In December, Moscow libraries were provided with a list of books that must be destroyed due to the law banning “LGBT propaganda”. The list includes both award-winning authors and Russian activists.
This week, Moscow libraries received a list of books that have been ordered to be handed over to “recycling”, i.e. to be burned at a waste plant.
There are a total of 53 works on the list.
The matter is reported by several Russian media, for example independent Meduza (you will switch to another service) and Moscow Times (you will switch to another service).
Russia’s new, stricter “gay propaganda law” entered into force at the beginning of December.
In the past, it was forbidden to tell minors about sexual and gender minority jobs, at least in a positive spirit. The new law prohibits the presentation of “gay propaganda” regardless of age.
Russian journalist and writer Sergei Lebedenko shared a new list of banned books In Telegram (you switch to another service). The list includes numerous works by Western and Russian authors.
Among the Moscow libraries, for example, the American one has been classified as being destroyed by Michael Cunningham The Snow Queen, by an Irish author By John Boyne The Absolutist and A Ladder to the Sky,
The list also includes an award-winning Japanese author Haruki Murakami *Sputnik-my beloved -*work, by a British artist Stephen Fry the works Making History and Fry’s chronicles.
Russian writers on the list include, for example, a poet and a feminist activist Oksana Vasyakina and opposition politician Eduard Limonov.
The reason for the need for removal has been stated as “other reason”.
A message received by the libraries, recorded on December 16, says that the final decision on handing over the books would be made by the library managers.
However, the official order says that the law requires the delivery of banned books as waste.
In his Telegram message, Lebedenko emphasizes that libraries cannot simply hide banned books in storage, as the electronic information system prevents this.
Russian The Village (you will switch to another service)– publication, Moscow libraries have started to hide books by writers classified as foreign agents and writers who criticized the war, as well as works about sexual minorities.
However, adults have previously been able to get them to read in library reading rooms.
After the law prohibiting “LGBT propaganda” came into force, bookstore chains have also started to remove novels and non-fiction books dealing with sexual minorities from their selections.