Samizdat
Russian samizdat and photo negatives of unofficial literature
Russian	самиздат
Romanization	samizdat
Literal meaning	self-publishing

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Samizdat was a form of dissident activity across the Eastern Bloc in which individuals reproduced censored and underground publications by hand and passed the documents from reader to reader. This grassroots practice to evade official Soviet censorship was fraught with danger, as harsh punishments were meted out to people caught possessing or copying censored materials. Vladimir Bukovsky summarized it as follows: "Samizdat: I write it myself, edit it myself, censor it myself, publish it myself, distribute it myself, and spend jail time for it myself."^[1]

Name origin and variations[edit]

Etymologically, the word samizdat derives from sam (Russian: сам, "self, by oneself") and izdat (Russian: издат, an abbreviation of издательство, izdatel'stvo, "publishing house"), and thus means "self-published". The Ukrainian language has a similar term: samvydav (самвидав), from sam, "self", and vydavnytstvo, "publishing house".^[2]

The Russian poet Nikolai Glazkov coined a version of the term as a pun in the 1940s when he typed copies of his poems and included the note Samsebyaizdat (Самсебяиздат, "Myself by Myself Publishers") on the front page.^[3]

Tamizdat refers to literature published abroad (там, tam, "there"), often from smuggled manuscripts.^[4]

Techniques[edit]

Samizdat copies of texts, such as Mikhail Bulgakov's novel The Master and Margarita or Václav Havel's essay The Power of the Powerless were passed around among trusted friends. The techniques used to reproduce these forbidden texts varied. Several copies might be made using carbon paper, either by hand or on a typewriter; at the other end of the scale mainframe printers were used during night shifts to make multiple copies, and books were at times printed on semiprofessional printing presses in much larger quantities. Before glasnost, the practice was dangerous, because copy machines, printing presses, and even typewriters in offices were under control of the organisation's First Department, i.e., the KGB: reference printouts for all of these machines were stored for subsequent identification purposes, if samizdat output was found.

Physical form[edit]

Samizdat in disguised book-binding seen in the Museum of Genocide Victims, Vilnius

Samizdat distinguishes itself not only by the ideas and debates that it helped spread to a wider audience but also by its physical form. The hand-typed, often blurry and wrinkled pages with numerous typographical errors and nondescript covers helped to separate and elevate Russian samizdat from Western literature.^[6] The physical form of samizdat arose from a simple lack of resources and the necessity to be inconspicuous. In time dissidents in the USSR began to admire these qualities for their own sake, the ragged appearance of samizdat contrasting sharply with the smooth, well-produced appearance of texts passed by the censor's office for publication by the State. The form samizdat took gained precedence over the ideas it expressed, and became a potent symbol of the resourcefulness and rebellious spirit of the inhabitants of the Soviet Union.^[7] In effect, the physical form of samizdat itself elevated the reading of samizdat to a prized clandestine act.^[8]

Readership[edit]

Closeup of typewritten samizdat, Moscow

Samizdat originated from the dissident movement of the Russian intelligentsia, and most samizdat directed itself to a readership of Russian elites. While circulation of samizdat was relatively low, at around 200,000 readers on average, many of these readers possessed positions of cultural power and authority.^[9] Furthermore, because of the presence of "dual consciousness" in the Soviet Union, the simultaneous censorship of information and necessity of absorbing information to know how to censor it, many government officials became readers of samizdat.^[10] Although the general public at times came into contact with samizdat, most of the public lacked access to the few expensive samizdat texts in circulation, and expressed discontent with the highly censored reading material made available by the state.^[11]

The purpose and methods of samizdat may contrast with the purpose of the concept of copyright.^[12]

History[edit]

Self-published and self-distributed literature has a long history in Russia. Samizdat is unique to the post-Stalin USSR and other countries with similar systems. Under the grip of censorship of the police state, society turned to underground literature for self-analysis and self-expression.^[13]

Samizdat books and editions[edit]

Certain works published legally by the State-controlled media were practically impossible to find in bookshops and libraries and found their way into samizdat. The first full-length book to be distributed as samizdat was Boris Pasternak's 1957 novel Doctor Zhivago.^[14] Although the literary magazine Novy Mir had published ten poems from the book in 1954, a year later the full text was judged unsuitable for publication and entered samizdat circulation.^[14] The novel One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn had a similar fate and was widely distributed via samizdat.^[14][15]

At the outset of the Khrushchev Thaw in the mid-1950s USSR, poetry became very popular and writings of a wide variety of known, prohibited, repressed, as well as young and unknown poets circulated among Soviet intelligentsia. A number of samizdat publications began circulating that carried unofficial poetry: The Moscow samizdat magazine Sintaksis (1959-1960) by writer Alexander Ginzburg, Vladimir Osipov's Boomerang (1960) and Phoenix (1961) produced by Yuri Galanskov and Alexander Ginzburg. The editors of these magazines were regulars at impromptu public poetry readings in 1958-61 on Mayakovsky square in Moscow. The gatherings did not last long, as soon the authorities began clamping down on them. In the summer of 1961, several meeting regulars were arrested and charged with "anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda" (Article 70 of the RSFSR Penal Code), putting an end to most of the magazines.

