Ukraine purges 19 million Russian, Soviet-era books from libraries

A Ukraine official confirmed last week that the country pulled from its libraries 19 million books that were either in Russian or were written in the Soviet era as of November 2022. Eleven million of those books are in Russian.

Ukrainian parliament’s Humanitarian and Information Policy Committee Deputy Chair Yevheniya Kravchuk said that some books in Ukrainian from the Soviet era have been withdrawn as well, and the government is also now considering banning books by writers who did not support Ukraine in the war.

"Some Ukrainian-language books from the Soviet era are also written off," Kravchuk on the website of the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliament.

"There are also recommendations to write off and remove books whose authors supported armed aggression against Ukraine."

It is unclear what was done with the books that were withdrawn.

The move came after Ukraine decided in mid-2022 to halt the distribution of Russian books after Russia’s invasion. Books by Russian authors may only be printed if the writers denounce their Russian citizenship and become citizens of Ukraine. Russian literature, such as that written by Alexander Pushkin or Leo Tolstoy, may enter Ukraine if they were printed in a country other than Russia or Belarus.

But still, not all such literature is permitted. Last year, Ukraine First Deputy Education Minister Andrey Vitrenko announced that Tolstoy’s “War and Peace” will no longer be studied in schools because it depicts the Russian military in a positive light.

It is also forbidden to play Russian music in public, on television and on the radio.

Ukraine’s purge of Russian culture comes despite the country’s citizens having strong ties and roots to the culture.

A survey by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology showed that one in three Ukrainians speak mostly or only Russian, meaning Ukraine’s “de-Russification” laws are putting those citizens at a disadvantage.

Also impacted by Ukraine’s Russia purge are residents of Ukraine’s Donbas region, which remains the area of contention between the two East Slavic countries. The majority of Donbas residents consider themselves Russian and, according to reports, see the Ukraine government as their oppressor with Russian President Vladimir Putin as their hopeful liberator.

Censorship has been a major part of Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s response to the Russian invasion. In March 2022, a month after the war began, the actor-turned-president signed a decree to nationalize the media by consolidating all TV networks into one state-run outlet so that there will be a “unified information policy". 

At the same time, Zelenskyy banned 11 opposition parties in Ukraine’s Parliament which he accused of Russia collusion. 

“The activities of those politicians aimed at division or collusion will not succeed, but will receive a harsh response,” said the embattled president in a video address. 

“Therefore, the National Security and Defense Council decided, given the full-scale war unleashed by Russia, and the political ties that a number of political structures have with this state, to suspend any activity of a number of political parties for the period of martial law.”