The government of Russia has created a center of experts, which will decide whether the content of books published in the country complies with the written legislation, and if not, it will be recommended to publishers that books be withdrawn from circulation.
The composition of Russia’s expert center includes representatives of the Russian telecommunications regulatory authority (Roskomnadzor), the Russian Historical Society, the Russian Military-Historical Society, the Russian Orthodox Church, the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Russia, the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia, Union of Lawyers of Russia, Russian Academy of Education, Gorky Institute of Literature and other institutions.
Among other things, the expert council’s responsibilities include identifying violations of LGBTI+ community “propaganda” laws in all books, except for educational books, regulatory books, and books related to official publications. The final decision on the withdrawal of books from circulation is made by the publisher, the representative of the council explained.
At the recommendation of the said board, the publishing house ACT stopped sales of Vladimir Sorokin’s novels “The Inheritance”, Michael Cunningham’s “A House at the End of the World” and James Baldwin’s “Giovanni’s Room”.
In these projects, as reported, the council members found “information, the dissemination of which is prohibited under the legislation of the Russian Federation.” What this information is was not specified.
Among other things, the publishing house ACT decided to withdraw from circulation the novels “A Little Life” by Hania Yanagihara and “The Song of Achilles” by Madeline Miller.
The relevant letter from the publishing house was published by the book critic Maxim Mamliga, while an agent of the publishing houses confirmed the authenticity of the document on the Mediazona site.
The publishing house found in the books of the American authors signs of “propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations”. “The distributor bears the responsibility of assuming the risks associated with the continuation of the activities related to the distribution of these books,” the letter from the ACT publishing house states.
