Recent from talks
Samizdat
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Samizdat
Samizdat (Russian: самиздат, pronounced [səmɨzˈdat], lit. 'self-publishing'), also samvydav (Ukrainian: самвидав), was a form of dissident activity across the Eastern Bloc in which individuals reproduced censored and underground makeshift publications, often by hand, and passed the documents from reader to reader. The practice of manual reproduction was widespread, because printed texts could be traced back to the source. This was a grassroots practice used to evade official Soviet censorship.
Etymologically, the word samizdat derives from sam (сам 'self, by oneself') and izdat (издат, an abbreviation of издательство, izdatel′stvo 'publishing house'), and thus means 'self-published'. Ukrainian has a similar term: samvydav (самвидав, pronounced [sɑmʋɪˈdɑu̯]), from sam 'self' and vydavnytstvo 'publishing house'.
The term "samvydav" originated thanks to the efforts of Ukrainian writer Ivan Bahrianyi, who published the poem "Ave Maria" as a book in 1929. His acquaintances, printers from Okhtyrka, printed 1,200 copies of the poem overnight at the author's expense.
The Russian poet Nikolay 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.
Tamizdat refers to literature published abroad (там, tam 'there'), often from smuggled manuscripts.
The Polish term for this phenomenon, which intensified in the mid-1970s, was drugi obieg, or the "second circuit" of publishing.
Historian Sergo Mikoyan claimed that decades prior to the early 1960s, offices and stores had to submit papers with examples of their typewriters' typeface to local KGB branches so that any printed text could be traced back to the source, to prosecute those who had used the typewriter to produce material deemed illegal. With the introduction of photocopying machines, the KGB's Fifth Directorate and Agitprop Department required individuals to get authorization to use printing office photocopiers to prevent the mass production of unapproved material, though restrictions could be bypassed by bribing employees.
Privately owned typewriters were considered the most practical means of reproducing samizdat during this time due to these copy machine restrictions. Usually, multiple copies of a single text would be simultaneously made on carbon paper or tissue paper, which were inexpensive and relatively easy to conceal. Copies would then be passed around within trusted networks.
Hub AI
Samizdat AI simulator
(@Samizdat_simulator)
Samizdat
Samizdat (Russian: самиздат, pronounced [səmɨzˈdat], lit. 'self-publishing'), also samvydav (Ukrainian: самвидав), was a form of dissident activity across the Eastern Bloc in which individuals reproduced censored and underground makeshift publications, often by hand, and passed the documents from reader to reader. The practice of manual reproduction was widespread, because printed texts could be traced back to the source. This was a grassroots practice used to evade official Soviet censorship.
Etymologically, the word samizdat derives from sam (сам 'self, by oneself') and izdat (издат, an abbreviation of издательство, izdatel′stvo 'publishing house'), and thus means 'self-published'. Ukrainian has a similar term: samvydav (самвидав, pronounced [sɑmʋɪˈdɑu̯]), from sam 'self' and vydavnytstvo 'publishing house'.
The term "samvydav" originated thanks to the efforts of Ukrainian writer Ivan Bahrianyi, who published the poem "Ave Maria" as a book in 1929. His acquaintances, printers from Okhtyrka, printed 1,200 copies of the poem overnight at the author's expense.
The Russian poet Nikolay 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.
Tamizdat refers to literature published abroad (там, tam 'there'), often from smuggled manuscripts.
The Polish term for this phenomenon, which intensified in the mid-1970s, was drugi obieg, or the "second circuit" of publishing.
Historian Sergo Mikoyan claimed that decades prior to the early 1960s, offices and stores had to submit papers with examples of their typewriters' typeface to local KGB branches so that any printed text could be traced back to the source, to prosecute those who had used the typewriter to produce material deemed illegal. With the introduction of photocopying machines, the KGB's Fifth Directorate and Agitprop Department required individuals to get authorization to use printing office photocopiers to prevent the mass production of unapproved material, though restrictions could be bypassed by bribing employees.
Privately owned typewriters were considered the most practical means of reproducing samizdat during this time due to these copy machine restrictions. Usually, multiple copies of a single text would be simultaneously made on carbon paper or tissue paper, which were inexpensive and relatively easy to conceal. Copies would then be passed around within trusted networks.
Recent media