It did exist, but KGB realized it was thread early on and prevented mass adoption. The access to ability to photocopy has highly restricted, but it did not prevent people from copying forbidden literature. https://ethw.org/Oral-History:Vladimir_Fridkin
> KGB realized it was thread early on and prevented mass adoption
I don't think they had to actually "prevent" it — just as jeans, baby diapers, disposable paper towels and stockings, USSR was just very bad at consumer items. It didn't even had real mass adoption of toilet paper.
While true, samizdat was already a threat to the regime and I’m sure the wide availability of photocopiers would have made that a much bigger headache for the Soviet government. They already resorted to registering typewriters because that’s how samizdat was typically produced and copied.
