Libraries have begun removing from open access books published with the involvement of “foreign agents.” Among them are works by Pushkin, school textbooks, and children’s fairy tales

Libraries have begun removing from open access books published with the involvement of “foreign agents.” Among them are works by Pushkin, school textbooks, and children’s fairy tales

Russian libraries are removing from open access books in which “foreign agents” served as editors, compilers, translators, or authors of introductory articles, sources in the library sector in three regions told “Verstka.”

For example, a library employee in Krasnodar Krai told “Verstka” that at first the institution moved all books whose authors were “foreign agents” into closed storage, but recently the list was expanded to include works published with their involvement.

“The acquisitions department checks the database and finds all editions in the collection connected to the surnames of foreign agents. Our library doesn’t even have a computer, so all of this is handed down to us from above. Everyone understands: this is madness, but unfortunately it is part of a librarian’s job instructions,” she says.

Some of these works belong to classical, children’s, and educational literature. The list includes the collection The Minor. Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow. Podshchipa, compiled by Alexander Arkhangelsky, a collection of Turgenev’s works with an introduction by Dmitry Bykov, and the book Zuleikha Opens Her Eyes with an introductory note by Lyudmila Ulitskaya.

Another library employee from Rostov Region also confirmed that in her institution there had been cases of classical works connected to “foreign agents” being moved to the closed collection. According to her, the list of such works is published on the “National Book Platform” in the “Destructive Lists” section.

As “Verstka” found, the list now includes collections by Alexander Pushkin, Ivan Bunin, and Boris Pasternak in which Alexander Arkhangelsky was the author of the introduction or the compiler, as well as literature textbooks for schoolchildren compiled by him.

“If this ‘foreign agent’ is also an extremist (Akunin, for example), the books are stored separately and not issued at all, and the book cards are removed from the catalogs. If there is no space to store them separately, the books may be written off, but not as waste paper, rather for destruction,” the interlocutor of “Verstka” added.

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