Difference between revisions of "Samizdat (USSR)"

''Samizdat '' is a specific textual culture that existed in the Soviet Union from the late 1950s to the mid 1980s. Through the production and circulation of texts outside of official institutional frameworks, the practice of ''samizdat'' challenged dominant values and positions and created a space for alternative cultural production and communication<ref>Komaromi 2015: 133(Komaromi 2015: 131<ref>Komaromi, Ann. 2015. '' Uncensored: Samizdat Novels and the Quest for Autonomy in Soviet Dissidence''. Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press. </ref>.) The word ''samizdat'' can be translated as ‘self-publication.’ Etymologically, the word comes from the Russian ''sam'' (сам), meaning ‘self, or by oneself’ and -''izdat'' (-издат), an abbreviation of the word ''izdatel'stvo'' (издательство) which means ‘publishing house.’ Well-known dissident Vladimir Bukovsky summarized the ''samizdat'' process as follows: “I write myself, edit myself, censor myself, publish myself, distribute myself, go to jail for it myself” (Bukovsky 1979: 141<ref>Bukovsky, Vladimir. 1979. '' To build a Castle: My Life as a Dissenter''. New York: Viking Press. </ref>).