“Pursuing the preemptive tactic while the state is inert”

The book The Power of the Soft Sign has been republished for the first time. The publishers say that there is no precedent for such popularity of serious social and political works.

The demand for the true history and reputable editions is growing in the Ukrainian society: 2,000 copies of the book The Power of the Soft Sign were sold out for three months (we remind our readers that the book was presented in September 2011 during the publishers’ forum in Lviv).

Last Friday director of the Maister Knyh publishing house Pavlo SACHEK gave Den’s editor-in-chief Larysa Ivshyna the preprints of the new edition of the book The Power of the Soft Sign that numbers 3,000 copies.

According to Sachek, it is the first time in his career that there is a need for a new edition several months after the book was printed for the first time.

“Now we are negotiating the new edition of Yurii Andrukhovych’s book Leksykon Intymnykh Mist [Intimate Towns Vocabulary. – Ed.] issued nearly at the same time as The Power of the Soft Sign. However, it is fiction. And such great demand for the serious social and political book is just amazing,” Sachek says.

Those who have already read the book know the answer for the paradoxical at first glance situation. In their numerous comments they say about it timeliness (by the way, it often happens that after buying one copy of The Power of the Soft Sign and reading it many people buy it as a present for their friends and family. For example, professor Mykola Nyzovy, our regular contributor and reader from Kharkiv bought 12 copies).

Professional historian Sachek thinks that The Power of the Soft Sign is “preemptive tactic in the conditions of Russia’s aggressive humanitarian policy and inertia of our state machine.”

“This book is very timely,” he says. “In 2012, according to Dmitry Medvedev’s decree Russia is going to celebrate the 1,150th anniversary of the Russian statehood. The Russian president suggested Ukraine and Belarus joining the celebration. The Ukrainian authorities have not adequately responded to this cynical offer yet (the Verkhovna Rada did not support the initiative of the Ostroh Academy to celebrate the 1,160th anniversary of the Ukrainian statehood, though the reasons for this exist [in 825 the historical sources recorded the first campaign carried out by Rus’ whose center was the modern Kyiv region against the Byzantine Empire. – Ed.]. The Power of the Soft Sign crosses all the t’s in the old dispute between Ukraine and Russia for the heritage of Rus’. I would like more and more participants to be involved into the discussion about the origins of the Ukrainian statehood and I wish this book to be in every house. The Ukrainians still cannot answer the question when we should start reckoning our statehood: since Zborivsky treaty of 1649, 1918 or 1991. In general, it is just pleasant to read this book. I do not know who had such a good idea but the book is printed on the Swedish paper MUNKEN that has been used in Ukraine for a short time. It is especially light and soft. Due to this the book is thick but not heavy at all. It is absolutely different when you touch it. Some might think that it is a trifle. However, the attention to trifles might help make the Ukrainian products popular.”