Background
With the formal publishing houses and mimeograph and xerographic machines controlled by the state in the Soviet Union, dissident literature circulated in manuscript form, copied over and over by hand or typewriter. Despite these difficulties, samizdat (literally self-published) writing flourished in the 1970s and 1980s and exerted a significant cultural and political influence. Although individual works migrated to the west, often with the exiled writers themselves, very little was ever formally published due to the relatively limited market and low potential for profit.
In the mid-1970s, the Center for the Study of New Russian Literature in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at UMass Amherst began collecting samizdat to document political and social dissent in the Soviet Union. Laszlo M. Tikos, Head of the Department, established the Center both to create an archive of the New Russian literature and a place for its systematic study.
Scope of collection
Writings by Russian dissident authors in many genres (chiefly fiction, poetry, drama, and literary, social, and political criticism) in handwritten, photocopied, and printed form (printed versions were made in the United States, West Germany, Spain and Argentina), all unpublished in the Soviet Union; also photos, a passport application for Mikhail Baryshnikov, and memorabilia from an American production of one of the plays in the collection.
Arrangement
This collection is organized into four series:
Inventory
Dremluga, Vladimir: Sveditel' stva Protsessa
Box 1: 1
Dremluga, Vladimir: Sviatyna
Box 1: 2
Dremluga, Vladimir: Deviatyi Etazh Okhraniaiot
Box 1: 3
Gornyi, Vladimir: Palachi evo Master
Box 1: 4-13
Ingul, V.: V Puti
Box 1: 14
Friazino, Dorogatsev Iz: Shakespeare Sonnets
Box 1: 15
Friazino, Dorogatsev Iz: Skazka o Zhizni shekspira
Box 1: 16
Bokshtein, Ilya: Stikhi
Box 1: 17
Alnikin, Nikolai: Rifmovannye Konchiki
Box 1: 18
Alnikin, Nikolai: Spolokh
Box 1: 19
Aranzon, Leonid: Poems
Box 1: 20
Khalif, Lev: Tse, de, el
Box 1: 21-24
Kholin, I.: S. Minusom Edinitsa
Box 1: 25-27
Khudiakov, Genrikh: Koktesel'
Box 1: 28
Khudiakov, Genrikh: Komentarii/Avtograf
Box 1: 29
Khudiakov, Genrikh: Laertid
Box 1: 30
Khudiakov, Genrikh: Laertid/Primechaniia K Poeme Laertid
Box 2: 31
Khudiakov, Genrikh: Russian/English poems
Box 2: 32
Khudiakov, Genrikh: Ss Tt Ii KHkh
Box 2: 33
Khudiakov, Genrikh: Toska po Rodine
Box 2: 34
Khvostenko, A.: Toska po Rodine Verny"
Box 2: 35
Khvostenko, A.: Performance of Emergency Exit, 1979
Box 2: 35A
Kovshin, V.: Kolba Sveta
Box 2: 36
Kuklovskaia, Elizaveta: Byloe
Box 2: 37
Kuklovskaia, Elizaveta: Metel'
Box 2: 38
Kuklovskaia, Elizaveta: Skazki
Box 2: 39
Kuklovskaia, Elizaveta: Skauty
Box 2: 40
Limonov, Eduard: Avtoportret S Elenoi
Box 2: 41
Limonov, Eduard: Various poems
Box 2: 42
Malov, W.: Ot Kaaina K Hristu
Box 2: 43
Mamleev, Yuri: The Last Trace of Spinoza
Box 2: 44
Mamleev, Yuri: Kovor-Samolet
Box 2: 45
Mamleev, Yuri: Village Life
Box 2: 46
Mamleev, Yuri: Vstuplenie/Vobok
Box 2: 47
Mamleev, Yuri: Zhenikh
Box 2: 48
Mariia: Dlia chevo miy jivem na svete
Box 2: 49
Miatlev, I.: Ukrainskaia Epopeia
Box 2: 50
Miroliubov, Yuri: Babushkin Sunduk
Box 2: 51
Miroliubov, Yuri: Rodina Mat'
Box 2: 52
Moll, Viktor: Virshi
Box 3: 53
Monastyrskii, Andrei: Sochinenie 73-ovo Goda
Box 3: 54
Monastyrskii, Andrei: Stalin-stixotvoreniya
Box 3: 55
Monastyrskii, Andrei: Punktirnaya Kompozitskiya S Risunkami
Box 3: 56
