Soviet Literature - Samizdat, Tamizdat and Gosizdat publishing

Literary/ Cultural Context Note

Neil Cornwell (University of Bristol)

Ed. by Neil Cornwell, University of Bristol
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 2.2.2.00: Post-1917 Writing and Culture in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, 1917-present.
Vol. editors: Neil Cornwell (University of Bristol), Nicole Kennedy (University of Newcastle), Roman Koropeckyj (University of California, Los Angeles), Andrei Rogatchevski (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway)

Domains

Censorship of expression
Literature (all)
Publishing

Dates

Date of occurrence 1917-1991

Places

Russia (Location)

Resources

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Samizdat
Samizdat means “self-publishing” and is the term used of unofficial or illegal publications produced or circulated in the Soviet period (often just barely legible carbon copies of typescripts) – although a similar tradition had existed of the circulation of hand-written copies of non-permitted, or imported, texts during the Tsarist era. Many banned works achieved limited circulation by such methods – as opposed to resorting to tamizdat (publication “over there” [tam] – i.e. in the West: illegal for Soviet authors, without permission; or achieving gosizdat (“state”, or officially sanctioned, publication).

Tamizdat
Tamizdat means publication “over there” [tam] and is the colloquial term used for the illicit publication by Soviet writers of their works in the West (an act which was illegal for Soviet authors, without official permission). Many...

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256 words

Citation: Cornwell, Neil. "Soviet Literature - Samizdat, Tamizdat and Gosizdat publishing". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 15 September 2005 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=1590, accessed 05 December 2025.]

Soviet Literature - Samizdat, Tamizdat and Gosizdat publishing

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