An exhibition by the Moravian Library in Brno and the Museum für Kommunikation in Frankfurt on the occasion of the Czech Republic’s Guest of Honour appearance at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2026.
The exhibition explores the suppression of freedom and free expression under dictatorships.
The exhibition opens on 19 August 2026.
Samizdat comes from the Russian самиздат, a combination of сам (“self”) and издат, a shortened form of издательство (“publishing house”). In response to strict censorship and state control over all official publications in the Soviet Union and other Eastern European countries during the communist era, samizdat emerged as a means of secretly reproducing and distributing literature and other texts that were not considered ideologically acceptable by the authorities.
After state censorship had already been circumvented during the imperial period and the Nazi occupation of 1939–1945, a well-organised samizdat movement developed in Czechoslovakia over the following decades. Resistance groups published underground magazines, while artists and writers produced books that had not been approved for publication. Well-known authors, including Václav Havel, who later became president of the Czech Republic, were also part of the movement.
Alongside its history, the exhibition focuses on the materiality, design and diverse reproduction techniques of samizdat literature. Reproduction equipment was subject to strict state control throughout the communist era in Czechoslovakia, and those who used it faced severe penalties. Private individuals were generally permitted to own only typewriters; computers were initially out of the question, and even in the later years of the regime they remained rare.
As a result, much of the samizdat produced in Czechoslovakia consists of typescripts painstakingly typed by hand. Carbon copies and other reproduction methods, such as mimeography, a mechanical duplicating process, were also used. These materials reveal the creative ways in which the underground cultural movement challenged the repressive regime.
An exhibition by the Moravian Library in Brno and the Museum für Kommunikation in Frankfurt on the occasion of the Czech Republic’s Guest of Honour appearance at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2026.
