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In these times of censorship and disinformation, it is vital
to engage in open dialogue about the impact of our social,
cultural, and political practices both here and abroad.
The Samizdat Series seeks to foster this dialogue through
readings and lectures by poets whose work engages issues of social
concern.
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Self-published and self-distributed literature has a long history,
but samizdat is a unique phenomenon in the post-Stalin USSR and
other countries with similar socio-economic systems. In the
grip of police state censorship these societies used underground
literature for self-analysis and self-expression.
At the outset of the Khrushchev Thaw in the mid-1950s USSR, poetry became very
popular and writings of a wide variety of known, prohibited, repressed, as well
as young and unknown poets circulated among Soviet intelligentsia.
On June 29, 1958, a monument to Vladimir Mayakovsky was opened in the center
of Moscow. The official ceremony ended with impromptu public poetry readings.
The Moscovites liked the atmosphere of relatively free speech so much that the
readings became regular and came to be known as "Mayak" (Russian: Маяк,
the lighthouse), with students being a majority of participants. However, it
did not last long as the authorities began clamping down on the meetings. In
the summer of 1961, several meeting regulars (among them Eduard Kuznetsov) were
arrested and charged with "anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda" (Article 70
of the RSFSR Penal Code). Editor and publisher of Moscow samizdat magazine "Синтаксис" (Syntaxis)
Alexander Ginzburg was arrested in 1960.
The infamous 1965 show trial of writers Yuli Daniel and Andrei Sinyavsky (also
charged with violating Article 70) and increased repressions marked the demise
of the Thaw and harsher times for samizdat. Some of the samizdat content became
more politicized and played an important role in the dissident movement in the
Soviet Union.
One of the longest-running and well-known samizdat publications was the information
bulletin "Хроника текущих событий" (Khronika
Tekushchikh Sobitiy; Chronicle of Current Events), dedicated to the defense of
human rights in the USSR. For 15 years from 1968 to 1983, a total of 63 issues
were published. The anonymous authors encouraged the readers to utilize the same
distribution channels in order to send feedback and local information to be published
in the subsequent issues. The Chronicle was known for its dry concise style;
its regular rubrics were titled "Arrests, Searches, Interrogations", "Out of
Court Repressions", "In Prisons and Camps", "News of Samizdat", "Persecution
of Religion", "Persecution of Crimean Tatars", "Repressions in Ukraine", "Lithuanian
Events", etc. The authors maintained that according to the Soviet Constitution,
the Chronicle was not an illegal publication, but the long list of people arrested
in relation to it included Natalya Gorbanevskaya, Yuri Shikhanovich, Pyotr Yakir,
Victor Krasin, Sergei Kovalev, Alexander Lavut, Tatyana Velikanova, among others.
To read the
full Wikipedia entry click here. |
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 Activist
poet, Francesco
Levato is the author of Marginal
State (Fractal
Edge Press 2006), a collection of poetry that tackles issues
ranging from domestic violence and exploitation to war and political
unrest. He is a vocal advocate of using literary arts as
a form of political engagement and social responsibility, as
well as a force to create change. He is the founder of the Samizdat
Series, a reading series of socially conscious poetry,
and is the founding editor of the literary journal Ink & Ashes ::
a journal of the senses. Some of his work has appeared in Witness:
Anthology of Poetry (Serengeti Press); Out of Line; Poets
Against the War; Voices in Wartime; Shark Forum; Poems
Niederngasse; and After Hours. His awards include
a poetry fellowship from the Vermont Studio Center. |
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