Samizdat
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Samizdat (Russian, самиздат, lit. "self-publishing") originally was a Soviet-era practice in which material which was censored or otherwise could not be officially printed (for political or other reasons) was reproduced via other means, such as mimeograph, typewriter or even handwriting and distributed sub rosa, so as not to attract the attention of the authorities.
In a broader and more modern sense, Samizdat is any unpublished work which is reproduced and distributed by hand or other low-tech method.
Not only has the rise of the Internet has rendered samizdat somewhat obsolete -- Social Media, Bulletin Board Systems and other electronic communications have made the distribution of "unofficial" material trivial and easy -- but it has also stripped it of much of its countercultural aura of rebellion.
Contrast with Doujinshi, which is also self-published but fills a vastly different hole in the social fabric.
Computing
- Hacker culture had its own definition of samizdat, as found in the Jargon File:
- After Bell Labs changed its UNIX license in 1979 to make dissemination of the source code illegal, the 1976 Lions book which contained the source code had to be withdrawn, but illegal copies of it circulated for years. The act of copying the Lions book was often referred to as samizdat.
Literature
- The first full-length book to be distributed in the Soviet Union as samizdat was Boris Pasternak's 1957 novel Doctor Zhivago.
- The Butterfly Kid originally circulated around New York City in a mimeographed manuscript form for a year or so before it finally saw actual publication in 1967.
Real Life
- Before the internet, Amateur press associations were the paper equivalent of a modern email mailing list, and allowed small groups of enthusiasts to discuss their common interest in the form of a mailing compiled from contributions sent by their members to the APA's manager/editor, who assembled them into issues which were then sent back out to the APA's members.
- Similarly, early science fiction fandom abounded with low-circulation fanzines (from "fan magazine"), sometimes having "print runs" no larger than a dozen or so copies per issue.