Ukraine could remove a million books from libraries

The director of the Ukrainian Book Institute, Oleksandra Koval, estimated that more than 100 million copies of “propaganda” books, including Russian classics, should be removed from public libraries in Ukraine.

“It would be good to remove at least ideologically harmful literature published in Soviet times (by the way, in two languages, Russian and Ukrainian), as well as Russian anti-Ukrainian literature by the end of the year,” Koval said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.

She stated that during the process of preparing regulations, it is difficult to predict how many such books there are, but that she estimates that there may be more than 100 million copies in public libraries.

According to her, it is primarily a matter of withdrawing from public libraries books of anti-Ukrainian content with imperial narratives and propaganda of violence, pro-Russian, chauvinistic politics.

“The second round of seizures will include books by contemporary Russian authors published in Russia after 1991, and probably various genres, including children’s books, and love novels, and detective stories. This is an obvious demand of the time. Although I understand it may be in demand,” she said. is she.

Asked whether this process implies the removal of Russian classics from libraries, Koval said that there are many opponents of that, but that no one provided arguments why it could not be done.

“We have all read these books, in my school years Russian classics were considered the pinnacle of world literature. Due to the fact that we knew world classics quite indirectly, many remained convinced that it is truly literature without which it is impossible to develop intelligence and aesthetic feelings. an educated man. In fact, that is not the case, “Koval said.

According to her, it was Russian poets and writers like Alexander Pushkin and Fyodor Dostoevsky who laid the foundations of the “Russian measure” and Russian messianism.

It is actually very harmful literature, it can really influence people’s attitudes. So my personal opinion is that these books should also be removed from public and school libraries. They should probably stay in university and research libraries for experts to study the roots of evil and totalitarianism, “Koval stressed.