Voluntary pulping of Russian literary masterpieces by Ukrainians “out of disgust” – TV Courier

Andrea Nicastro / CorriereTv

KIEV – “The Brothers Karamazov” or “The Cherry Orchard” sent to be pulped into cardboard. The books of Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Turgenev and all others destroyed to tons. In Ukraine the masterpieces are thrown away of Russian literature to fight Putin’s invasion. It seems unacceptable, even if it happens in war-traumatized Ukraine. Anyone who fell in love with Anna Karenina or Count Vronsky as a young man, anyone who believes in freedom of thought (and of the press and of art) has a big moral and intellectual toad to swallow. The matter, then, evokes the bonfire of books of Hitlerian memory and the embarrassment grows. But you know, behind every action, even the most reckless, there are always reasons. And luckily, all is not as it seems. Iryna Dziula and Nadya Kibenko, respectively responsible for the bookstore “The Splendor of Books” in Kiev and the municipal bookshops department of the Kiev city hall, try to explain so much beauty to pulping. «This used to be the headquarters of the Union of Ukrainian Literature Workers of the USSR, now it is more modestly one of the bookstores of the Kyiv Municipality. Even before the war we only sold Ukrainian volumes and when we reopened in May after the end of the Russian attack on the capital, we also started a “Ukrainian club” for teach Russian speakers to speak the language of the country that defended them. Many, many wanted leave the Russian behind, stop speaking the language of those who killed their children, grandchildren, husbands and have come to class. But that wasn’t enough – says Iryna -. Especially people above i 50 years old that in school they had studied only in Russian they told us about no longer wanting to deal with more than just the language, but also with Russian literature. However, since they had been educated in the sacred respect of books, they didn’t know how to do it». Hence the idea of do not throw them away, but recycle them. «Bring them to us, we will help the country defend itself». «The initiative is – explains Nadya – it has spread. From July to November 3 thousand people took us 115 thousand volumes for 72 tons of paper. With the proceeds we have bought a military car and we have already delivered it to the Kherson front». The cellar of the library is already starting to fill up again.
Peering through the volumes, however, brings a little comfort. There are not many super classics, 19th century Russian authors, mostly with stories of opposition to the tsarist regime. It is mainly about “Soviet libraries” as Iryna defines them: biographies of the heroes of communism, manuals of the perfect pioneer, reviews of poets in the service of workers and so on. A lady enters the bookshop with her son to bring his bundle for pulping. She had been a teacher of Russian literature in Moscow, then with independence she preferred the Ukraine of her grandparents. “Here is Tolstoy’s son, who was also a deputy to the Moscow Duma, this is a paperback edition of Dostoevsky’s The Idiot.” But lady, why does he do it? «Out of disgustbecause the authors that I also loved very much have produced that people who are attacking us. I do it so as not to have them under my eyes anymore, to learn to think in Ukrainian, to cut off all ties with the assassins». Ma’am, do you really not mind giving up the Idiot or the masterpieces of Gogol or Pushkin? The former teacher hesitates, she looks at her son who could be called to fight. “Now I just can’t imagine being able to read them. Maybe at the end of the warmaybe when this madness is over. And – keep your voice down – I have another edition of Idiota at home».