The terms Samizdat and Tamizdat are known to the broad segments of people in the former Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and Eastern Europe, but not so much in countries with free press. The root, which is common – izdat – refers to “publication” and Sam means “itself” while For that Means “there”, in the first case refers to underground and illegal publications within the Soviet block and in the second case into the block in the block. This was the subject of the transnational paths and networks, an international conference at Stanford University from March 12th to 13th, 2025. Part of the conference program, which was concentrated by a temporary and yet extraordinary exhibition of relevant archive materials, which were collected by the Special Collections of the Hoover Institution Library & Archives and Stanford University Libraries.
The exhibition opened by the Gast Barbara Krupa of Libraries from Stanford University, which exhibited several rare objects, both Samizdat and Tamizdat, which were mainly released in Poland or aimed at the Polish audience in the 1970s and 1980s. Dr. Krupa is a student of this subject herself and put on the cozy sources that made it possible to understand these phenomena deeper.
The attention of the conference participants was immediately directed to the book by Maryna Miklaszewska, which was written under the pseudonym Miłosz Kowalski. Mikołajki at the school of the Polish People's Republic (Nick in the school of the Polish People's Republic), published by Anex 1987 in London. Inspired by the French The little ones Nicolas The book keeps the appearance of a children's history from René Goscinny, but is more with adult readers due to its dark, absurd representation of life during this time. In particular, the illustrations were created by the author's 10-year-old son.
The Polish literature Samizdat was represented by an edition of “Puls” (Puls) (Puls), an irregular literary quarterly quarterly, which was published in Łódź from 1977 to 1981 Domashnii Zhurnal from Leningrad and a small, humorous, artistic book by Odessa, Diukastyi, Portastyi Odesskii Pass.
In addition the Metropoly 'Almanac was presented, a collection of uncensored works by renowned writers, including Andrei Voznessky, whose papers are accommodated in the special collections of the Stanford University libraries. This Almanach was released in Moscow in December 1978, smuggled into the USA and later published by Ardis.
The Taube Family Curator for European Collections at the Hoover Institution Library & Archives, Katharina Friedla, Presented to Amazing Display of Materials from Various Eastern European Collections and Focused The Participants' Attention on the Holdings of Two Spectacular Collections, The Papers of Irena Lasota and Joanna Szczęsna, Underscoring the Popularity of Search Publications Among Dissident Intellectuals in All Countries of the Soviet Bloc.
Both collections show the activism of women in production and distribution independent publications. Irenena Lasota, a Polish dissident who had left Communist Poland and settled in the United States at the end of the 1960s, gathered and distributed independent publications from Middle of Eastern Europe and actively supported the anti -communist opposition activities in Poland. Joanna Szczęsna, based in Warsaw, has been a democratic opposition activist since 1970 and has published and edited many independent publications in the Communist Poland.
Remarkable were also leaflets that were distributed by Ballon: the Free Europe Committee, a forerunner of Radio Free Europe, which was operated numerous balloons in the 1950s. Of course everything was depended on the wind. It was rare that a balloon actually delivered its payload into a large metropolitan region, but the idea seemed promising at the beginning. Later the radio became the leading medium for the spread of ideas over the iron curtain, and the balloon operations were canceled.
Anatol Shmelev, Robert Conquest Curator for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia, Displayed to Array of Item from Actual Samizdat Smuggled Out of the Ussr (Mainly Held in the NTS Samizdat Collection) to the Produced Tamized Publishers (Particularly NTS, Overseas Publications Interchange, Ymca and Others), Printed Specialy for Smuggling or Clandestine Transportation to the USSR. One of the items on display was a brochure about Gerald Brooke, a British teacher who was caught at the Soviet border with a suitcase full of NTS publications that the Soviets had been detained for four years and was released in 1969 as an exchange for the Soviet spies Morris and Lona Cohen. Will the Soviet Union survive until 1984??
The most popular articles were a copy of Alexander Solschenityns Gulag archipelagoAnd to require a mighty reading, and a newspaper that is disguised to look like a regular edition of the leading Soviet newspaper Pravda, the articles of Émigré-Soviet activists opened, this type of publications, in the USSR sails and tourists, which they evaluated from Étrés, to the UDSSR supporter, which of Émigrés hit, unveiled.
Although the conference participants experience in research and were familiar with literature and primary sources, they lingered to ask questions and express their astonishment about the objects presented, of which they had never seen or heard before. The participants were grateful how carefully the materials were accommodated and preserved to ensure the long -term security of Hoover's collections.
Such a fruitful exchange of concentrating the curators of the library & archives to collect their collecting in order to better support researchers and to promote the scholarship through new inquiries.
Anatol Shmelev
Robert Conquest Curator for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia / Research Fellow
Anatol Shmelev is Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Robert Conquest Curator for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia at Hoover's Library & Archives and the project archivist for its radio …
Katharina Friedla
Taube family curator for European collections / research results
Katharina Friedla is Research Fellow and the Taube Family Curator for European Collections at the Hoover Institution Library & Archives of Stanford University. She studied history, east …