Difference between revisions of "Samizdat (USSR)"

The most common way to produce ''samizdat'' was by typewriter (though handwritten, mimeograph, and later Photostat copies of ''samizdat'' texts were also in circulation). ''Samizdat ''authors would usually type their texts using four or five carbons and then distribute the copies to people they knew. If a recipient found value or was interested in the text, he or she would copy it and pass it along to others in a similar manner (Alexeyeva 1985: 12<ref>Alekeyeva, Ludmilla. 1985. '' Soviet Dissent: Contemporary Movements for National, Religious, and Human Rights''. Middletown, Connecticut: Wesleyan University Press. </ref>). These informal text-sharing networks were essential to the production and dissemination of samizdat. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, such groups were mostly comprised of Moscow and Leningrad intelligentsia, however, as these networks grew and ''samizdat'' activity increased, ''samizdat'' texts could be found across the Soviet Union. In the words of veteran dissident Ludmilla Alexeyeva, ''samizdat ''spread across the country like ‘mushroom spores,’ connecting people through unofficial networks (Ibid, 284).

The most common way to produce ''samizdat'' was by typewriter (though handwritten, mimeograph, and later Photostat copies of ''samizdat'' texts were also in circulation). ''Samizdat ''authors would usually type their texts using four or five carbons and then distribute the copies to people they knew. If a recipient found value or was interested in the text, he or she would copy it and pass it along to others in a similar manner (Alexeyeva 1985: 12<ref>Alekeyeva, Ludmilla. 1985. '' Soviet Dissent: Contemporary Movements for National, Religious, and Human Rights''. Middletown, Connecticut: Wesleyan University Press. </ref>). These informal text-sharing networks were essential to the production and dissemination of samizdat. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, such groups were mostly comprised of Moscow and Leningrad intelligentsia, however, as these networks grew and ''samizdat'' activity increased, ''samizdat'' texts could be found across the Soviet Union. In the words of veteran dissident Ludmilla Alexeyeva, ''samizdat ''spread across the country like ‘mushroom spores,’ connecting people through unofficial networks (Ibid, 284).