Publishers In Exile Have Challenged Russian Censorship

The "Tamizdat" practice has returned.

Russian publishers in exile are creating a new system for distributing books that can no longer be legally published in the country. Amid tightening censorship, they are printing banned works abroad and helping to deliver them to Russian readers, writes Foreign Policy.

After the start of the full-scale war against Ukraine, Russian authorities sharply increased pressure on the publishing industry. Parliament passed laws banning a wide range of information, including criticism of the military, materials that contradict so-called “traditional values,” and LGBT-related content.

In 2024, the authorities established a special “expert center” that reviews books for compliance with state requirements. As a result, publishers are forced to resort to self-censorship. Works by both Russian and foreign authors have been banned, including those by Vladimir Sorokin, Hanya Yanagihara, Susan Sontag, and Stephen King.

The situation has become so dire that publishing houses have begun using artificial intelligence to review manuscripts. “It is now impossible to manually check a text for compliance with all the authorities’ requirements,” a Russian writer and editor told the publication.

At the same time, an underground market for banned literature is flourishing in the country. Such books are sold through “Avito” and “Wildberries,” with their titles and content disguised in the listings. Orders are sent to buyers via regular mail.

Publishers in Europe are effectively reviving the Soviet practice of “Tamizdat”—publishing banned works abroad and then distributing them to readers within the country.

About 4,000 people gathered at the Berlin Book Fair dedicated to independent Russian-language literature. According to the organizers, this may be the largest gathering of Russians abroad since 2022 who oppose the Kremlin’s policies.

“The Russian language must not become a language of state propaganda,” the fair’s organizers stated.

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