As Russian strikes destroy millions of books, Ukraine's literary future hangs in the balance

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KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Seconds before the Russian drone struck, Viktor Kruglov was thinking about textbooks — tens of thousands of them, and how to get them to Ukrainian schools faster.

Minutes later, a second explosive-laden Shahed drone hit, laying waste to the main hub of his publishing house, Ranok, in northeastern Kharkiv.

“Steel was blazing and burning,” Kruglov said of the Aug. 1 attack, adding that the huge warehouse's reinforced concrete melted and the roof caved in.

The blaze burned for almost a week, reducing millions of books to ash.

Ukraine’s publishing industry is facing its worst crisis yet, driven by targeted Russian attacks — part of a broader culture war in which nearly 5,000 cathedrals, churches, museums, theaters and other cultural sites have been destroyed or damaged and 35,000 art objects looted.

More than 13 million books — a third of the country’s annual print run — were destroyed in two months this summer, causing at least $39.3 million (1.75 billion hryvnias) in damage, the Ministry of Culture said.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov did not respond to an Associated Press request for comment about the Russian strikes on Ukraine's publishing infrastructure.

Despite a surge in demand for Ukrainian-language books following Russia’s 2022 invasion, the destruction is setting the industry back — and the losses go beyond money. Publishers are expected to invest less in debut authors, threatening the future of Ukrainian literature. Small, independent houses may publish less or close altogether, narrowing the market, while larger publishers play it safe and lean on bestsellers.

“This is a deliberate policy of Russia because they understand that culture is what makes us feel resilient, what makes us feel the owners of our land, of our destiny,” said Tetiana Berezhna, Ukraine’s culture minister.

Besides Ranok, at least 40 other publishing houses and multiple bookstores have suffered damage in recent weeks.

“This is a huge blow to the industry, and if we don’t move quickly to put strategic support measures in place … the industry could collapse entirely,” Kruglov said, adding that the book industry is an “element of Ukraine’s national security.”

The Ranok warehouse Russia destroyed opened in 2013 as an automated logistics hub capable of processing tens of thousands of books a day, Kruglov said.

“There were difficult periods" for Ranok, he said, tied to the 2008 global economic crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic, "but no one could have imagined that almost a year’s turnover for Ranok could be destroyed at once.”

The strike destroyed 8 million books, including 620,000 textbooks, which Ranok supplies to nearly all of Ukraine’s schools.

Still, Kruglov said the company has backup warehouses and stores all its files in the cloud. “That’s probably what’s keeping us going, because we’re able to reprint books, and we’ve kept our team,” he said.

For Culture Minister Berezhna, the latest attacks are part of Russia's “systematic” destruction of Ukrainian heritage. “They’ve been doing it for centuries,” she said.

She points to the 19th century, when much of modern Ukraine was part of the Russian Empire, and Russia issued decrees banning or severely restricting the publishing and public speaking of the Ukrainian language.

“But still, the Ukrainian language exists. Ukrainian literature exists. We have the books in our libraries, which were kept in secret from the very old ages, and they still exist,” she said.

“It shows us the hope that Ukraine will stay strong.”

Still, there are many immediate challenges.

The attacks have hit publishers financially, Berezhna said, hurting their ability to invest in new authors. Debut writers are costly to publish, compared with the safer, more profitable bet of bestsellers and established translated literature.

These “newcomers, debut literature, in 100 years will become Ukrainian classics that will tell the world about Ukraine,” she said, adding that she fears there will be less support for young Ukrainian authors.

That's why the ministry is working on putting together a financial support package for the industry, including state purchases of Ukrainian books for school libraries, grants to help small publishing houses cover printing costs, rent compensation for bookstores and a war-risk insurance program for print runs.

But many in the publishing industry say it's not enough.

Months after a Russian missile tore through the ceiling of the Konvi print shop in July, burned pages of fourth-grade English textbooks still littered the floor and paper sat frozen inside the destroyed printing machine.

Before the attack, millions of books a year were printed in this space, where there’s now nothing but piles of swollen book stock, ruined after firefighters put out the blaze. The print shop specialized in fiction, educational material and scientific literature.

Viktoriia Haidai, the shop’s commercial director, said replacing the printing press will cost 1.2 million euros ($1.37 million) and it will take four to five years to fully restore capacity.

The Russians are striking shops like hers, she said, because “we are critical infrastructure, because we shape the future — we work on education, on culture. We work to preserve history."

"Without this, no nation has a future.”

Textbook printing that once took three to four months will stretch to six to seven months, she said. This threatens deadlines for next year and beyond.

"It’s not just the large printing houses that are suffering,” she said. “Many small printers, who don’t make themselves known publicly, have also been destroyed.”

“The losses the Ukrainian book industry has suffered in recent months are unlike anything it has seen in the country’s entire history of independence,” said Iryna Baturevych, co-founder of Chytomo, Ukraine’s leading voice on books and publishing.

Among the risks, she said, is the survival of small, independent publishers, which threatens to shrink market diversity, especially in niche and experimental literature.

Children’s literature is also in crisis, she said. With so many children having left the country, publishers are diversifying into other genres, and authors are leaving the profession.

Baturevych said the state will likely find funding to keep textbooks in print, but there’s less certainty about the rest of the industry.

Ukraine's financial resources aren’t enough to rebuild infrastructure like printing houses and warehouses because the state’s primary focus is on fighting Russia. Roksolana Pidlasa, head of the Ukrainian Parliament’s budget committee, said that as of September, a single day of war costs Ukraine $190 million.

“We don’t forget that right now, if there’s no support for the military, there may be nothing left to rebuild at all,” Baturevych said. “So I’d say there’s a huge need to support Ukrainian book publishing from foreign partners, because without that support, I don’t think Ukrainian publishing will make it.”

Kruglov said the industry needs three things from the Ukrainian government: preferential lending and insurance, similar to the below-market loans and war-risk coverage other manufacturing sectors get; investment to rebuild the industry’s infrastructure, and steps to boost demand for reading and books.

Publishers currently can’t access those loans because their assets involve intellectual property and not the real estate or equipment needed as collateral.

“I hope the state will help, because there can be no independent Ukraine without independent publishing," Kruglov said.

"The Ukrainian book is the one product that cannot be imported.”