Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the Russophone publishing landscape has undergone significant changes. Inside Russia, the government is introducing increasingly strict censorship and anti-LGBTQ+ legislation. Meanwhile, many authors have left the country and are seeking for ways to publish and distribute their work beyond Russia's borders.
In response, new literary networks are emerging outside of Russia. Publishing houses such as BAbook, Freedom Letters and Babel Books have establised themselves in various locations across Europe, distributing new titles both online and in bookshops. While these new novels are reaching Russophone communities outside Russia - and in some cases even wider audiences through translation - many are also circulating back into Russia via online platforms and apps, creating a contemporary form of digital tamizdat.
This paper surveys these new publishing networks. It examines who is publishing and distributing new Russophone texts outside of Russia, the infrastructures that sustain these networks, and the readerships they reach both in Russia and abroad. By tracing these new tamizdat practices, and comparing them to those of the Soviet past, this paper offers both a snapshot of the current Russophone literary scene outside Russia, and a framework for understanding how digital technologies are reshaping censorship, authorship, and literary solidarity.
