Editing Samizdat (section)

==Techniques==
[[Sergo Mikoyan]] claimed that decades prior to the early 1960s, offices and stores had to submit papers with examples of their typewriters' typeface to local KGB branches so that any printed text could be traced back to the source, to prosecute those who had used the typewriter to produce material deemed illegal. With the introduction of [[photocopy]]ing machines, the KGB's [[KGB#Directorates|Fifth Directorate]] and Agitprop Department required individuals to get authorization to use printing office photocopiers to prevent the mass production of unapproved material, though restrictions could be bypassed by bribing employees.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/fall_winter_2001/article05.html |title=Eroding the Soviet "Culture of Secrecy": ''Western Winds Behind Kremlin Walls'' |last=Mikoyan |first=Sergo A. |date=2008-06-27 |website=[[Central Intelligence Agency]] |publisher= |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201019040448/https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/fall_winter_2001/article05.html |archive-date=2020-10-19 |language=en |access-date=2023-06-30}}</ref><!--(NOTE: commented out because unsourced.) However, certain [[East German]] and [[Eastern European]]-made Cyrillic typewriters (most notably the [[VEB Robotron#Robotron computers and typewriters|Erika]]) were purchased by Soviet citizens while traveling to nearby [[socialist countries]], bypassing the sample collection procedure, and thus becoming more difficult to trace. Western-produced typewriters, purchased abroad and somehow brought or smuggled into the Soviet Union, were also used to type Cyrillic text via Latin characters.{{explain|date=March 2023}} To prevent recognition of contraband literature, standard [[bookbinding]] of ideologically-approved books has been used to conceal the forbidden texts within.-->

Privately owned typewriters were considered the most practical means of reproducing samizdat during this time due to these copy machine restrictions. Usually, multiple copies of a single text would be simultaneously made on [[carbon paper]] or [[tissue paper]], which were inexpensive and relatively easy to conceal. Copies would then be passed around within trusted networks.{{sfn|Komaromi|2004|p=599}}<!--(NOTE: commented out because unsourced.)The techniques used to reproduce these forbidden texts varied. Several copies might be made using [[carbon paper]], either by hand or on a typewriter; at the other end of the scale, [[mainframe computer]] printers were used during night shifts to make multiple copies, and books were at times printed on semiprofessional [[printing press]]es in much larger quantities. Before [[Glasnost#Gorbachev|glasnost]], most of these methods were dangerous, because copy machines, printing presses, and even typewriters in offices were under control of the organization's [[First Department]] (part of the KGB); reference printouts from all of these machines were stored for subsequent identification purposes, should samizdat output be found.-->

===Physical form===
[[File:Samizdat seen in Museum of Genocide Victims Vilnius.jpg|thumb| Samizdat concealed within a bookbinding; seen in the [[Museum of Occupations and Freedom Fights]], Vilnius |293x293px]]
Samizdat distinguishes itself not only by the ideas and debates that it helped spread to a wider audience but also by its physical form. The hand-typed, often blurry and wrinkled pages with numerous typographical errors and nondescript covers helped to separate and elevate Russian samizdat from Western literature.{{sfn|Komaromi|2004|pp=608–609}} The physical form of samizdat arose from a simple lack of resources and the necessity to be inconspicuous. 

In time, dissidents in the USSR began to admire these qualities for their own sake, the ragged appearance of samizdat contrasting sharply with the smooth, well-produced appearance of texts passed by the censor's office for publication by the State. The form samizdat took gained precedence over the ideas it expressed and became a potent symbol of the resourcefulness and rebellious spirit of the inhabitants of the Soviet Union.{{sfn|Komaromi|2004|p=609}} In effect, the physical form of samizdat itself elevated the reading of samizdat to a prized clandestine act.{{sfn|Komaromi|2004|p=605}}