samizdat

American  

[sah-miz-daht, suh-myiz-daht] / ˈsɑ mɪzˌdɑt, sə mjɪzˈdɑt /

noun

1. a clandestine publishing system within the Soviet Union, by which forbidden or unpublishable literature was reproduced and circulated privately.

2. a work or periodical circulated by this system.

---

samizdat British  

/ səmizˈdat /

noun

1. 1. a system of clandestine printing and distribution of banned or dissident literature

   2. ( as modifier )

      a samizdat publication

---

Etymology

Origin of samizdat

1965–70; < Russian samizdát, equivalent to sam ( o )- self- + izdát ( el'stvo ) publishing agency; coined as a jocular allusion to the compound names of official Soviet publishing organs, e.g., Gosizdát for Gosudárstvennoe izdátel'stvo State Publishing House

Example Sentences

Radio Free Europe transmitted programs; samizdat passed typed manuscripts hand to hand.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 13, 2026

But the text of his speech was quickly leaked by his supporters who posted it online in a modern-day version of samizdat, the way works of dissident writers were copied and shared in Soviet times.

From BBC • Apr. 21, 2023

By contrast, the scenes of the teenage Adéla helping to produce samizdat in communist Czechoslovakia feel lived in and significant.

From Washington Post • Mar. 28, 2023

For 30 years of his professional life — during Soviet times — he was only able to publish abroad, infuriating the authorities, or through samizdat, the underground self-publishing network.

From New York Times • Mar. 18, 2022

This doctrine was so dangerous that the manuscript describing it had to be circulated in secret, an Athenian samizdat.

From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan