Alternative Book Publishing in Russia: from a Lubok to a Zine
https://doi.org/10.20913/BRM-2-4-1
Abstract
In the context of the widespread availability of the Internet and the development of accessible publishing technologies, traditional types of alternative book publishing are being modified and new ones are emerging. The lack of a settled understanding of the terminology as well as the framework of the phenomenon call for a comprehensive approach, taking into account new realities. The article deals with the problem of the composition and boundaries of the concept of alternative book publishing. In the proposed classification of alternative book publishing types, opposition (countercultural) and amateur (subcultural) book publishing are distinguished. The article outlines the main stages in the development of alternative book publishing, highlighting the dominant types such as lubok in the 17-18th centuries; album culture in the first half of the 19th century; free and illegal printing in the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries; proto-samizdat and samizdat during the Soviet period, and zines and artist’s book in the post-Soviet period. As a rule, opposition and amateur book publishing types have been studied separately, without being considered within the broader context of alternative book publishing. The author attempts to highlight the interconnections and continuity between different forms of alternative book publishing. Special attention is given to amateur (subcultural) book publishing, as in the 20th century, against the backdrop of the dominance of countercultural samizdat in this sector, subcultural publishing was somewhat overshadowed, and the reasons for its resurgence at the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st centuries may seem less obvious without a historical perspective.
Keywords
About the Author
A. S. Metelkov
State Public Scientific Technological Library of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Metelkov Anton S., Candidate of Historical Sciences, Researcher, Head of the Samizdat and Non-Traditional Printing Sector
Voskhod st., 15, Novosibirsk, 630102
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Supplementary files
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1. Fig. 1. Udalyye molodtsy – slavnyye bortsy (Daring Fellows are Glorious Fighters), lubok of the beginning of the 18th century. (Baldina, 1972, p. 114). | |
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2. Fig. 2. The Aksakov’s family album: poems, drawings, memoirs, 1832–1868. RGALI, f. 10, op. 2, d. 3. | |
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3. Fig. 3. Alexander Solzhenitsyn's handwritten journal XX Vek, 1929. Copy. A. I. Solzhenitsyn Museum (Kislovodsk). | |
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4. Fig. 4. Litseyskiy Mudrets Journal’s contents page, 1815 (Grot, 1998). | |
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5. Fig. 5. Korney Chukovskiy's handwritten almanac Chukokkala, 1914–1969 (Chukokkala, 1979). | |
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6. Fig. 6. Handwritten almanac Gorkokkola of the А. Gor'kiy Sanatorium, 1972–1988. The А. Gor'kiy Sanatorium Library (Kislovodsk). | |
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7. Fig. 7. The 4th group’s Student album at the Gutovskaya Rural Basic School, Novonikolaevskiy district, 1925. GANO, f. R-1053, op. 1, d. 1180. | |
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8. Fig.8. The Collective Student Diary from the Bolotnoye City School No. 2, 1944–1945. Bolotninskiy District Museum of History and Local Lore. | |
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9. Fig. 9. The Samizdat journal Zelen (Novosibirsk), No. 1, 1989. German Iordanskiy’s archive. | |
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10. Fig. 9а. The Samizdat journal Zelen (Novosibirsk), No. 1, 1989. German Iordanskiy’s archive. | |
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11. Fig. 10. Samizdat journal Tusovka (Novosibirsk), No. 8, 1988. SPSTL SB RAS, the Sector of Samizdat and Non-Traditional Printing’s archive, Valery Murzin’s archive. | |
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12. Fig. 10а. Samizdat journal Tusovka (Novosibirsk), No. 8, 1988. SPSTL SB RAS, the Sector of Samizdat and Non-Traditional Printing’s archive, Valery Murzin’s archive. | |
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13. Fig. 11. Irina Butkovskaya “About Myself and Siberia”, 2019. SPSTL SB RAS, the Sector of Samizdat and Non-Traditional Printing’s archive, The Artist Book Foundation. | |
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Review
For citations:
Metelkov A.S. Alternative Book Publishing in Russia: from a Lubok to a Zine. Book. Reading. Media. 2024;2(4):255-266. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.20913/BRM-2-4-1
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