Ukrainian books headed for extinction

Ukrainian Book Year is being celebrated in Ukraine. But instead of “Welcome!” publishers and booksellers are still hearing the words “Clear out!” Bookstores are continuing to feel pressure from more successful brands of clothing and perfumes. Until recently there were more than 2,000 large and small bookstores in Ukraine. Today only 370 remain.

Visitors to our capital still remember a nice shop called Notes on Khreshchatyk Boulevard. Many generations of musicians sought inspiration and music notes here — from simple children’s pieces to scores of majestic symphonies. Customers, amateurs and professionals alike, could always find books for every refined taste and preference, including the now almost extinct class of books on the lives and works of outstanding people.

A little farther away, near Kalinin Square (now Independence Maidan), there was a unique shop that doubled as the Poetry Club. Customers could leaf through their favorite books at leisure and discuss new literary works over a cup of coffee and mingle with poets. The salespeople kept abreast of all the latest books, knew the tastes and preferences of regular patrons, and could recommend something interesting to new shoppers.

But recalling these shops today is like reopening old wounds: they have all disappeared. For the past 10 years a boutique and a bank have been thriving in their place. These two stores are not the only ones that have disappeared. In the years of independence most of the specialized book sales outlets, once the pride of Kyiv’s residents and guests, have vanished off the capital’s map: Art, Subscription Publications, Propagandist, World Outlook, The Sports Book, New Generation, The Mailed Book, The Technical Book, The Book World, and The Medical Book. They have been replaced by boutiques, the symbol of today’s book-free time. “Active and aggressive takeover” is what Oleksandr Afonin, president of the Ukrainian Association of Book Publishers and Sellers, calls the eviction of bookstores and publishing houses from their premises in favor of clothing and fast-food outlets.

The main factor that has led to the unwarranted demise of bookstores is money. Those who sell books have never had any. Since most of these stores were located downtown or other crowded places, where rents are much higher than what book publishers and sellers can afford to pay, the municipal authorities are evicting non-solvent renters from expensive real estate properties. The local authorities invite bids for premises for which booksellers are financially incapable of making the highest bids.

Regional book retail outlets have met the same fate. The number of bookstores in Ukraine has dropped more than tenfold in the past decade, and the remnants of a once large network of bookstores are located mostly in big cities and some district centers.

Booksellers are in no position to deal with the appetites of sharp operators for rental profits — the municipal property monster is invincible. “For years everything that has been going on with book outlets in Kyiv and other cities has been based exclusively on corruption. Another factor is a new law that permits renting premises on a competitive basis only. This is the case of throwing a pike into the river! A purely legal excuse for grabbing everything that someone can lay his hands on,” Afonin says.

The lack of bookstores in downtown Kyiv is a sad reality today. But one bookstore, “the last of the Mohicans,” is still standing: the Znannia (Knowledge) store on 44 Khreshchatyk. This is also an old Kyiv shop that used to sell mainly schoolbooks, reference works, and required reading. Today it offers a huge assortment of publications in different price ranges, catering to all tastes. Znannia has adapted to the difficult market relations and managed not only to retain its previous positions but also to win new ones. Today, thanks to a wide selection of books, the normal sales turnover is between 8,000 and 10,000 copies a day. Last year its profits reached 3,400,000 hryvnias. Znannia also heads the national business rating list, having earned the second largest number of points in four categories: total sales, net profits, labor efficiency, and wages.

But despite Znannia’s long and glorious history, which is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year, the love of Kyiv residents and guests for this great store, and its current successes, nothing can save it from imminent closure. “You are guilty just because I’m hungry!” In the view of the municipal authorities, Znannia is “guilty” because it is located right in downtown Kyiv, where every inch of land is like gold. The municipal administration set its predatory eyes on this shop long ago, and the employees have been waging an unequal struggle with it for more than a year.

“We have been defending our right to privatize the premises since 2002,” says store manager Svitlana Varkhulova. “During this time we have sued successfully four times, and all rights belong to us under the law. But we have never been allowed to go private. Moreover, we were kept out of all the meetings of the Kyiv Council. That’s no surprise because a certain council member has been eyeing our premises as a place for one more boutique. Just the other day the Kyiv Housing Maintenance Authority notified us that our lease is expiring on Oct. 16, 2007.”

Another nail in the coffin is the decision to totally reconstruct the block stretching from Bohdan Khmelnytsky Street to Shevchenko Boulevard. Closure is thus a foregone conclusion. Those who invest in the updated block are sure to prefer a boutique. And who cares that soon it will be practically impossible to buy not just books but postcards or guidebooks to Kyiv on Khreshchatyk? Will boutiques, glassed malls, and slot machines become the main sights to see in the capital? Downtown Kyiv has been attracting tourists since time immemorial with its book culture, historic and cultural monuments, and green spaces. All these things are perishing before the very eyes of Kyiv residents to the accompaniment of the city authorities’ moving speeches about “reconstruction” and “restoration.”

“In spite of numerous appeals to local authorities, the situation remains the same both in Kyiv and the regions,” says Anatolii Murakhovsky, first deputy chairman of the State Television and Radio Committee. “What we need is government support for national book publishing and book selling. To this end, the committee has drafted the law ‘On Introducing Changes to Some Laws of Ukraine to Extend the Validity of Book Publishing Privileges.’ We have included clauses allowing bookstores to lease their current premises for at least 10 years, extend previously concluded leases, and be eligible for low tariffs. Unfortunately, central governmental bodies, such as the justice and finance ministries, the State Tax Administration, and other executive authorities, have flatly refused to support the draft law. But we are not going to take this lying down. Since the term of book printing privileges expires on Jan. 1, 2009, the committee is suggesting that this draft law be reconsidered in 2008.”

The State Television and Radio Committee is well aware that the draft law has serious opponents, including some in the topmost echelons of power, because the proposed document may set up a powerful legal barrier against illegitimate seizures of cultural facilities. “It will be very difficult to pass this law, but it is necessary today like never before,” Murakhovsky says. “In order to pull the Ukrainian book publishing industry out of the crisis, it is necessary to declare it a national priority, resolve the problem of the integrated management of this sector, create an all- Ukrainian book-sales network that will be able to market Ukrainian books with governmental assistance, and create proper conditions for attracting investments and private capital.”

Ukrainian Book Year, proclaimed this year by presidential decree, runs counter to reality. Tax exemptions for publishers, introduced in late 2006, have changed very little. Publishing houses continue to close, bookstores are being swallowed up, and the public’s interest in reading is dropping catastrophically.

Meanwhile, book publishing is an extremely profitable industry outside Ukraine. It would be wrong to say that we do not know how to achieve this in our country because the rules governing this kind of business are well known and obvious. But the state must create normal conditions for publishing. Today, large Russian publishing houses are channeling millions to Russia’s state budget, but they began to pay only once they turned into a cultural industry.

In Ukraine, however, the question of offering credits to publishing businesses has been raised repeatedly for the last 10 years with no apparent results in sight. The situation is also aggravated by the “grabbing instinct” of the municipal authorities. Striving to cash in on selling or leasing property, they are turning a blind eye to the de facto destruction of the city’s cultural heritage. If this trend continues, the next generation of Ukrainians will have to make do with restaurants and gambling machines, and the word ‘bookstore’ will become an anachronism.