Samizdat reflecting alternative thought and state repression in the Soviet Union
Funded by the Federal Foundation for the Reappraisal of the SED Dictatorship
Project duration: 01/2021-03/2023
Samizdat means self-publishing and refers to the publication of information bypassing state censorship in the communist states of Eastern Europe. Precisely because it was forbidden to write and reproduce critical content, samizdat texts were a key means of communication for dissidents. In the Soviet Union, dissenters and nonconformists had been challenging the monopoly position of the state and the party since the early 1960s with their illegally typewritten essays, appeals, documentation of human rights violations, petitions in support of political prisoners, but also with uncensored poetry collections and artists' books. Samizdat became a mirror of the lives of dissidents and their diverse underground culture.
The aim of the project is to make the unique collection of samizdat materials from the Soviet Union from the 1960s to 1980s accessible in German and in the original language of the documents. The archival project will lay the foundations for researching and reconstructing the ideas of dissidents in the Soviet Union, their protest activities and the political repression directed against them.
Project team:
Dr. Manuela Putz, Dr. Tatiana Dvinyatina, Alesia Kananchuk
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