During the Soviet era, samizdat was the creation by hand and distribution of copies of literature and other material banned by the state; literally: “self-publishing.”

Samizdat was a clandestine publishing system within the Soviet Union, where individuals reproduced censored and underground literature by hand or using rudimentary printing techniques. This practice emerged as a bold response to the strict state control over media, publishing, and the dissemination of information, which sought to suppress any content deemed politically sensitive, dissenting, or unaligned with official ideologies.

Participants in samizdat activities took significant personal risks to copy and distribute literature, including political essays, religious texts, and works of fiction that were otherwise inaccessible due to government censorship. The term itself is a Russian neologism, combining “sam” (self) and “izdatelstvo” (publishing house), reflecting the DIY nature of this underground publishing.

Samizdat was not just a method of circulating banned literature; it represented a form of resistance against oppressive regimes and a struggle for intellectual freedom and the spread of uncensored ideas. It fostered a clandestine network of writers, readers, and distributors who valued freedom of expression, contributing to the dissemination of alternative viewpoints and ideologies, and thus played a crucial role in the cultural and political undercurrents of the Soviet era.