Stop destroying the Library for Foreign Literature!
Press release, 15.02.2017
The Moscow branch of YABLOKO released a statement against the destruction of the All-Russia State Library for Foreign Literature, one of the major cultural assets of the country. After Vadim Duda, the adviser to Russia’s Culture Minister Vladimir Medinsky, was appointed head of the library it is being systematically destroyed and the work on the rapprochement with other countries and cultures is being nullified.
The American and the Turkish Centres of the library were liquidated. The exhibition hall was also closed. The procurement of foreign literature was cut. In autumn 2016 the books were not lent out for three months blocking the work of scholars and students. The staff members who collected signatures for resignation of Vadim Duda had to leave their job.
YABLOKO demands that the head of the library must be replaced, the closed centres and the exhibition hall must be reopened and state funding of the library must be increased. “The Library for Foreign Literature must be developed, not destroyed,” reads the statement.
On February 19, the Moscow branch of YABLOKO will participate in a picket in support of the library.
Posted: February 15th, 2017 under Education and Science.