Bootleg photocopying flourishes in USSR
MOSCOW (AP) — If, as the saying
goes, two men and a printing press can
make a revolution, what can one man
and a copying machine do?
In the Soviet Union, where the dis
tribution of information is tightly con
trolled by the government, the number
of photocopying machines is limited
and access to them is closely guarded
Westerners here estimate there are
fewer than 20,000 copiers in the Soviet
Union — about 2 percent of the world
wide total — and the number is not
expected to improve markedly
Those machines that are here are
off-limits, often locked in special
rooms, according to Soviet sources
Soviet citizens say that to copy
papers at their jobs, they usually need
permission from three people an im
mediate supervisor, that person's boss
and an official of the organization s
security surveillance apparatus
Then, someone else does the actual
copying
Even senior Soviet officials appar
ently have difficulty getting quick ac
cess to the machines
Foreign businessmen in Moscow say
they sometimes have had to interrupt
negotiations at Soviet government for
eign trade departments and return to
their own offices to duplicate contracts,
after Soviet officials told them without
explanation that the documents could
not be copied there
Nevertheless, the Soviet government
may not be able to control the flow of
information as closely as it would like
The copying of materials for personal
use is said to be widespread, satisfying
the intellectual hunger of the intel
ligentsia — not to mention a craving for
more money among copying machine
operators
Access to copying machines — like
access to many goods in short supply
here — apparently depends on whom
one knows One Soviet said recently,
"The best way to get something copied
is by having a friend whose job it is to
copy things "
With such friends, Russians some
times get to read books and articles the
government regards as politically un
acceptable, or those simply in short
supply That is no small advantage in a
country where all printed materials are
censored for political content, and the
works of even politically acceptable
Russian writers such as Leo Tolstoy
and the beloved poet Alexander Push
kin are chronically hard to find in
government-run bookstores
In the case of copying machines,
though, the old Russian proverb "bet
ter 100 friends than 100 rubles” may
not apply Better both 100 friends and
100 rubles
It is said by Russians to cost as much
as 25 rubles (about $33 and about 15
percent of the average Russian's
monthly salary) to have a book re
produced in Moscow by a copying ma
chine operator, unofficially working for
himself But business apparently is
flourishing.
Underground Soviet religious groups
use copying machines and under
ground print shops to distribute their
literature, and Russians say several
copies of works by exiled author Alex
ander Solzhenitsyn and other out-of
favor writers have been made and
passed among dissidents and intellec
tuals
All such activity is not religious or
political, however
Last October, a 53-year-old Soviet
Georgian man was reported to have
been expelled from the Communist
Party and fired from his job after mak
ing more than 100 bootleg copies of
Mario Puzo's novel, "The Godfather."
Song books also have been re
produced from copied scores
The copying of such materials for
personal use is not without its dangers.
One citizen says the copying of mater
ials for personal use “can be very dan
gerous. You have to be very cautious
and know your colleagues in copying
rooms very well.”
The Soviet criminal code provides for
a seven-year prison term for "circulat
ing or preparing or keeping" literary
materials that “defame the Soviet state
and social system.”
Furry beast
mimics
kangaroo
TULSA, Okla (AP) - The
furry creature that had residents
hopping over the weekend was
not a kangaroo after all, but a
Patagonian cavy. described by
authorities as a cross between a
rabbit and guinea pig
The identity crisis was solved
Sunday after city animal control
officers were called to a north
Tulsa home to catch a kangaroo
in a backyard
"When I got there, there was
this animal, about 25 pounds, 2
to 2Vi feet long, lying in the back
yard resting,” Arthur Dunn, an
animal control officer, said
Monday
A crowd of residents in the
area had been unable to catch
the beast Two officers finally
cornered if and took it to the
Tulsa Zoo, where it was iden
tified and treated tor a leg injury
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