Bombs erase the personal, the blood. And at the same time – the past. The only thing where the shells do not reach is the future.
Severodonetsk has a future – there are more and more children and smiles on the streets, roads have been repaired, schools and hospitals are being restored, coffee shops are open near the main square – and where there was once a persistent smell of burning, now a cozy aroma of coffee is spreading, a sign of peacetime, no matter what.
And another sign – people read a lot in the city. And not only because there is no connection or internet here. As Inna Kovaleva, director of the local children’s library, told us, the new history of Severodonetsk began with books.
Inna, your library was almost the first institution to open its doors after the liberation of the city.
Inna Kovaleva: This is true, despite the fact that the children’s library was in the epicenter of the shelling. We got hit hard. Fortunately, no one was hurt – next to us is a bomb shelter, where the employees and residents of the apartment building hid – the library occupies its first floor. When the city was liberated in the summer of 2022, when we left the basements, the first thing we did was to clear our halls of the consequences of the war. We took out glass and fragments with our bare hands, pulled out the broken batteries, washed everything, found a person who helped us with the electrical wiring …
The city was empty, but those residents who remained, passing by us, were all surprised: “Oh, is the library working?” It is working! People began to come to us, brought their children. And when they installed windows, replaced the plumbing – there was no end to the joy.
The only thing missing to be completely happy was Russian-language books.
Photo: Vladimir Ladny/RG
But they were there?
Inna Kovaleva: Our collections still contained books in Russian that had been delivered to us before 1991. Under Ukraine, Russian books were practically not purchased. And since 2014, the Russian language has been under pressure, with Kyiv newspapers calling it “the language of the aggressor.” From now on, all literature was only Ukrainian.
Photo: Vladimir Ladny/RG
I do not argue, there are interesting Ukrainian authors, even among modern ones, especially good children’s writers. But basically, the content of those books that we received did not coincide with our civic position at all.
By the way, the first thing we did when we came out of the basements was burn all the Bandera literature.
Photo: Vladimir Ladny/RG
And was she in demand?
Inna Kovaleva: Nobody ever read Ukrainian books in Severodonetsk, everyone asked only about Russian, Soviet authors. The Kyiv authorities could not accept this: why are you still reading Pushkin?!
And so that the libraries wouldn’t be swamped by all this Ukrainian culture, the townspeople came up with a clever trick – they took books in Ukrainian, then “lost” them and brought books in Russian to replace the lost ones. We officially accepted them into the fund, and then anyone who wanted could take them.
Photo: Vladimir Ladny/RG
After the liberation, books were brought to the city by volunteers, journalists collected and delivered some. The state also helped. But I see that the funds cannot boast of a great variety of names and titles yet…
Inna Kovaleva: We have children’s books, we have modern Russian literature, but we still cannot satisfy the information hunger about Russia that we have been experiencing since 1991. Our young readers ask for books about modern Russian history, and their parents want to know how the Motherland lived after the collapse of the USSR. We understand these requests, but we have nothing to offer city dwellers. We are catastrophically short of Russian encyclopedias.
We know that today colorful beautiful books about the history of Russia, about religion, about culture are published, we know that there are adapted versions of such encyclopedias for children. You can’t even imagine what a holiday we will have when these books reach us.
Photo: Vladimir Ladny/RG
The demand for books is partly due to the lack of internet in the city. Aren’t you afraid that the library will be empty as soon as the Internet returns?
Inna Kovaleva: Honestly, school librarians and I joke that we are living in a golden age now. Nowhere in Russia do children line up for books like they do in the liberated territories! But seriously, we are not afraid of competition with the Internet. Our library is essentially a family library, we even have a family reading room, people come to us not to kill time, they come to communicate with their children surrounded by Russian culture. To be “in sight” of Pushkin, Gogol, Chekhov. Who no longer need to be hidden.
And even if they turn on the Internet… No, the feeling of the Motherland is stronger than the Internet.
Photo: Vladimir Ladny/RG
By the way
“Rossiyskaya Gazeta” and “Rodina” magazine brought a special issue of “Family Values” to Severodonetsk. This is the fourth edition, published especially for schools and libraries of the returned territories. “For us, your magazine is a salvation, it is a teaching aid, and ready-made topics and heroes for lessons. We even introduce children to Russian painting using reproductions from your magazine,” said school librarian Elena Ponomarenko at the presentation of the magazine. Tears welled up when teachers, librarians, officials, children and their parents, everyone who was at the presentation, asked us not to forget their city. “Come to us again, with new special issues, or just come, for no reason.”
“Rodina” promised to return.
A member of our expedition, violinist Andrey Reshetin, presented the Severodonetsk residents with a concert of baroque music. Many of the listeners admitted that they heard a live violin for the first time in their lives.
A special report on the expedition, which covered all four new regions, is in the October issue of Rodina magazine.
Source: rg.ru
