samizdat

noun

1. a clandestine publishing system within the Soviet Union, by which forbidden or unpublishable literature was reproduced and circulated privately.
2. a work or periodical circulated by this system.

noun (in the former Soviet Union)

1. 1. a system of clandestine printing and distribution of banned or dissident literature
   2. (as modifier)a samizdat publication

n.“illegal and clandestine copying and sharing of literature,” 1967, from Russian samizdat, literally “self-publishing,” from sam “self” (see same) + izdatel’stvo “publishing” (from iz “from, out of,” from PIE *eghs; see ex-; + dat’ “to give,” from PIE *do-; see date (n.1)). Said to be a word-play on Gosizdat, the former state publishing house of the U.S.S.R. One who took part in it was a samizdatchik (plural samizdatchiki).