Editing Samizdat (section)

==Readership==
[[File:Samizdat Pages Closeup 1.jpg|thumb|A closeup of typewritten samizdat, Moscow]]
Samizdat originated from the dissident movement of the Russian [[intelligentsia]], and most samizdat directed itself to a readership of Russian elites. While circulation of samizdat was relatively low, at around 200,000 readers on average, many of these readers possessed positions of cultural power and authority.{{sfn|Stelmakh|2001|p=147}} Furthermore, with the simultaneous censorship of information and necessity of absorbing information to know how to censor it, many government officials became readers of samizdat.{{sfn|Meerson-Aksenov|Shragin|1977|p=22}} Although the general public at times came into contact with samizdat, most of the public lacked access to the few expensive samizdat texts in circulation and expressed discontent with the highly censored reading material made available by the state.{{sfn|Stelmakh|2001|p=149}}

The purpose and methods of samizdat may contrast with the purpose of the concept of copyright.<ref>{{harvnb|Feldbrugge|1975|p=23}}: "Another legal aspect of samizdat literature is the copyright problem. [...] It grew into an important issue when the Soviet government, in an apparent attempt to impede the publication of samizdat materials abroad, joined the Geneva Convention in 1973. [...] Well-known Soviet authors, such as Solzhenitsyn, whose works regularly appear in samizdat in the Soviet Union have never claimed that their copyright was infringed by the samizdat procedure."</ref>