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Samizdat (self-published, in Russian самиздат) was a system in the Soviet-bloc countries wherein people clandestinely printed and distributed government-suppressed literature. The idea was that copies were made a few at a time, and anyone who had a copy and an access to any sort of copying equipment was encouraged to make more copies.
The term is coined in an analogy with Soviet publishing houses, such as Politizdat = Politicheskoe izdatelstvo (Политиздат, Государственное издательство политической литературы, State Publishing House of Political Literature). Samizadat = sam (сам, "self") + izdat (izdatelstvo, "publisher").
Essentially, the samizdat copies of the text, such as Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita, were passed from one person to another. The techniques used to print the forbidden literature and newspapers varied from copying the content by hand in several copies to printing the books on semi-professional printing presses in large quantities.
In Poland during the 1970s and 1980s several books (sometimes as long as 500 pages) were printed in quantities often exceeding 5000 copies.
Magnitizdat refers to the passing on of taped sound recordings (magnit- alluding to the magnetic tape), often of "underground" music groups and bards.
Tamizdat refers to literature published abroad (tam means "there", i.e. as opposed to "here"), often on the basis of smuggled manuscripts.
Contrast: freedom of press, freedom of speech
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