Not everything published in samizdat had political overtones. In 1963, Joseph Brodsky was charged with "social parasitism" and convicted for being nothing but a poet. His poems circulated in samizdat, with only four judged as suitable for official Soviet anthologies.^[16] In the mid-1960s, the Youngest Society of Geniuses, an unofficial literary group known by the acronym SMOG (Samoye Molodoye Obshchestvo Geniyev; the acronym also forms the Russian verb for I, He, One "Could") issued an almanac titled The Sphinxes (Sfinksy) and collections of prose and poetry. Some of their writings were close to the Russian avant-garde of the 1910s–1920s.

The 1965 show trial of writers Yuli Daniel and Andrei Sinyavsky (Sinyavsky–Daniel trial, charged with anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda) and increased repressions marked the demise of the Thaw and harsher times for samizdat authors. The trial was carefully documented in a samizdat collection called The White Book (1966), compiled by Yuri Galanskov and Alexander Ginzburg. Both writers were later arrested themselves and sentenced to prison in what was known as The Trial of the Four.

In the following years, some of the samizdat content became more politicized and played an important role in the dissident movement in the Soviet Union.

Samizdat periodicals[edit]

Typewritten copy of the Russian human rights periodical A Chronicle of Current Events, Moscow

The earliest samizdat periodicals were short-lived and mainly literary in focus: Sintaksis (1959-1960), Boomerang (1960), and Phoenix (1961). From 1964 to 1970, communist historian Roy Medvedev regularly published The Political Journal (in Russian Политический дневник or political diary), which contained analytical materials that later appeared in the West.

The longest-running and best-known samizdat periodical was A Chronicle of Current Events (Хроника текущих событий).^[17] It was dedicated to defending human rights by providing accurate information about events in the USSR. Over 15 years from April 1968 to December 1982, 65 issues were published, all but two appearing in English translation.^[18] The anonymous editors encouraged the readers to utilize the same distribution channels in order to send feedback and local information to be published in the subsequent issues.

The Chronicle was distinguished by its dry, concise style and punctilious correction of even the smallest error. Its regular rubrics were "Arrests, Searches, Interrogations", "Extra-judicial Persecution", "In Prisons and Camps", "Samizdat update", "News in brief", and "Persecution of Religion". Over time sections were added on the "Persecution of the Crimean Tatars", "Persecution and Harassment in Ukraine", "Lithuanian Events", and so on.

The Chronicle editors maintained that according to the 1936 Soviet Constitution, then in force, their publication was not illegal. The authorities did not accept the argument. Many people were harassed, arrested, imprisoned, or forced to leave the country for their involvement in the Chronicle's production and distribution. The periodical's typist and first editor Natalya Gorbanevskaya was arrested and put in a psychiatric hospital for taking part in the August 1968 Red Square protest against the invasion of Czechoslovakia. In 1974 two of the periodical's close associates (Pyotr Yakir and Victor Krasin) were persuaded to denounce their fellow editors and the Chronicle on Soviet television. This put an end to the periodical's activities until Sergei Kovalev, Tatyana Khodorovich and Tatyana Velikanova openly announced their readiness to resume publication. After being arrested and imprisoned they were replaced, in turn, by others.

Another notable and long-running (about 20 issues in the period of 1972–1980) publication was the refusenik political and literary magazine "Евреи в СССР" (Yevrei v SSSR, Jews in the USSR), founded and edited by Alexander Voronel and, after his imprisonment, by Mark Azbel and Alexander Luntz.

The late 1980s, which were marked by an increase in informal organizations, saw a renewed wave of samizdat periodicals in the Soviet Union. Publications that were active during that time included Glasnost (edited by Sergei Grigoryants), Ekspress-khronika (Express-Chronicle, edited by Alexander Podrabinek), Svobodnoye slovo ("Free word", by the Democratic Union formed in May 1988), Levyi povorot ("Left turn", edited by Boris Kagarlitsky), Otkrytaya zona ("Open zone") of Club Perestroika, Merkurii ("Mercury", edited by Elena Zelinskaya) and Khronograph ("Chronograph", put out by a number of Moscow activists).^[19]

Not all samizdat trends were liberal or clearly opposed to the Soviet regime and the literary establishment. "The Russian Party... was a very strange element of the political landscape of Leonid Brezhnev's era – feeling themselves practically dissidents, members of the Russian Party with rare exceptions took quite prestigious official positions in the world of writers or journalists," wrote Oleg Kashin in 2009.^[20]

Genres of samizdat[edit]

Samizdat covered a large range of topics, mainly including literature and works focused on religion, nationality, and politics.^[21] The state censored a variety of materials such as detective novels, adventure stories, and science fiction in addition to dissident texts, resulting in the underground publication of samizdat covering a wide range of topics. Though most samizdat authors directed their works towards the intelligentsia, samizdat included lowbrow genres in addition to scholarly works.^[22]

Hyung-Min Joo carried out a detailed analysis of an archive of samizdat (Архив Самиздата, Arkhiv Samizdata by Radio Liberty sponsored by the US Congress and launched in the 1960s) and reported that of its 6,607 items 1% were literary, 17% nationalist, 20% religious, and 62% political, noting that as a rule literary works were not collected there, so their 1% (only 73 texts) are not representative of their real share of circulation. ^[21]

Literary[edit]

Typewritten edition of Everything Flows by Vasily Grossman, Moscow

Typewritten edition of National Frontiers and International Scientific Cooperation by Zhores Medvedev.

