In the Soviet Union, throughout the entire history of its existence, there was a strict ideological censorship over the content and dissemination of information in any form. Therefore, in the USSR, many literary, religious and journalistic texts were disseminated in an unofficial, uncensored manner, called "Samizdat".
The idea of creating an almanac
The literary almanac "Metropol", which is a collection of works by famous writers, was created and disseminated by samizdat method. The almanac was compiled by writers Viktor Erofeev, Vasily Aksenov, Evgeny Popov, Fazil Iskander, Andrey Bitov. The Metropol was designed by artists B. Messerer, D. Brusilovsky, D. Borovsky.
The fictionalized history of the Metropol almanac is contained in the novel by Vasily Aksenov, Say a Raisin.
The idea of creating an uncensored collection united 23 authors into a group, including well-known and published professional writers, poets, and writers whose works were not published in the official press for ideological reasons. In addition to them, people whose professional activities were not related to literature, or their works were better known in other literary fields, presented their works in the almanac.
Prohibition of the "Metropol"
The literary authorities, having learned about the intention of the compilers of the Metropol, to publish the almanac bypassing the officially established path, sharply criticized this idea. All the compilers, except for Aksenov, who turned up from the meeting, were summoned for a conversation at the secretariat of the Moscow Writers' Organization.
After these conversations, trying to rectify the situation, the creators of the almanac sent a letter to Brezhnev and Zimyanin asking them to sort out this issue. There was no official response to the letter, but soon after it was sent, a joint meeting of the party committee and the secretariat of the board of the Moscow Writers' Organization dedicated to the Metropol was organized. All the speakers, fearing to incur the wrath of the official authorities, agreed in a unanimous opinion condemning the very fact of drawing up an uncensored publication.
The statements of the compilers present at the meeting that they did not intend to send the manuscript abroad and that they were driven solely by concern for the spiritual enrichment of Soviet literature could not influence the decision. The day after the meeting, the creators of the almanac canceled the official presentation of "Metropol" and a press conference dedicated to this event.
In Moscow, 12 copies of the almanac were published by the samizdat method, one of which was sent to the United States. In America, "Metropol" was replicated by the publishing house "Ardis", first as a reprint, a little later in a newly typed form.
Tamizdat - books published outside the USSR and illegally distributed on its territory. Tamizdat as a historical phenomenon appeared at the same time as samizdat, and was associated with it on the principle of communicating vessels.
Violation of party-commanding bans led to a number of punitive measures directed against various participants and creators of the almanac. Most of the authors came under an unspoken ban, which did not prevent them from actively publishing abroad.