Paley, Peter N.: Povesti dnei voennikh 1941-1945: Rodin
Box 3: 57
Perelshin, Valerii: Poema Bez Predmata
Box 3: 58-61
Romer, Victoria: Poems
Box 3: 62
Savinskii, Viktor: Na severnom dontse v nachale Veka
Box 3: 63
Savinskii, Viktor: Pobezhdaiushchaia
Box 3: 64
Shchapova, Elena: Stikhotvoreniia
Box 3: 65
Shchetinskii: Tiazhest'
Box 4: 66-75
Volokhonskii, Anri: Zapasnoi vykhod
Box 4: 76-78
Staritsky, Maria: Sbornik obsheupotrebitel' novo Vyrazhenii
Box 4: 79
Bakhchanian, Vagrich: 1968-1974
Box 4: 80
Tetenov, Nikolai: Pamphlets
Box 4: 81
Altman, Moses: The Undying Swan
Box 4: 82
Miroliubov, Yuri: Prabkino uchenie
Box 4: 83
Kuklouskaia, Elizaveta: Liricheskie stikhi
Box 5: 84
Saptir, Genrikh: Stikhi raznikh let,
Box 5: 85
Saptir, Genrikh: Molchanie
Box 5: 86
Erofeev, Benedikt: Moskua-petushki
Box 5: 87
Bodak, Rostislav: Poems, plays, essays, 1970-1976
Box 5: 88-90
Paley, Peter N.: Povesti dnei voennikh 1941-1945
Box 5: 91-92
Gresserov, P.S.: Ot troiki do samoleta-chast'
Box 6-7: 93-102
Gresserov, P.S.: Ot troiki do samoleta-Epilog
Box 6-7: 103
Paley, Peter N.: Povesti dnei voennikh 1941-1945: Zolushka iz Kieva
Box 8: 104
Len, Vladislav. : Inokhodets Misha Baryshnikov. Application for a passport, Mikhail Baryshnikov
1973
Box 8: 105
Len, Vladislav: Avtobiografiia
Box 8: 106
Len, Vladislav: Obereutiana. Moskva, 1974
Box 8: 107
Len, Vladislav: Vozhestvenne stikhi. Moskva, 1972
Box 8: 108
Len, Vladislav: Kniga poslanii. Moskva, 1976
Box 8: 109
Len, Vladislav: Kniga poslanii. Moskva, 1976 B" (play) Moskva, 1970
Box 8: 110
Mamonova, Tatyana: Stikhi (Leningrad, 1978)
Box 8: 111
Mamonova, Tatyana: (Stikhi, 1977)
Box 8: 112
Chasy; Almanakh: (microfilm strips)
Box 8: 112a
Series 2. Literary Criticism
Smith, G.S.: Modern Russian Underground Song
Box 9: 113
Erofeev, Benedikt: Vasilii rozanov
Box 9: 114
Korn, Aleksandr: Vsemipno-prostornaia vechnost, Moskva, 1978
Box 9: 115
Series 3. Social and Political Criticism in Current Events
Zwarun, A.A.: International Sakharov Hearing. Eng. ed.
Box 9: 116
Zwarun, A.A.: International Sakharov Hearing. Russian
Box 9: 117
Belonol'skii, A.: International Sakharov Hearing. Russian na Fone Proshlovo Rossii SSR"
Box 9: 118
Cahiers du samizdat
Box 9: 119
Contemporary soviet law
Box 9: 120
Evangel' skoe slovo
Box 9: 121
Index on censorship, 3/74
Box 9: 122
Suslov, Aleksandr: Plakun gorod, part 1
Box 10: 124
Suslov, Aleksandr: Plakun gorod, part 2
Box 10: 125
Suslov, Aleksandr: Rasskazy
Box 10: 126
Committee to Help: Aleksei Khvostenko
Box 10: 127
Marko, Kurt: Aleksei Khvostenko The Case of Leonid Plyushch"
Box 10: 128
Osteuropa, 10/75
Box 10: 129
Otradin, N.: Poputnye Zametki
Box 10: 130
Pyatnitskii, V.: Svoboda est' Svoboda
Box 10: 131
Savinskii, Viktor: Dlia Lektika Sovremennosti
Box 10: 132
Savinskii, Viktor: Raznyshleniya o polozhenii religii
Box 10: 133
Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr: Schlesinger and Kissinger
Box 10: 134
Wischnewskaja, Julia: V.N. Voinovich
Box 10: 135
Miroliubov, U.P.: Bibliography
Box 10: 136
Pereleshin, Valerii: Polnaya bibliografiya
Box 10: 137
Pereleshin, Valerii: Polynaya bibliografiya c Kitai-skovo
Box 10: 138
Administrative information
Search terms
Subjects
- Underground literature--Soviet Union.
- Writers--Soviet Union.
Contributors
- Dremluga, Vladimir.
- Khudiakov, Genrikh.
- Kuklovskaia, Elizaveta.
- Mamleev, Yuri.
- Monastyrskii, Andrei.
- Len, Vladislav.
- Mamonova, Tatyana.
- Miroliubov, Yuri.
- Suslov, Aleksandr.
Link to similar SCUA collections