In its early years, samizdat defined itself as a primarily literary phenomenon that included the distribution of poetry, classic unpublished Russian literature, and famous 20th century foreign literature.^[23] Literature played a key role in the existence of the samizdat phenomenon. For instance, the USSR's refusal to publish Boris Pasternak's epic novel, Doctor Zhivago, due to its focus on individual characters rather than the welfare of the state, led to the novel's subsequent underground publication. The fact that Doctor Zhivago contained no overt messages of dissidence highlighted the clumsiness of the state's censorship process, which caused a shift of readership away from state-published material.^[24] Likewise, the circulation of Alexander Solzhenitsyn's famous work about the gulag system, The Gulag Archipelago, promoted a samizdat revival during the mid-1970s.^[25] However, because samizdat by definition placed itself in opposition to the state, samizdat works became increasingly focused on the state's violation of human rights, before shifting towards politics.^[26]

Political[edit]

The majority of samizdat texts were politically focused.^[21] Most of the political texts were personal statements, appeals, protests, or information on arrests and trials.^[27] Other political samizdat included analyses of various crises within the USSR, and suggested alternatives to the government's handling of events. No unified political thought existed within samizdat; rather, authors debated from a variety of perspectives. Samizdat written from socialist, democratic and Slavophile perspectives dominated the debates.^[28]

Socialist authors compared the current state of the government to the Marxist ideals of socialism, and appealed to the state to fulfil its promises. Socialist samizdat writers hoped to give a "human face" to socialism by expressing dissatisfaction with the system of censorship.^[29] Many socialists put faith in the potential for reform in the Soviet Union, especially because of the political liberalization which occurred under Dubček in Czechoslovakia. However, the Soviet Union invasion of a liberalizing Czechoslovakia in the events of "Prague Spring" crushed hopes for reform and stymied the power of the socialist viewpoint.^[30] Because the state proved itself unwilling to reform, samizdat began to focus on alternative political systems.

Within samizdat, several works focused on the possibility of a democratic political system. Democratic samizdat possessed a revolutionary nature because of its claim that a fundamental shift in political structure was necessary to reform the state, unlike socialists who hoped to work within the same basic political framework to achieve change. Despite the revolutionary nature of the democratic samizdat authors, most democrats advocated moderate strategies for change. Most democrats believed in an evolutionary approach to achieving democracy in the USSR, and they focused on advancing their cause along open, public routes, rather than underground routes.^[31]

In opposition to both democratic and socialist samizdat, Slavophile samizdat grouped democracy and socialism together as Western ideals that were unsuited to the Eastern European mentality. Slavophile samizdat brought a nationalistic Russian perspective to the political debate and espoused the importance of cultural diversity and the uniqueness of Slavic cultures. Samizdat written from the Slavophile perspective attempted to unite the USSR under a vision of a shared glorious history of Russian autocracy and Orthodoxy. Consequently, the fact that the USSR encompassed a diverse range of nationalities and lacked a singular Russian history hindered the Slavophile movement. By espousing frequently racist and anti-Semitic views of Russian superiority through either purity of blood or the strength of the Russian Orthodoxy, the Slavophile movement in samizdat alienated readers and created divisions within the opposition.^[32]

Religious[edit]

Predominantly Orthodox, Baptist, Pentecostalist, Catholic, and Adventist groups authored religious samizdat texts. Though a diversity of religious samizdat circulated, including three Buddhist texts, no known Islamic samizdat texts exist. The lack of Islamic samizdat appears incongruous with the large percentage of Muslims who resided in the USSR.^[27]

Nationalist[edit]

Jewish samizdat importantly advocated for the end of repression of Jews in the USSR and expressed a desire for exodus, the ability to leave Russia for an Israeli homeland. Jewish samizdat encouraged Zionism. The exodus movement also broached broader topics of human rights and freedoms of Soviet citizens.^[33] However, a divide existed within Jewish samizdat between authors who advocated exodus and those who argued that Jews should remain in the USSR to fight for their rights. Crimean Tatars and Volga Germans also created samizdat protesting the state's refusal to allow them to return to their homelands following Stalin's death. Ukrainian samvydav opposed the assumed superiority of Russian culture over Ukrainian culture and condemned the forced assimilation of Ukrainians to the Russian language.^[34] In addition to samizdat focused on Jewish, Ukrainian, and Crimean Tartar concerns, authors also advocated the causes of a great many other nationalities.

