Jubilee of Salvation

The date cannot be regarded as absolutely certain, mildly speaking. Experts (e.g., Dmytro Chyzhevsky, et al.) believe that the Ostromirove Gospels appeared sometime in 1056-57. But the jubilee is celebrated nonetheless. Now this is one case when one does not feel like joking. It is not like all those stupid artist's, designer's, or small businessman's days and all the other holidays in which our independent and unblushing official calendar is so rich (incidentally, very much like the one instituted in Germany in the 1930s). The date seems to have been invented solely due to the desperate condition of Ukrainian book publishers. They must have done all they could to attract authorities' attention to the catastrophic condition of Ukrainian book printing. Official statistics show that current print runs are comparable to those in 1940.

What is happening to Ukrainian book publishing and what is to be done to overcome this permanent crisis? The Day plans a series of articles discussing this in coming issues.