Russian Publishing System: From Printed Samizdat to Electronic Self-Publishing

The proliferation of unofficial, informal publications has accompanied mankind since the emergence of book culture. The reasons for this could be either a desire to circumvent censorship restrictions or a lack of need for a wide audience or official publication status. Terms such as “amateur book publishing”, “samizdat” and “self-publishing” are used to describe this process and its result.

Amateur publishing, synonymous with non-professional publishing, can be aimed at both the creative realization of the author and the dissemination of works of artistic or ideological value that are important to him. “Samizdat” is a concept belonging to the Soviet period of history, a phenomenon of “second culture” that coexisted with official culture on an unofficial, uncensored level. In the modern period of our country’s history samizdat has been replaced by self-publishing. It is distinguished by less ideologized and maximum individualization of the product. Self-published authors publish works in small editions, often in a single copy. The motivation of the authors and the themes of these works are as diverse as possible. It should be noted that most of the works are of an entertainment nature. Electronic book publishing is actively growing.

Technologies allow copying and generating textual and visual content, giving authors the possibility to use available templates and products of automated software work.

Thanks to the development of printing technologies and the spread of the Internet, self-publishing is converging with official book publishing. If in the Soviet period samizdat and official book publishing practically did not overlap, today the situation has changed. Large book services, such as Litres and Ridero, speed up and simplify the process of proofreading, layout and design of editions, as well as provide the possibility of ISBN registration. Thus, the distance between official and unofficial, informal book publishing is shrinking.

1. Daniel A. Istoki i smysl sovetskogo samizdata [The Origins and Meaning of Soviet Samizdat]. Available at: http://antology.igrunov.ru/a_daniel.html (accessed 17.04.2024) (in Russ.).

2. Markov A.V. Formation of a Philosophical Canon in Religious-Idealistic Samizdat, Filosofiya: zhurnal Vysshei shkoly ehkonomiki [Philosophy: Journal of the Higher School of Economics], 2022, vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 89—116. DOI: 10.17323/2587-8719-2022-1-89-116 (in Russ.).

3. Zhidchenko A.V. International Conference About the History of Samizdat, Vestnik Omskogo universiteta [Herald of Omsk University], 2013, no. 1 (67), pp. 274—276. Available at: http://elib.omsu.ru/issues/136/6424.php (accessed 17.04.2024) (in Russ.).

4. Kholodilin M.V. History of Soviet Fantastic Samizdat, Uchenye zapiski Sankt-Peterburgskogo im. V.B. Bobkova filiala Rossiiskoi tamozhennoi akademii [Scientific Letters of Russian Customs Academy the St. Petersburg Branch Named After Vladimir Bobkov], 2004, no. 2 (22), pp. 240—260. Available at: https://elibrary.ru/download/elibrary_21505486_79328896.pdf (accessed 17.04.2024) (in Russ.).

5. Fedulov A.N. The Literary Samizdat in the USSR in 1970—1980s, Izvestiya Altaiskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta [Izvestiya of Altai State University], 2008, no. 4—5, pp. 219—221. Available at: https://web.archive.org/web/20220406095336/http://izvestia.asu.ru/2008/4-5/hist/TheNewsOfASU-2008-4-5-hist-44.pdf (accessed 17.04.2024) (in Russ.).

6. Nikolskaya T.K. Protestant Samizdat of the 1960s—1980s Years in the USSR, Vestnik Bryanskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta [The Bryansk State University Herald], 2016, no. 1 (27), pp. 64—69. Available at: http://vestnik-brgu.ru/wp-content/numbers/v2016_1.pdf (accessed 17.04.2024) (in Russ.).

7. Savenko E.N. Modern Tendencies in Self-Publishing, Bibliosfera [Bibliosphere], 2019, no. 2, pp. 59—64. DOI: 10.20913/1815-3186-2019-2-59-64 (in Russ.).

