Abstract
The review is written on a 2019 book Samizdat in the USSR: Texts and Lives by Yu.A. Rusina. The author of the book discusses a relevant problem of the recent history of the country and analyses the phenomenon of samizdat (self-publishing) in the second part of the 20th c. Three main definitions in the conception of samizdat are given: samizdat as (1) a cultural phenomenon of “another”, “different” culture which supplements official culture; (2) a phenomenon of self-organization of society in the cultural sphere, self-reflection of society and its informational activity; (3) a historical source, which is very important for studying dissent and the dissident movement in the Soviet Union. Rusina is investigating the second and third definitions of samizdat. She consistently analyses samizdat: open letters and appeals, document digests, periodicals, court proceedings. The analysis shows figures and fates of people disagreeable with the regime, for instance, A. Ginzburg, Yu. Daniel, A. Sinyavsky, the disgraced General P.G. Grigorenko, V. Bukovsky, V. Rutminsky, and others. A separate section of the book is devoted to periodicals, journals which were particularly important for the development of opposition movements, dissemination of opinions and information, and for legal and humanitarian education. Rusina thoroughly examines Chronicle of Current Events, sociopolitical, national, and religious journals Political Diary, Obshchestvennye Problemy [Social Issues], Veche, Vestnik Spaseniya [Messenger of Salvation], Exodus, Herald of Exodus, The White Book of Exodus, and others. She analyses not only metropolitan manifestations of dissent but also samizdat in province: student literary and artistic-journalistic periodicals that published works of students of the Ural State University. The book is interesting and significant by itself and also as a source for the following historical and philological studies of the opposition movement in the USSR.
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