If you happened to visit the Czech Republic last Saturday during the EU Open House, you may have seen a few cases with books and other odd items inside, unmarked and unexplained. Those actually belong to an art show called Samizdat: The Czech Art of Resistance 1968-1989, which opened on Tuesday at the Embassy of the Czech Republic
Samizdat means “self-published.” A Russian term, it refers to any underground publication banned during Communist rule in the USSR and Soviet bloc. It includes essays, books, art, and poems. From Sex Pistols lyrics to indie rock, it was all illegal.