International Samizdat [Research] Association

The International Samizdat [Research] Association (IS[R]A) is an informal network of scholars, archives, museums, research centers and other institutions and individuals from around the world that preserve, research, teach or study the samizdat phenomenon.

The IS[R]A concept took shape in 2004 through discussions between the OSA Archivum (Budapest), Memorial Center (Moscow), and Forschungsstelle Osteuropa (Bremen). The name IS[R]A was taken from the International Samizdat Association, which was founded in 1976 by the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty with the aim "to encourage efforts to make the texts of [samizdat] documents most readily available to libraries and individual scholars, as well as to support research projects which make use of samizdat materials for scholarly research purposes". Today, 30 years later, our goal is to encourage and support international research in samizdat, dissent and alternative culture by building a network of scholars and professionals; through coordination and collaboration; and with the intelligent use of information technologies and open standards for long-term preservation and broad access. Membership is open to institutions and individuals who are actively engaged in samizdat-related activities and who are willing to collaborate in archival, research, publishing and educational projects.

IS[R]A's activities fall into four categories: Samizdat Text Corpora [archival program], Community Commons [network program], Shared Knowledge [research program] and Learning Net [educational program]. For more see: www.samizdatportal.org