The culture of samizdat : literature and underground networks in the late Soviet Union /

Overwhelmingly preoccupied with the samizdat movement's prominent texts and personalities, scholarship on samizdat has to date accounted for only limited dimensions of this dynamic social phenomenon. Von Zitzewitz's groundbreaking study addresses the need for new perspectives by redirecting focus on the prevailing dispositions and habits of everyday samizdat readers. To do this, Von Zitzewitz (UiT--The Arctic Univ. of Norway) conjured original source material via an online survey of self-identified samizdat readers. She traces texts' actual means of production and duplication, distribution and sharing, again centralizing the average individual's participation in the enterprise. Chapter 3, profiling samizdat typists, is the study's absolute standout; it details the physical labor required to create underground documents and how this crucial work was performed primarily by women, who here emerge as samizdat's unsung heroes. Ultimately, the study depicts samizdat as much more than a body of illicit texts; rather, it comprised a constellation of attitudes, relationships, and activities--what Von Zitzewitz terms a "community of practice," one devoted to art and ideas beyond those officially sanctioned. Von Zitzewitz's novel approach exposes samizdat's intimate inner workings and thus makes the book indispensable to scholars of the Soviet period. Summing Up: Essential. Upper-division undergraduates and above. --Brendan James Nieubuurt, University of Michigan