“Samizdat” is a podcast about the editorial cultural heritage, sometimes invisible, but which formed us without being too aware of this fact. The architecture of the book, the illustration, the texts, and the authors behind them come with captivating stories both visually and narratively.
We’ve seen and heard various stories about the glorious times during the soviets in Moldovan book publishing, but we never got too close to touch the real stories of the people behind it all that are still alive and can still speak about its greatness.
Something that is unique and precious, but not necessarily very visible. Something that shaped our taste as children.
What’s a better way to explain the meaning of the word ”samizdat” than to quote the definition from a dictionary. So here is what we stumbled upon:
/ samizdat / noun
sa·miz·dat | \ ˈsä-mēz-ˌdät \
Portmanteau of Russian ‘sam’ (self) and ‘izdatel’stvo’ (publisher); literally self-published. Samizdat was the term given to clandestine reproduction and distribution of government-suppressed literature in Soviet countries. The forbidden texts were copied a few at a time, typewritten or written by hand and often using carbon paper. These reproductions were then distributed among friends or sold, and the recipients of the texts would often go on to make more copies, and so on.
source: Urban Dictionary
Samizdat Podcast came to life thanks to 3 women from congenial fields, united to gather the stories from people who can relate to the Moldovan publishing history, whether we talk about its content or the design.
And here comes the team:
Veronica Zubcu — does marketing for a local ecommerce and is very passionate about literature, for this reason she also developed a passion for the publishing field, which she previously revealed on the literary website “HaiBun”.
Anna Vasina — is mixing two areas such as graphic design and cultural management. She studied at the State Pedagogical University in the graphics department, and strengthened her professional experience through various internships in Bucharest, Sarajevo. She also worked in Chisinau in several design studios. Emphasizes letters, books and design research.
Eva Mocanu — studied printmaking and design at the National University of Arts George Enescu, Iași, Romania and the University of Murcia, Spain. Graduated Interior Design faculty at the College of Construction from Chisinau. She is an ambassador of the No Hate movement and has an increased interest in human rights, plus 8 years of experience as a trainer working with young people.
Our motivation
The publishing industry of Moldova is an undiscovered and unknown field for most of the local folks and, unfortunately it doesn’t get the attention it deserves. Our team wants to show our society how fascinating book printing can be, how scrupulous and creative is the work behind all illustrations you find in children’s books or in other printed materials. It is a whole world we must discover and talk about. Our passion drives us further and we want you to come along in this journey.
Our aim
We aim to have discussions with graphic artists, designers, poets, theorists and talk about the publishing phenomenon in the Soviet and contemporan Moldova. These discussions are happening in the format of a podcast, the languages of interaction being Romanian and Russian. Therefore, we have decided to supplement each episode with a descriptive article in English, here on Medium.
In the summer of 2020, Eva participated in the National Academy of Female Leadership, organized by the Platform for Gender Equality /Platforma pentru Egalitate de Gen/.
Following the academy, we applied for a grant, so the first episodes of Samizdat Podcast are created within the mini-grant program to support and strengthen women’s leadership skills that promote women’s rights, implemented within the ¨Moldova against discrimination¨ /Moldova împotriva discriminării/ project by the Platforma pentru Egalitate de Gen through Genter-Center /Gender-Centru/ in partnership with ERIM and GENDERDOC-M, with the financial support of the European Union. Therefore, in the next episodes we will have primarily interviews with women from the publishing and printing field, but male guests will appear as well.
