Cover Osteuropa 1-2/2019

In Osteuropa 1-2/2019

A many-sided personality
New information about samizdat readers

Josephine von Zitzewitz


Deutsche Fassung

Abstract

Samizdat was created in the Soviet Union at the end of the 1950s as a response to the stringent restrictions that applied to the official literary output. Samizdat readers were more than just readers. Often, they were involved in the production, procurement of materials, sale and storage of the texts. Samizdat literature was often read and passed around within the family and among friends, since mutual trust and reliable networks were needed. In this way, samizdat presented a social and ethical countermodel to the state-regulated culture within Soviet society.

(Osteuropa 1-2/2019, pp. 149–162)