Books on Holodomor, Ukrainian and Crimean Tatars resistance removed from Crimean libraries – National Resistance Center

Books discussing the Holodomor and the Ukrainian liberation struggle, as well as any literature about the Crimean Tatar life on the peninsula, are being removed from Crimean libraries, reports the National Resistance Center (NRC).

According to the Ukrainian underground resistance, the instructions were given by Sofia Rybak, a leading methodologist of the Ivan Franko Universal Academic Library of the Crimean Republic.

The NRC notes that the methodologist also reported that the Ministry of Justice of Russia had adopted a decision on the established "list of Nazi organizations and symbols" – i.e. the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) and the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN).

"Now, the greeting 'Glory to Ukraine' and the response 'Glory to the Heroes' are considered 'Nazi symbols', as is the trident. All books with a trident on them must be removed from the collections," instructs the methodist, as reported by the Ukrainian resistance.

The resistance remarks that the Russians borrowed the practice of fighting with books from Nazi Germany.

"To justify this, the Russians are saying that it is 'Nazi literature' that they are recalling. However, the list of such literature includes all Ukrainian books," the national opposition notes.

They added: the occupation authorities are threatening to punish people for disobedience if the orders are not carried out.

As previously reported, Russia has established an "expert center for evaluating printed and digital editions" (with the exception of educational, regulatory and official ones) on the basis of a book union; the center's purpose is to check books for compliance with the law. Effectively, it will be determining which books to ban.