Valetov and Buzhansky complain about the lack of books in Russian
30 April 2024 13:06
Ukrainian Russian-language writer Yan Valetov complained about the lack of Russian language at the Book Country festival in Kyiv. Valetov wrote about this on Facebook, and was supported in his comments by MP from the Servant of the People party Max Buzhansky, "Komersant Ukrainian" reports
on 25-28 April, a new large book fair, Book Country, was held for the first time, attended by representatives of the largest Ukrainian publishing houses, writers, literary critics, book bloggers and media stars.
Yan Valetov shared his impressions of the festival, saying that, according to his observations, the Ukrainian “book market is certainly more dead than alive”.
“There are a lot of people, a lot of books, the book market is certainly more dead than alive, but rumours of its death are greatly exaggerated… But. Not a single book in Russian. Not a single performance in Russian. Russian-speaking visitors are happy to buy books in Ukrainian. People easily switch from language to “tongue” and from “tongue” to language. Naturally, so to speak. Everything is in place – sellers, books, and the public. Only there is no Russian. There is English. But there is no Russian,”
– the writer noted.
Valyetov believes that Vladimir Putin “threw Russian out of the public sphere in Ukraine, took it to the garbage dump.
“In a country where Russian felt comfortable, where it was at home, now it is not even a guest. She won’t even be allowed to stand at the door. Do I feel bad? Yes. Do I feel pain? Yes. Do I understand the reasons for what is happening? Of course I do… It’s sad. But nothing can be changed,”
– the writer laments.
Max Buzhansky supported him in his comments, stating that it was not Putin who contributed to the disappearance of the Russian language from book festivals in Ukraine, but “the previous government with the law on language and the current one, which did not repeal it”.
“Google search statistics have not changed, this is a fact. And all this has only led to the fact that just as we have two economies, a small real economy and a huge shadow economy, there are also two cultural spheres. One with a dead book market that dreams of being alive but cannot. And the other, with Kharkiv pirates, Flibusta, books from Kazakhstan and Estonia, films with HD cuts, etc. It is a fact that Putin broke the cultural community for those who had it, but most of them never had it, and they have their own Russian language even without the Russian Federation, and they are powerless to influence it in any way,” the “servant” wrote.
According to him, the ban on the Russian language will negatively affect the country’s pro-European course.
“All our language nonsense is just a scrap, firmly and personally inserted into the wheel of movement towards the EU, they do not recognise this, and it will have to be unwound with a crunch later,” Buzhansky concluded.