Contraband audio[edit]

Homemade "bone record"

Ribs, "music on the ribs", "bone records",^[35] or roentgenizdat (roentgen- referring to X-ray, and -izdat implying samizdat) were homemade phonograph records, copied from forbidden recordings that were smuggled into the country. Their content was Western rock and roll, jazz, mambo, and other music, and music by banned emigres. They were sold and traded on the black market.

Each disc is a thin, flexible plastic sheet recorded with a spiral groove on one side, playable on a normal phonograph turntable at 78 RPM. They were made from an inexpensive, available material: used X-ray film. Each large rectangular sheet was trimmed into a circle and individually recorded using an improvised recording lathe. The discs and their limited sound quality resemble the mass-produced flexi disc, and may have been inspired by it.

Magnitizdat, less common, is the distribution of sound recordings on audio tape, often of underground music groups, bards, or lectures (magnit- referring to magnetic tape).

Further influence[edit]

After Bell Labs changed its UNIX license in 1979 to make dissemination of the source code illegal, the 1976 Lions book which contained the source code had to be withdrawn, but illegal copies of it circulated for years. The act of copying the Lions book was often referred to as samizdat. In hacker and computer jargon, the term samizdat was used for the dissemination of needed and hard to obtain documents or information.^[36]

The hacker journal PoC||GTFO calls its distribution permissions samizdat license.^[37]

Some samizdat periodicals in the Soviet Union[edit]

• A-YA


• A Chronicle of Current Events


• Chronicle of the Catholic Church in Lithuania


• Phoenix


• Sintaksis

See also[edit]

• Censorship in the Soviet Union


• Eastern Bloc media and propaganda


• Gosizdat


• Human rights in the Soviet Union


• Political repression in the Soviet Union


• USSR anti-religious campaign (1970s–1987)

References[edit]

Sources[edit]

Further reading[edit]

Outsiders' works[edit]

• 
  Samizdat 1 – La voix de l'opposition communiste en U.R.S.S. [Samizdat 1 – The voice of the communist opposition in the USSR] (in French). Paris: Seuil. 1969. ASIN B00R4QXXSO.
  


• 
  Samizdat: cronaca di una vita nuova nell'Urss [Samizdat: chronicle of new life in the USSR] (in Italian) (2 ed.). Milan: La Casa di Matriona. 1977 [1975].
  


• 
  "The press: samizdat West". Time. 105 (15). 14 April 1975.
  


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  Woman and Russia: first feminist samizdat. Sheba Feminist Publishers. 1982. ISBN 0907179029.
  


• 
  Allen, Charles (1980). "Trends in economic samizdat". The Fletcher Forum of World Affairs (4): 93.
  


• 
  Aron, Leon (July–August 2009). "Samizdat in the 21st century. Russia's new literature of crisis". Foreign Policy (173): 131–133. JSTOR 20684899.
  


• 
  Barghoorn, Frederick (Spring–Summer 1983). "Regime-dissenter confrontation in the USSR: samizdat and Western views, 1972–1982". Studies in Comparative Communism. 16 (1–2): 99–119. doi:10.1016/0039-3592(83)90046-7.
  


• 
  Bloom, Harry (June 1973). "The end of samizdat? The Soviet Union signs the universal copyright convention". Index on Censorship. 2 (2): 3–18. doi:10.1080/03064227308532216.
  


• 
  Boiter, Albert (July 1972). "Samizdat: primary source material in the study of current Soviet affairs". The Russian Review. 31 (3): 282–285. doi:10.2307/128049. JSTOR 128049.
  


• 
  Bowlt, John (1986). Russian samizdat art: essays. Willis Locker & Owens Pub. ISBN 0930279042.
  


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  Brun-Zejmis, Julia (Autumn 1991). "Messianic consciousness as an expression of national inferiority: Chaadaev and some samizdat writings of the 1970s". Slavic Review. 50 (3): 646–658. doi:10.2307/2499860. JSTOR 2499860.
  


• 
  Brun-Zejmis, Julia (June 1996). "Who are the "enemies of Russia"? The question of Russophobia in the samizdat debate before glasnost". Nationalities Papers: The Journal of Nationalism and Ethnicity. 24 (2): 169–197. doi:10.1080/00905999608408437.
  


• 
  Bungs, Dzintra (September 1988). "Joint political initiatives by Estonians, Latvians, and Lithuanians as reflected in samizdat materials—1969–1987". Journal of Baltic Studies. 19 (3): 267–271. doi:10.1080/01629778800000181.
  


• 
  Corning, Amy (1984). Samizdat: an alternative communications system in the Soviet Union. Harvard University.
  


• 
  Daughtry, Martin (Spring 2009). ""Sonic Samizdat": situating unofficial recording in the post-Stalinist Soviet Union". Poetics Today. 30 (1): 27–65. doi:10.1215/03335372-2008-002.
  


