet-era censorship.