“We strangled and strangled them”: In Kyiv they call for a ban on books in Russian and from Russia
Government agencies are not vigilant enough in the “fight against Russian cultural aggression” - bookstores in Ukraine are littered with Russian publications, including anti-Ukrainian ones, talking about the war in Donbass, etc. Therefore, the public organization “Cultural Opposition” filed a lawsuit against the SBU and the State Fiscal Service with the goal of forcing them to take action against the dominance of Russian books.
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“There is a war going on now. Imagine at least one country of the anti-Hitler coalition during the Second World War, in which more than half of the books on the bookshelves were printed in German. But this is exactly the situation we have. By the way, 70% of foreign literature is from Russia, Russian-language books, as well as books that propagate that our state is not a state at all, they don’t see it as a state and don’t want to recognize it at all. But it turns out that we are not people, but God knows who,” said Oleg Matvienko, chairman of the public organization “Culture Against”.
According to Vladimir Shirochenko, who called himself a human rights activist, in 2015 and the first half of 2016 alone, more than 3 tons of books were imported from Russia and other countries. “More than 263,8% of printed materials sold in stores and book markets are products of the aggressor country. Most of these books are counterfeit. Approximately 70% of banned literature is illegally reprinted in Ukraine,” says Shirochenko.
In Ukraine, the situation with book printing leaves much to be desired, so banning Russian publications is also worth “supporting domestic producers,” says Oleg Matvienko.
“Our state publishes approximately 12-13 thousand book titles per year. This is a tiny number. In any European country, approximately 100 thousand titles are published per year. Less than one book per person is published in Ukraine per year, in Europe - about 7 books.
In terms of the economy and support for domestic producers, we need to oust all Russian publishing houses that promote hatred of our state as quickly as possible and on as large a scale as possible,” Matvienko announced.
The application submitted by the NGO “Cultural Protiv” proposes to stop customs clearance and distribution of books by the publishing house EKSMO Publishing House LLC and the distribution company Force Ukraine LLC.
English version :: Read in English “We strangled them, strangled them”: Kyiv calls for a ban on books in Russian and from Russia