• 
  Diegel, Anna (May 1990). "Human rights and literature: Solzhenitsyn and Pasternak". Theoria: A Journal of Social and Political Theory (75): 77–85. JSTOR 41802616.
  


• 
  Duncan, Peter (March 1988). "The fate of Russian nationalism: the samizdat journal Veche revisited" (PDF). Religion in Communist Lands. 16 (1): 36–53. doi:10.1080/09637498808431347. Archived (PDF) from the original on 27 June 2015.
  


• 
  Ehrhardt, Nelli (2008). Samizdat in der Sowjetunion der 60–70er Jahre [Samizdat in the Soviet Union the 60–70s] (in German). GRIN Verlag. ISBN 3640175425.
  


• 
  Emerson, Susan (December 1982). "Writers who protest and protesters who write; a guide to Soviet dissent literature". Collection Building. 4 (1): 21–33. doi:10.1108/eb023073.
  


• 
  Feldbrugge, Ferdinand Joseph Maria (1976). "Samizdat and political dissent in the Soviet Union". Review of Socialist Law. 2 (1): 300. doi:10.1163/157303576X00256.
  


• 
  Feldbrugge, Ferdinand Joseph Maria (1975). Samizdat and political dissent in the Soviet Union. BRILL. ISBN 9028601759.
  


• 
  Flores d'Arcais, Paolo (1991). La rimozione permanente: il futuro della sinistra e la critica del comunismo: scritti 1971–1991 [Permanent removal: the future of the left and the criticism of communism: the writings 1971–1991] (in Italian). Marietti. ISBN 8821168980.
  


• 
  Freiheit, Kuratorium (1972). Russischer Samisdat : Stimmen aus dem anderen Russland [Russian samizdat: voices from the other Russia] (in German). Bern: Schweizerisches Komitee zur Unterstützung der Schriftsteller und Anderer Intellektueller in Totalitären Staaten bei Ihren Bemühungen in die Geistige Freiheit Gemäss den Bestimmungen der Charta für Menschenrechte. OCLC 72880981.
  


• 
  Gräf, Bernd; Gräf, Jutta (1990). Multinationale und multiphone Literatur der Sowjetunion, Literatur von Dissidenten und sowjetische Untergrundliteratur : slawische, albanische und ungaro-finnische sowie nordische Literatur aus den Jahren 1973–1989 [Multinational and multiphone literature of the Soviet Union, literature of dissidents and Soviet underground literature: Slavic, Albanian and Hungaro-Finnish and Nordic literature of 1973–1989] (in German). Stuttgart: Hiersemann. ISBN 3777290203. OCLC 891918246.
  


• 
  Greenfield, Richard (1982). "The human rights literature of the Soviet Union". Human Rights Quarterly (4): 124–136.
  


• 
  Gregor, Gregor (2015). Auf Der Suche Nach Politischer Gemeinschaft: Oppositionelles Denken Zur Nation Im Ostmitteleuropäischen Samizdat 1976–1992 (Ordnungssysteme) [Looking for political community: Oppositional thinking to the nation in the East-Central European samizdat (Inventory Systems)] (in German). de Gruyter Oldenbourg. ISBN 3110419777.
  


• 
  Gribanov, Alexander; Kowell, Masha (Spring 2009). "Samizdat according to Andropov". Poetics Today. 30 (1): 89–106. doi:10.1215/03335372-2008-004.
  


• 
  Grzybowski, Kazimierz (1978). "Socialist legality and uncensored literature in the Soviet Union". Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law. 10: 299–321. Archived from the original on 22 April 2016.
  


• 
  Hamersky, Heidrun (2002). Samizdat: alternative culture in Central and Eastern Europe from the 1960s to the 1980s. Bremen: Research Centre for East European Studies at the University of Bremen. ISBN 3936604002.
  


• 
  Horia, Vintila (1980). Literatura y disidencia: de Mayakovski a Soljenitsin [Literature and dissent: from Mayakovsky to Solzhenitsyn] (in Spanish). Madrid: Rioduero. ISBN 8430021515.
  


• 
  Johnston, Gordon (May 1999). "What is the history of samizdat?". Social History. 24 (2): 115–133. doi:10.1080/03071029908568058. JSTOR 4286559.
  


• 
  Joo, Hyung-min (June 2004). "Voices of freedom: samizdat". Europe-Asia Studies. 56 (4): 571–594. doi:10.1080/0966813042000220476. JSTOR 4147387.
  


• 
  Kiebuzinskia, Ksenya (2012). "Samizdat and dissident archives: trends in their acquisition, preservation, and access in North American repositories". Slavic and East European Information Resources. 13 (1): 3–25. doi:10.1080/15228886.2012.653661.
  


• 
  Kind-kovacs, Friederike; Labov, Jessie (2012). Samizdat, tamizdat, and beyond: transnational media during and after socialism. Berghahn Books. ISBN 0857455850.
  


