In the history of the unofficial culture of the Soviet Union, there were two rather large and important phenomena in terms of consequences - tamizdat and samizdat, which also included the phenomenon of "music on the bones", which was a way of distributing forbidden music on x-rays.
Although it is often said that samizdat is a way of publishing literature bypassing official bodies, one should also not forget that music and periodicals were published in this way. Thus, samizdat is an extremely versatile phenomenon in the unofficial history of the Soviet Union.
What is samizdat?
Today, in an era of information abundance and universal access to any information, it seems strange that once it was impossible to find the right book or film, and many were not able to listen to their favorite music or read poetry. However, a little over a quarter of a century ago, citizens of the USSR faced serious obstacles to information.
Since the country had official censorship, and the party’s line was the only correct one, the distribution of texts and music, which the censors or the country's top leaders recognized as anti-Soviet, became impossible.
Many writers, who today are considered classics of Russian literature and have worldwide fame, have long been included in the lists of banned for publication in the Soviet Union.
Term history
Despite the fact that the phenomenon of samizdat itself existed in Russia for as long as censorship existed (i.e., at least from the nineteenth century), the corresponding term came into use only under Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev. Samizdat in the history of Russia occupies an important place due to the censorship and pressure exerted by the state for a long time.
Even in tsarist Russia, many writers important to Russian culture published their works abroad. And many used small independent printing houses to replicate their work in provincial cities, where the influence of the censor committee was not as great as in the capitals.
In the 20th century, the publication of banned books becomes especially relevant, as censorship becomes total, and the punishment for circumventing it becomes extremely severe. The term itself appeared in response to the emergence of numerous government agencies with names like "Lenizdat", "Scientific Publishing House" and others.
The role of samizdat in culture
Samizdat is an extremely important phenomenon in the history of Russian culture, forced to withstand constant pressure from the government. However, this method of distribution did not remain aloof from the attention of state authorities. Detection of manuscripts and printed materials with prohibited literature could warrant arrest or prosecution.
From the first years of Soviet power until the death of Stalin, the main content of Samizdat literature was novels banned for ideological reasons, and almanacs that published information about political repression. Of course, the KGB could not leave such events unattended and the authors of many issues of the periodical were harassed.
In order to present the significance of this phenomenon for Soviet culture, it is enough to mention some authors whose works were published in samizdat. Among these writers were Pasternak, Galich, Brodsky, Solzhenitsyn and Mandelstam. Many of Mandelstam’s works simply wouldn’t have survived if his wife hadn’t put a lot of effort into preserving and duplicating his works.
After the great terror
Samizdat is an amazing phenomenon. After Stalin's death, the repressive pressure of the state on political opponents decreased. But aesthetic contradictions of the prevailing ideology with numerous informal groups, both artistic and political, were revealed in a new way.
Under Nikita Khrushchev, self-published not only politically incorrect books, but also authors deleted from history for aesthetic or ideological reasons began to be actively published.
For a long time the texts of Tsvetaeva, Mandelstam, Gumilyov and Khodasevich were not published in the Soviet Union. All these authors, without whom it is impossible to imagine modern Russian literature and the history of culture, received a second wind in the USSR only thanks to the efforts of Leonid Pinsky. It was he who took the risk of reproducing new editions according to his pre-revolutionary texts or foreign facsimiles received in an “illegal” way from abroad through existing channels.
Not only dissidents
Despite samizdat’s reputation as a political tool in the fight against dictatorship, its technology was far from always used to distribute and produce biased literature. Very often, the most common, including children's literature, was found to be uninteresting for state publishing houses through samizdat channels. That is how the translations of Tove Janson and John Tolkien spread at first.
As a result, the meaning of the word "samizdat" gradually got rid of political connotations and became more neutral. In the later years of Soviet power, the phenomenon takes on the form of a countercultural phenomenon and becomes especially popular among young people who are not satisfied with the quality of official culture.
One of the most striking phenomena of the late Soviet samizdat is Mitin Magazine, on the pages of which were printed translations of alternative foreign authors, such as Paul Bowles and Georges Bataille, as well as young Russian-speaking authors. Thus, samizdat is not only illegal publications of literature bypassing censoring bodies, but also a way of self-organization and the formation of reading tastes.