How were banned books smuggled out abroad during the Soviet era, how were they published and read in the diaspora, what did their authors think and know about it, and why is tamizdat (im)possible today? The conversation will focus on contraband manuscripts from behind the Iron Curtain, whether from the Baltics and other parts of Eastern Europe or from the former USSR itself. It will explore their points of departure and intersection, address the role of wars in the deterritorialization of authors and manuscripts, and put tamizdat in a historical context that stretches beyond the Soviet period and geography.
Tamizdat Project (New York) is a public scholarship and charity initiative for the study of banned books from the former Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc.
Yasha Klots, founder of Tamizdat Project, is Associate Professor of Russian and Comparative Literature at Hunter College of the City University of New York and CUNY Graduate Center.