SOURCE: Meerson-Aksenov, Michael. “The Dissident Movement and Samizdat.” In The Political, Social and Religious Thought of Russian “Samizdat”—An Anthology, edited by Michael Meerson-Aksenov, Boris Shragin, and Nickolas Lupinin, pp. 19-43. Belmont, Mass.: Nordland Publishing Company, 1977.

In the following essay, Meerson-Aksenov describes the phenomenon of the samizdat in the context of dissident ideologies of Soviet society, noting that an understanding of Soviet culture and polity is a crucial key that helps one understand the samizdat.

The dissident movement and samizdat are two sides of the very same process which may be called the awakening of the consciousness of Soviet society. It has spawned a series of categories which have not yet been clearly defined. However, it is necessary to describe the realities which they state because the phenomenon of samizdat becomes understandable only in their context.

Ideocracy

Literally ideocracy means the supremacy of an idea—in our age...