THE HISTORY OF THE FORMATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF COVERT INFORMATION OBTAINING FROM POSTAL ITEMS

Abstract

The article presents a retrospective review of the evolution of covert obtaining of infor-mation from postal items, which developed in accordance with the needs of society and sci-entific and technical progress. The possession of information obtained from postal items gave certain top officials, government institutions and organizations significant advantages in the economic, diplomatic, political, military and scientific spheres. The authors examine the his-torical periods of formation of the review of correspondence in accordance with various po-litical and social formations. Examples of the existence of the mentioned review in the ancient era, including the time of ancient Greece, the creation and existence of European states and the Russian Empire, the security agencies of the Soviet Union and Ukraine, which was part of it at that time, are given. The covert obtaining of information from postal items in the Rus-sian Empire and the Soviet Union was conducted in accordance with secret circulars and instructions which limited the rights and freedoms of citizens. This article pays special atten-tion to the definition of such concepts as the perlustration of correspondence, the «black cab-inet», the military censorship which are related with the review of postal items. With the de-velopment of postal communication, according to the purpose of protecting and successful functioning of state system, the forms and methods of covert obtain information from postal items were improved. The authors present current practice of covert obtaining of in-formation from postal items in some western countries, such as Germany, Austria, France, Great Britain. The article pointed out that at the present time for Ukraine, the development of system effective democratic institutions, with the help of which the principles and values of the state’s members of the European Union are implemented, is an urgent issue of compli-ance with the requirements of international legal acts regarding basic human rights and free-doms, which include the privacy of correspondence. It is emphasized that after Ukraine gained independence, the review of private correspondence can be carried out exclusively in accordance with the national legislation of Ukraine, namely taking into account the provi-sions of the current Constitution (Article 31), the Criminal Procedure Code (Articles 261, 262) and other normative legal acts.