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Samizdat

Samizdat

A conceptual series of stamps embodying the rebellious spirit of the post-Stalinist Soviet Union. Encrypted details, revealed only through a magnifying glass, symbolically reference the Samizdat movement, the clandestine network of social and political dissent in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

[iED]
TURIN,IT
2019
Art Direction
   rESEARCH
   VISUAL NARRATIVE
   TYPOGRAPHY
Editoral
   GRID SYSTEM
   PRINT DESIGN

One of the Samizdat

A typographer who refused silence. In a censored regime, he chose print as his quiet resistance, a silent act of courage against oppression.

Worn Soviet envelope featuring a black-and-white portrait of a young political dissident. This envelope serves as the base for the conceptual Samizdat stamp series, symbolising resistance through print.

Stamps of Defiance

Through hidden designs, he turned stamps into silent witnesses of forbidden truths, small artifacts of resistance, secretly delivered across borders.

Soviet envelope featuring printed ornamentation in the style of the post-Stalinist era, with stamps from the Samizdat series. Tied to the dissident in the previous image, the envelope becomes a silent artifact of political resistance and underground communication.

1.

Space

Watch

Triumph

First Space Network:

Orbiting Satellite Monitoring Celebration.

Samizdat

   SINTAKSIS

​

Author

   ALEXANDER GINZBURG

1. Space Watch Triumph

First Space Network:

Orbiting Satellite Monitoring Celebration.

Samizdat

   SINTAKSIS

​

Author

   ALEXANDER GINZBURG

Conceptual postage stamp from the Samizdat series, themed on space surveillance and global observation, blending Soviet aesthetics with symbolic references to control and triumph.

Encrypted elements

A Jewish Cemetery

From poetry: a Jewish cemetery.

The lights beneath the Kremlin represent over 200 Gulags that caused thousands of deaths between 1930 and 1953.

The fence

The orbits represent a fence through which we can observe the victims, including Alexander Ginzburg, the first author to refuse anonymity.

Close-up of the Kremlin on the Samizdat stamp, with dotted lights symbolising a Jewish cemetery and over 200 Gulags active between 1930 and 1953.
Close-up of the orbit lines on the Samizdat stamp, representing a symbolic fence through which victims are observed, including Alexander Ginzburg.

2.

Nikita

Khrushchev celebration

Celebrating Nikita Khrushchev:

the man against collectivization and totalitarianism.

Samizdat

   FENIKS

​

Author

   JURI GALANSKOV

2. Nikita Khrushchev celebration

Celebrating Nikita Khrushchev:

the man against collectivization and totalitarianism.

Samizdat

   FENIKS

​

Author

   JURI GALANSKOV

Conceptual postage stamp from the Samizdat series, featuring a silhouette of Nikita Khrushchev against a radial red background, symbolising his stance against collectivization and totalitarianism.

Encrypted elements

THE SAVIOR

After denouncing Stalin’s crimes, Khrushchev orders the opening of psychiatric hospitals to confine political opponents.

THE FLY

From the text “The Human Manifesto” of Feniks: “Man has vanished, insignificant like a fly”.

Close-up of Nikita Khrushchev’s silhouette on the Samizdat stamp, encircled by rays and the year 1894, referencing his role in denouncing Stalin and his contradictions in repressing political dissent.
Detail of the Samizdat stamp featuring a small fly above Khrushchev’s name, referencing Feniks’ text “The Human Manifesto” and symbolising human insignificance.

3.

Russian

Space

Odyssey

Exhibition of the great Russian space projects: preparation and training for spaceflight.

Samizdat

   BOOMERANG

​

Author

   VLADIMIR OSIPOV

3. Russian Space Odyssey

Exhibition of the great Russian space projects:

preparation and training for spaceflight.

Samizdat

   BOOMERANG

​

Author

   VLADIMIR OSIPOV

Conceptual postage stamp from the Samizdat series, depicting a Soviet rocket launch and orbital rings, symbolising space exploration training programs and the Soviet space race in 1960.

Encrypted elements

THE BOOMERANG

Five boomerangs form the Soviet star, in memory of Osipov’s sacrifice, sentenced to seven years in labor camps for anti-Soviet propaganda.

THE TRAIL

The soaring trail of the Russian Monument to the Conquerors of Space, conceived to celebrate the Soviet Union’s triumph and cosmic ambition, reveals instead a path of suffering.

Close-up of the Soviet star on the Samizdat stamp, formed by five boomerangs in memory of Osipov’s imprisonment for anti-Soviet dissent.
Detail of the soaring trail and monument silhouette on the Samizdat stamp, referencing the Conquerors of Space and reframing Soviet triumph as a path of suffering.
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