What books are people reading in Russia in the fifth year of the full-scale war? And why couldn’t the state...

What books are people reading in Russia in the fifth year of the full-scale war? And why did the state fail to make propaganda popular?

Russia’s book industry is going through hard times. Falling sales, rising prices, censorship, the departure of Western writers and publishers, and a glut of propaganda books could not but affect what Russians are reading today.

On top of that, old books are increasingly being republished in the country: forgotten classics, old detective stories and horror novels. What does their popularity say about readers and publishers? And how did the battle over the literary past end in Russia?

Literary critic Galina Yuzefovich answers these questions in an article for Carnegie Politika. Meduza is publishing the article in full.

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What books are people reading in Russia in the fifth year of the full-scale war? And why did the state fail to make propaganda popular?

Russia’s book industry is going through hard times. Falling sales, rising prices, censorship, the departure of Western writers and publishers, and a glut of propaganda books could not but affect what Russians are reading today. On top of that, the country is increasingly…