A.I. Fet’s samizdat collection as a source for studying public sentiments in the USSR in the second half of the 20th century

the article aims to characterize the personal samizdat collection assembled by Novosibirsk scholar A.I. Fet in light of socio-political realities of the second half 20th century. Due to its clandestine nature samizdat is a valuable source on historical processes since 1953 as well as on dissident reception of events at that time. Research of texts existed in an uncensored space supplement and expands the scope of understanding how dissent („inakomyslije”) took place. Dissent included range of independent ideas and original perspectives on burning socio-cultural, political, economic Soviet issues. The study employed a set of research methods. Historicism as a leading principle has allowed to examine the uncensored texts of the collection in its interlacement with historical conditions and events. For more detailed analysis and classification of the corpus, analytical-thematic and structural-typological methods were utilized. As a result, the structure of the collection was characterized, the genres of the socio-political documents were listed. The historical context in which the documents of the collection emerged was explored, along with an overview of several authors associated with samizdat. Personology as a method which illuminates individual qualities facilitated an understanding of the motivations that drove A.I. Fet to form a collection of samizdat. The analysis revealed that the materials within the collection reflect a wide spectrum of opinions on issues that concerned society during the second half of the 20th century. Following liberalization in the political regime, discussions regarding ways to overcome the totalitarian past, the interaction between the individual and society, and human rights became more pronounced. This research contributes to the understanding of the source base for studying ideological and political sentiments, as well as forms of protest potential within Soviet society during the latter half of the 20th century.

personal collection, samizdat, uncensored texts, protest documents, public sentiment, dissent, dissidence, A.I. Fet