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  Komaromi, Ann (Autumn 2004). "The material existence of Soviet samizdat". Slavic Review. 63 (3): 597–618. doi:10.2307/1520346. JSTOR 1520346.
  


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  Komaromi, Ann (Winter 2007). "The unofficial field of late Soviet culture". Slavic Review. 66 (4): 605–629. doi:10.2307/20060375. JSTOR 20060375.
  


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  Komaromi, Ann (Spring 2012). "Samizdat and Soviet dissident publics". Slavic Review. 71 (1): 70–90. doi:10.5612/slavicreview.71.1.0070. JSTOR 10.5612/slavicreview.71.1.0070.
  


• 
  Komaromi, Ann (2015). "Literary samizdat and samizdat publics". Enthymema (12). doi:10.13130/2037-2426/4942.
  


• 
  Komaromi, Ann (2015). Uncensored: samizdat novels and the quest for autonomy in Soviet dissidence. Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press. ISBN 0810131862.
  


• 
  Kornilow, Jewgienij (1991). "Samisdat und alternative Presse in der Sowjetunion" [Samizdat and alternative press in the Soviet Union]. Publizistik. Vierteljahreshefte für Kommunikationsforschung (in German). 36 (1): 77–85.
  


• 
  Küpper, Stephen (September 1998). "Präprintium. A Berlin exhibition of Moscow samizdat books". Other Voices. 1 (2).
  


• 
  Kuzio, Taras (1989). Dissent in Ukraine under Gorbachev: a collection of samizdat documents. Ukrainian Press Agency.
  


• 
  Loeber, Dietrich (September 1973). "Samizdat under Soviet law. On the legal status of Russia's unofficial and unpublished writings". Index on Censorship. 2 (3): 3–26. doi:10.1080/03064227308532240.
  


• 
  Lorraine, Bernard (1974). Samizdat. E. Losfeld.
  


• 
  Maryniak, Irena (January 1989). "Samizdat today – a review". Religion in Communist Lands. 17 (2): 112–126. doi:10.1080/09637498908431416.
  


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  Meerson-Aksenov, Michail; Shragin, Boris, eds. (1977). The political, social, and religious thought of Russian "samizdat" – an anthology. Belmont, MA: Nordland Publishing Company. ISBN 0913124133.
  


• 
  Motly, Alexander (March 1978). "USSR's alternative press". Index on Censorship. 7 (2): 22–28. doi:10.1080/03064227808532755.
  


• 
  Nivat, Georges; Kravetz, Marc (1977). URSS: gli scrittori del dissenso: Bukowsky, Calamov, Daniel, Guinzburg, Pliusc, Solgeniztin [USSR: writers of dissent: Bukovsky, Shalamov, Daniel, Ginzburg, Plyushch, Solzhenitsyn] (in Italian). Venezia: La Biennale di Venezia. OCLC 797904993.
  


• 
  Oushakine, Serguei (Spring 2001). "The terrifying mimicry of Samizdat". Public Culture. 13 (2): 191–214. doi:10.1215/08992363-13-2-191.
  


• 
  Pospielovsky, Dimitry (January 1978). "The Jewish question in Russian Samizdat". Soviet Jewish Affairs. 8 (2): 3–23. doi:10.1080/13501677808577285.
  


• 
  Pospielovsky, Dimitry (March 1978). "From Gosizdat to Samizdat and Tamizdat". Canadian Slavonic Papers. 20 (1): 44–62. doi:10.1080/00085006.1978.11091512. JSTOR 40867266.
  


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  Reddaway, Peter (1972). Uncensored Russia – protest and dissent in the Soviet Union. The unofficial Moscow journal, A Chronicle of Current Events. New York: American Heritage Press. ISBN 0070513546.
  


• 
  Ronza, R (1970). Samizdat: dissenso e contestazione nell'Unione Sovietica [Samizdat: dissent and protest in the Soviet Union] (in Italian). Milan: IPL. ISBN 8878362034.
  


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  Saunders, George (1974). Samizdat: voices of the Soviet opposition. Pathfinder Press. ISBN 0873489144.
  


• 
  Scammell, Michael (1971). Russia's other writers: selections from Samizdat literature. Praeger. ASIN B001169FR6.
  


• 
  Scanlan, James (2015) [1992]. "From samizdat to perestroika: the Soviet marxist critique of Soviet society". In Taras, Raymond. The road to disillusion: from critical marxism to post-communism in Eastern Europe (2 ed.). Routledge. pp. 19–40. ISBN 1317454790.
  


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  Schreiber, Elliot (June 1978). "The rise and fall of the soviet underground press". Communication Quarterly. 26 (3): 32–39. doi:10.1080/01463377809369301.
  


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  Serebryakova, Elena (2012). "Мир глазами диссидента (по книге В. Буковского "И возвращается ветер…")" [World through the eyes of a dissident (about the book of V. Bukovsky «The wind returns…»)] (PDF). Управленческое консультирование (in Russian) (4): 132–138. Archived from the original (PDF) on 1 March 2016.
  


