Book Genocide: How Russia Has Waged War on Ukrainian Books for Centuries

The deliberate destruction of books has a name: book genocide. The term was popularized by Richard Ovenden, a British historian of the book and director of the Bodleian Libraries at the University of Oxford, in his book “Burning the Books: A History of the Deliberate Destruction of Knowledge” (2020). Ovenden traces the millennia-long history of book destruction – from the Library of Alexandria to Nazi book burnings and Soviet censorship – showing that the struggle over books has always been a struggle over freedom. Here are just a few facts from the long history of Russian book genocide against Ukrainians.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. In 1708, the library of Hetman Ivan Mazepa was burned. Mazepa, 1639-1709, Hetman of Ukraine, became one of the most fascinating Ukrainian figures in European culture, inspiring writers, poets, composers and artists – his life shaped works by Lord Byron, Victor Hugo, Pushkin, Liszt and Tchaikovsky, among others. Under Peter I, Ukrainian-language publishing was restricted and early Ukrainian books were removed from monasteries. In the 19th century, the Valuev Circular of 1863 and the Ems Ukaz of 1876 became symbols of a systematic policy to restrict the Ukrainian printed word. In the 21st century, the tools have changed, but the logic has not. After Russia occupied Crimea in 2014, more than 2,500 books declared prohibited were destroyed there. In June 2022, a Ukrainian library was burned in occupied Mariupol. After Russia launched its full-scale invasion, Russian missiles began striking printing plants, publishing houses, warehouses and bookstores. In May 2024, a major printing facility, Faktor-Druk, was destroyed in Kharkiv. Other Topics of Interest Russia Committed Nearly 900 Sexual Violence Crimes in Ukraine The victims included 16 children, the youngest just 4 years old, with most documented survivors being male prisoners of war and civilian detainees. In 2026, the campaign reached a new scale. Millions of books up in flames According to SaveBook, Russian attacks over the summer destroyed more than 9.65 million books, with losses to Ukraine’s publishing industry estimated at Hr.1.19 billion or more. More than 20 publishing houses were affected, and in total more than 30 publishers suffered losses from attacks on warehouses, printing facilities, offices and other publishing infrastructure. The figures become even more striking in comparison. Ukraine’s total output of books and brochures in 2025 was 33.21 million copies – meaning the 9.65 million books destroyed in the summer of 2026 amount to nearly 29 percent of the country’s entire publishing output the previous year. One of the largest attacks hit Kharkiv, destroying around 8 million books, including 600,000 school textbooks. In August 2026, a Russian attack on Kyiv’s Pochayna book market sparked a fire that destroyed thousands of books, including 42,000 copies belonging to the Ranok publishing house. Targeted attack on the book ecosystem The book industry is much more than books themselves. It encompasses authors, translators, editors, designers, printing plants, warehouses, logistics companies, bookstores and readers. Destroying a single warehouse can disrupt dozens of publishing projects. Ukraine’s book sector grew in 2024 despite the war, but by mid-2026 the survival of the publishing industry was under threat. “At this stage, we face the risk of the entire book ecosystem collapsing,” says Oleksandra Koval, director of the Ukrainian Book Institute (UBI), stressing that the volume of destroyed books amounts to roughly one-third of annual national output. That’s why UBI appealed to the international publishing community to support Ukrainian publishers. For an international audience, the issue has another dimension: Ukrainian books represent the country abroad – through translations, rights sales, international book fairs and cooperation with foreign publishers. “Supporting Ukrainian publishers today is not simply about preserving an industry. It is about protecting Ukraine’s right to speak in its own voice and independently shape its narrative in the world,” says Olena Odynoka, UBI deputy director for international cooperation. For publishers themselves, the statistics carry far more personal weight. After Russian attacks destroyed the warehouse belonging to IRIO Publishing, its director, Olha Ivanova, wrote: “We have lost almost everything.” Almost the entire stock of books stored at the company’s warehouse in Sviatopetrivske was destroyed; only a small portion of the print runs kept at its office survived. After another massive Russian attack on book warehouses, publisher and poet Ivan Malkovych wrote on Facebook: “Many of our beautiful books, worth a large sum, burned down.” How to support Ukrainian books This year’s story of the Book Country festival carries additional significance. Due to intensified Russian attacks on Kyiv, the festival’s main events, originally scheduled for Sept. 17-20 at the National Expocenter of Ukraine (VDNG), have been postponed until April 2027. “The state will strengthen the resilience of the book industry and create conditions for its development. The restoration of printing facilities and support for the publishing sector are matters of cultural resilience and national security,” said Tetiana Berezhna, Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister for Humanitarian Policy and Minister of Culture. But what can everyone who reads this article do? In a country where millions of books went up in flames in a single summer, every book purchased is a small but concrete way to support a publisher, a bookstore and Ukraine’s book ecosystem. Russia has spent centuries trying to suppress the Ukrainian word through decrees, censorship and the removal of books. Today, it does so with missiles. Our response: read, publish, translate – and buy Ukrainian books. The views expressed in this opinion article are the author’s and not necessarily those of Kyiv Post.