Samizdat (Russian: самизда́т; ) was a key form of dissident activity across the Soviet bloc in which individuals reproduced censored publications by hand and passed the documents from reader to reader. This grassroots practice to evade officially imposed censorship was fraught with danger as harsh punishments were meted out to people caught possessing or copying censored materials.
Vladimir Bukovsky defined it as follows:
I myself create it,
edit it,
censor it,
publish it,
distribute it, and ...
get imprisoned for it.
Read more about Samizdat: Techniques, Readership, Terminology and Related Concepts, History, Similar Phenomena in Other Countries