8. Lizunova I.V., Metel’kov A.S. New Pages of the History of National Librarianship, Bibliosfera [Bibliosphere], 2017, no. 1, pp. 79—88. DOI: 10.20913/1815-3186-2018-1-79-88 (in Russ.).

9. Veretyokhin A.V. Social and Economic Aspects of the Self-Publishing in Modern Conditions, Sovremennye informatsionnye i kommunikativnye tekhnologii v global’nom mire: vyzovy i vozmozhnosti: sbornik nauchnykh statei [Modern Information and Communication Technologies in the Global World: Challenges and Opportunities: collected articles]. Simferopol, 2017, pp. 137—140 (in Russ.).

10. Klimenko M.S. Modern Samizdat: Theory and Practice of Functioning, Dnevnik Nauki, 2017, no. 11. Available at: http://dnevniknauki.ru/index.php/number11/sociology-11-2017 (accessed 17.04.2024) (in Russ.).

11. Krivich N.A., Chukurov A.Yu. Book Culture: Challenges of Modernity, Obshchestvo. Sreda. Razvitie [Society. Environment. Development], 2016, no. 4, pp. 110—114 (in Russ.).

12. Savenko E.N. Modern Samizdat as an Alternative Media Space, Trudy GPNTB SO RAN [Proceedings of SPSTL SB RAS], 2011, no. 2, pp. 50—56 (in Russ.).

13. Bugaev M.V. Grapher’s Editions in a Modern Province: The Press and the Internet. An Attribute of Freedom or Deformation of Book Publishing? Knizhnaya kul’tura na vostoke Rossii: ot traditsii k modernizatsii (60-e gody XX — nachalo XXI veka): sbornik nauchnykh trudov [Book Culture in the East of Russia: From Tradition to Modernisation (the 60s of the 20th — Beginning of the 21st Century): collected articles]. Novosibirsk, 2006, pp. 73—77 (in Russ.).

14. Maroshi V.V. Self-Published Authors in Modern Russia: The Experience of the Typological Characteristics, Bibliosfera [Bibliosphere], 2012, no. 3, pp. 3—8 (in Russ.).

15. Safronova E. Samizdat in the Realities of the New Time, RELGA: nauchno-kul’turologicheskii zhurnal [RELGA: scientific and cultural journal], 2011, no. 15. Available at: http://www.relga.ru/Environ/WebObjects/tgu-www.woa/wa/Main?textid=3004&level1=main&level2=articles (accessed 17.04.2024) (in Russ.).

16. Pochkay E.P. Dilettante Journalism as a Way of Self-Actualization, Mezhdunarodnyi nauchno-issledovatel’skii zhurnal [International Research Journal], 2017, no. 1 (55), pp. 136—138. DOI: 10.23670/IRJ.2017.55.020.

17. Rozova N.Yu. Books in the “Intermediate” Cover: Pocketbooks in the 20th—21st Centuries, Trudy SPbGIK [Proceedings of SPbGIK], 2020, no. 220, pp. 203—211 (in Russ.).

18. Savenko E.N. Modern “Samizdat”: The Definition, Bibliosfera [Bibliosphere], 2012, no. 5, pp. 98—100 (in Russ.).

19. Manovich L. Models of Authorship in New Media. 2002. Available at: http://manovich.net/index.php/projects/models-of-authorship-in-new-media (accessed 17.04.2024).

20. Teplyakova A.O. Digital DIY: The Age of Simulated Creativity, Vestnik Tomskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. Kul’turologiya i iskusstvovedenie [Tomsk State University Journal of Cultural Studies and Art History], 2019, no. 36, pp. 306—308. DOI: 10.17223/22220836/36/36 (in Russ.).

21. Lenkova T.A. Hermeneutics as a Basis for the Analysis of Creolised Media Text, Litera, 2022, no. 7, pp. 60—69. DOI: 10.25136/2409-8698.2022.7.38371 (in Russ.).