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  Sharlet, Robert (1974). "Samizdat as a source for the study of Soviet law". The Soviet and Post-Soviet Review. 1 (1): 181–196. doi:10.1163/187633274x00144.
  


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  Shentalinsky, Vitaly (1996). Arrested voices: resurrecting the disappeared writers of the Soviet regime. Martin Kessler Books, Free Press. ISBN 068482776X.
  


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  Slavinsky, Michel (1970). La presse clandestine en U.R.S.S., 1960–1970 [The underground press in the U.S.S.R., 1960–1970] (in French). Nouvelles Editions Latines.
  


• 
  Slonim, Marc (1985). "Samizdat: la presse clandestine" [Samizdat: the underground press]. Histoire de la littérature russe soviétique [History of Soviet Russian literature] (in French). L'Age d'Homme. pp. 315–320.
  


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  Skilling, Gordon (1989). Samizdat and an independent society in Central and Eastern Europe. Ohio State University Press. ISBN 0814204872.
  


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  Stevanović, Bosiljka; Wertsman, Vladimir (1987). Free voices in Russian literature, 1950s–1980s: a bio-bibliographical guide to over 900 authors. Russica Pubs. ISBN 0898300908.
  


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  Svirskii, Grigorii (1981). A history of post-war Soviet writing: the literature of moral opposition. Ann Arbor: Ardis Publishing. ISBN 0882334492.
  


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  Telesin, Julius (February 1973). "Inside "Samizdat"". Encounter. 40 (2): 25–33.
  


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  Toker, Leona (Winter 2008). "Samizdat and the problem of authorial control: the case of Varlam Shalamov". Poetics Today. 29 (4): 735–758. doi:10.1215/03335372-083.
  


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  Treynor, Jack (March–April 1994). "Samizdat: the investment value of plant". Financial Analysts Journal. 50 (2): 12–17. doi:10.2469/faj.v50.n2.12. JSTOR 4479725.
  


• 
  Treynor, Jack (July–August 1993). "Samizdat: the value of control". Financial Analysts Journal. 49 (4): 6–9. doi:10.2469/faj.v49.n4.6.2. JSTOR 4479661.
  


• 
  Tupikin, Vlad [Влад Тупикин] (2001). "Самиздат после перестройки" [Samizdat after perestroika]. Index on Censorship (in Russian) (13).
  


• 
  Vaissié, Cécile (2014). "Archiver les samizdats de la dissidence russe" [Archive of samizdat by the Russian dissent]. Écrire l’histoire (in French) (13–14): 129–135. doi:10.4000/elh.487.
  


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  Walters, Philip (August 1980). "Christian samizdat". Index on Censorship. 9 (4): 46–50. doi:10.1080/03064228008533093.
  


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  Woll, Josephine; Treml, Vladimir (1983). Soviet dissident literature: a critical guide. G K Hall. ISBN 081618626X.
  


• 
  Yakushev, Alexei (April 1975). "The Samizdat movement in the USSR: a note on spontaneity and organization". The Russian Review. 34 (2): 186–193. doi:10.2307/127716. JSTOR 127716.
  


• 
  Zalambani, Maria (2009). "Una anti-istituzione: il samizdat" [An anti-institution: samizdat]. Censura, istituzioni e politica letteraria in URSS (1964–1985) [Censorship, institutions and literary politics in the USSR (1964–1985)] (in Italian). Firenze University Press. pp. 125–135. ISBN 8864530754.
  


• 
  Zaslavskaya, Olga (Winter 2008). "From dispersed to distributed archives: the past and the present of samizdat material". Poetics Today. 29 (4): 669–712. doi:10.1215/03335372-081.
  


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  Zisserman-Brodsky, Dina (2003). Constructing ethnopolitics in the Soviet Union: samizdat, deprivation and the rise of ethnic nationalism. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 1403973628.
  

Insiders' works[edit]

• 
  Andropov, Yuri (May 1995). "The birth of samizdat". Index on Censorship. 24 (3): 62–63. doi:10.1080/03064229508535948.
  


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  Dolinin, Vyacheslav; Severyukhin, Dimitry (2015). "Samizdat: the literary self-publishing movement in Leningrad 1950s–1980s". Enthymema (12). doi:10.13130/2037-2426/4953.
  


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  Chalidze, Valery (1976). Литературные дела КГБ: дела Суперфина, Эткинда, Хейфеца, Марамзина: в приложении — документы о советской цензуре [The literary cases of the KGB: the cases of Superfin, Etkind, Heifetz, Maramzin: there are documents about Soviet censorship in the application] (in Russian). New York: Хроника.
  


• 
  Glazov, Yuri (Winter 1973). "Samizdat". Survey: 75–91.
  


• 
  Gorbanevskaïa, Natalia (2009). "Samizdat et Internet" [Samizdat and Internet]. Revue Russe (in French). 33 (1): 137–143. doi:10.3406/russe.2009.2393.
  


