samizdat

[ sah-miz-daht; Russian suh-myiz-daht ]

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

/ səmizˈdat /

noun

1. 1. a system of clandestine printing and distribution of banned or dissident literature
   2. ( as modifier )

      a samizdat publication

Word History and Origins

Origin of samizdat¹

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of samizdat¹

C20: from Russian, literally: self-published

Example Sentences

Where are the writers who helped smuggle samizdat out from behind the Iron Curtain?

From The Daily Beast

The bigger the market – the more pressure is applied to clamp down on the samizdat entrepreneurs.

From Project Gutenberg