Censorship and its counterpart, the `underground' production and distribution of printed texts and images, existed ever since a `public sphere' came into being. The volume approaches this phenomenon by covering cases from the Tsarist Empire, the Soviet Union, Central Europe, South America and China. In a long-term as well as global perspective, the well-known practise of samizdat under communist rule may be understood as part of a long tradition of underground publishing still relevant today in places like Russia, Iran, or China.

Jan C. Behrends is researcher at the Centre for Contemporary History in Potsdam, and teaches East European History at Humboldt-University, Berlin. Thomas Lindenberger is head of the department "Communism and Society" at the Centre for Contemporary History in Potsdam and adjunct professor for Modern and Contemporary History at the University of Potsdam.