Technology

Optima was produced by a typewriter; the brand of the typewriter is Leningrad. In the images, this is how the typewriter looks like (this is not the actual one produced Optima). Typewriters are printing machines; it is like movable printing. It prints characters one at a time and produces words. Namely, papers were put into the paper slot then press the key to print the character on the paper. Indeed, every character has a uniform look. However, different models of typewriters have different fonts.

During the time Optima was produced, typewriters should be registered by the government. However, those typewriters were used to produce samizdats were unregistered. Therefore, the government could not trace the unregistered typewriter to find out who was the author of the samizdat.