russia has destroyed more than 200 million Ukrainian books (photo)
30 September 2024 16:12
During the full-scale invasion, the Russian military destroyed or damaged almost a thousand libraries, and with them more than 200 million Ukrainian books. This was was reported in the Office of the Commissioner for the Protection of the State Language, reports [Kommersant].
“During the full-scale invasion, Russian criminals destroyed or damaged almost a thousand libraries, and more than 200 million Ukrainian books with them. Our goal is to restore library collections as much as possible and establish this as a state priority,” the statement said.
In order to restore cultural life in the affected regions, the Free to Read in Ukrainian project was initiated, which aims to update library collections. In particular, the project aims to restore books in shelters and in Mykolaiv, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, Luhansk, Kharkiv, and Sumy regions.
In addition, the Russian military continues to destroy Ukrainian libraries. Thus, the occupiers destroyed The Korolenko Central City Library in Mariupol. In 2019, the library moved to a historic building in the heart of the city at 43 Hretska Street. The Korolenko Library moved more than 150,000 books from its collections here, and a modern coworking space was opened to host meetings with interesting people, cultural and artistic figures. But the occupiers destroyed the historic building during the blockade of the city. And with it, valuable copies of books.
Before the full-scale invasion, the library collection in Mariupol had 360,000 books. According to preliminary information, 50% of the publications were burned during the shelling or were eliminated as “extremist”.
In Izium (Kharkiv region), occupied in 2022, the Russian Armed Forces destroyed 70% of the library collection. They burned books, threw them into puddles, and used them instead of toilet paper.
Printing houses are also suffering from the Russian occupiers. For example, in March 2024, a Russian missile destroyed a printing house in Kharkiv that printed books by Ranok and Vivat publishing houses. The fire, which was caused by Russian shelling of Kharkiv, occurred over an area of 10,000 square metres. The fire was extinguished within a few hours.
This printing house printed books for almost all Ukrainian publishing houses and is one of the largest full-cycle printing complexes in Europe.