• 
  Gorbanevskaya, Natalya (January 1977). "Writing for 'samizdat'". Index on Censorship. 6 (1): 29–36. doi:10.1080/03064227708532600.
  


• 
  Grigoryants, Sergei (1989). "Political samizdat in Moscow". Uncaptive Minds. 2 (5): 46–57.
  


• 
  Mal'tsev, Yuri (1976). L'altra letteratura (1957–1976): la letteratura del samizdat da Pasternak a Solženicyn [The other literature (1957–1976): the samizdat literature from Pasternak to Solzhenitsyn] (in Italian). Milan: La Casa di Matriona.
  


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  Malzew, Jurij (1985) [1981]. Freie Russische Literatur 1955–1980 [Free Russian literature 1955–1980] (in German) (2 ed.). Ullstein. ISBN 354838028X.
  


• 
  Medvedev, Roy (Spring 1971). "Samizdat: Jews in the USSR". Survey: 185–200.
  


• 
  Medvedev, Roy; Strada, Vittorio (1977). Dissenso e socialismo: una voce marxista del Samizdat sovietico [Dissent and socialism: a Marxist voice of Soviet samizdat] (in Italian). Turin: Giulio Einaudi.
  


• 
  Medvedev, Roy (1977). The Samizdat register 1. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 039305652X.
  


• 
  Medvedev, Roy (1981). Samizdat Register 2: Voices of the socialist opposition in the Soviet Union. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 039333578X.
  


• 
  Sinyavsky, Andrei (August 1980). "Samizdat and the rebirth of literature". Index on Censorship. 9 (4): 8–13. doi:10.1080/03064228008533086.
  

External links[edit]

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• 
  December 1970 report by KGB regarding "alarming political tendencies"in Samizdat and Preventive measures (from the Soviet Archives collected by Vladimir Bukovsky)


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  Alexander Bolonkin – Memoirs of Soviet Political Prisoner detailing some technology used


• Anthology of samizdat


• 
  Igrunov, Vyacheslav, ed. (2005). Антология самиздата. Неподцензурная литература в СССР. 1950–1980-е.: В 3-х томах: т. 1 книга 1: до 1966 [Anthology of samizdat. Uncensored literature in the USSR. The 1950s–1980s. In 3 volumes. Volume 1, book 1: till 1966] (PDF) (in Russian). Moscow: Международный институт гуманитарно-политических исследований. ISBN 5-89793-031-7. Archived (PDF) from the original on 8 March 2013.
  


• 
  Igrunov, Vyacheslav, ed. (2005). Антология самиздата. Неподцензурная литература в СССР. 1950–1980-е.: В 3-х томах: т. 1 книга 2: до 1966 [Anthology of samizdat. Uncensored literature in the USSR. The 1950s–1980s. In 3 volumes. Volume 1, book 2: till 1966] (PDF) (in Russian). Moscow: Международный институт гуманитарно-политических исследований. ISBN 5-89793-032-5. Archived (PDF) from the original on 8 March 2013.
  


• 
  Igrunov, Vyacheslav, ed. (2005). Антология самиздата. Неподцензурная литература в СССР. 1950–1980-е.: В 3-х томах: т. 2: 1966–1973 [Anthology of samizdat. Uncensored literature in the USSR. The 1950s–1980s. In 3 volumes. Volume 2. 1966–1973] (PDF) (in Russian). Moscow: Международный институт гуманитарно-политических исследований. ISBN 5-89793-033-3. Archived (PDF) from the original on 8 March 2013.
  


• 
  Igrunov, Vyacheslav, ed. (2005). Антология самиздата. Неподцензурная литература в СССР. 1950–1980-е.: В 3-х томах: т. 3: после 1973 [Anthology of samizdat. Uncensored literature in the USSR. The 1950s–1980s. In 3 volumes. Volume 3. After 1973] (PDF) (in Russian). Moscow: Международный институт гуманитарно-политических исследований. ISBN 5-89793-034-1. Archived (PDF) from the original on 8 March 2013.
  


• 
  Natella Boltyanskaya (16 March 2016). "Episode Four – The Samizdat and the Internet". Voice of America. Parallels, Events, People.
  


• 
  Samizdat archive Вѣхи (Vekhi Library, in Russian)


• Anthology of Czech samizdat periodicals


• Archive of Robert-Havemann-Society e.V., Berlin


• Arbeitsgruppe Menschenrechte/ Arbeitskreis Gerechtigkeit (Hrsg.): Die Mücke. Dokumentation der Ereignisse in Leipzig, DDR-Samisdat, Leipzig, März 1989.


• 
  IFM-Archiv Sachsen e.V.: Internet-Collection of DDR-Samizdat


• DDR-Samizdat in Archiv Bürgerbewegung Leipzig


• Umweltbibliothek Großhennersdorf e.V.


• DDR-Samisdat in the IISG Amsterdam
  


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  "Samizdat", poem by Jared Carter
  


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  "Chronicle of current events" by Memorial Society