Yulia Sydorenko, 33, was getting rid of a large collection of outdated books—some of which were gifts from childhood friends—at a bookshop in Kyiv.
Why? They had been penned in Russian.
Since February 24, when Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, Sydorenko declared, “Russian books have no place in my home.”
“These were gifts from my buddies for my 20th birthday, and they were personalized. I captured them on camera “She spoke about the beloved books she had had.
She displayed a selection of children’s books and expressed her conviction that her kids “will never read Russian tales now.”
Sydorenko is one of several individuals who frequently arrive at the Siayvo bookshop with suitcases or cars full of books.
The bookstore made the decision to recycle Russian-language books in order to give the paper a new lease on life and support the army, after receiving requests from customers who wished to purge unneeded areas of their home collections.
“25 tonnes of books were gathered in just two months. They earned 100,000 hryvnias (2,700 euros) through recycling “Owner of the store Iryna Sazonova spoke to AFP.
Ukraine started tearing down Soviet-era monuments and changing town names in the wake of Russia’s annexation of Crimea and the Donbas war in 2014.
Nonetheless, since February, Ukrainians have begun to debate the use of Russian in both public and private settings, despite the fact that 19% of Ukrainians claim Russian as their mother tongue.
The National Writers’ Union of Ukraine is pushing to shut down the Bulgakov Museum, where renowned Russian author Mikhail Bulgakov, who was born in Kyiv, spent 13 years living.
The central work of the museum’s major exhibition, Bulgakov’s novel “The White Guard,” is accused of being imperialist and anti-Ukrainian.
“War is black and white, but in art, nuances are crucial,” said Lyudmila Gubianuri, the museum’s director, to AFP.
There are many subtleties in Bulgakov’s works, but she claimed that they are frequently overlooked.
Gubianuri acknowledges that the museum needs to change to reflect the difficulties of the circumstance.
She stated, “Our team is working on a fresh concept that will be developed in consultation with the people
People are separated as they pass the museum.
The 27-year-old teacher Anton Glazkov believes that closing the museum would be inappropriate because “conflict and works of art are not necessarily linked.”
The owner of a nearby clothing store, Dmytro Cheliuk, 45, however, declared that “the moment has come for us to de-Russify ourselves and remove the Russian empire from our streets.”
An activist named Oleg Slabospitsky employs a practical method to ban Russian from public areas.
Since the upheaval in Ukraine in 2014, the 33-year-old has been removing excessively Russian street signs like “Moscow Street” several times a week while wearing a high-visibility vest.
Before heading out with a buddy to unbolt three plaques on Moscow Street, he told AFP that “these kinds of initiatives must originate from the people themselves.”
The team occasionally devotes entire days to “de-Russifying” the city streets of Kyiv, which is known for its expansive avenues.
Recently, Kyiv City Hall decided to rename 142 streets that made mention of Russia. The same fate awaits another 345 streets.
The Ostrozky Princes, a family of Ukrainian politicians in the 16th century, are today honored on the street that was once known as “Moscow.”
Management at Shevchenko University, which was damaged by a recent barrage of Russian missiles, removed a plaque honoring Bulgakov, who attended the school a century ago, in August.
The chairman of a Slavic studies department, Oleksandr Bondarenko, said the action is “understandable” because the plaque would irritate people walking by who had lost loved ones in the conflict.
The Russian language and Russian literary works are no longer taught in Ukrainian schools. An additional course on the conflict with Russia has been added, though.
This year, the literature and language programmes at Bondarenko’s faculty did not accept any new Russian students since they are still being modified.
In the meantime, “courses on information warfare are now at the center of the curriculum,” according to Bondarenko.
“In a hybrid conflict like this one, you must become fluent in the enemy’s language to fully understand him. At war crimes prosecutions, there will be a great demand for sworn interpreters.”
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