The St Petersburg-based “Piter” Publishing House has donated 230 recently published books to libraries in the Lugansk People’s Republic areas liberated from Kiev forces.
The books were handed over to the Gorky Lugansk Republican Universal Scientific Library (LRUNB).
Head of the LPR Public Chamber Commission on Culture, Education and Science Anton Kondratenko said that most of the donated books were not yet available in Russian bookshops.
“The biggest LPR library stock problem is a very small amount of the books published in Russia at the present time,” Kondratenko said. “Together with the Union of LPR Writers, we brought to Novoaidar 12,000 books from the Moscow-based Yury Luchnikov Foundation “Books to the World” on Thursday. The books had been contributed by citizens, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Customs Committee, Moscow trade unions etc.”
“Piter” sales manager Tatyana Rodionova said that the company had been engaged in systemic work with LPR libraries and writers in the recent years.
“Last year, we launched a project to publish books by domestic and foreign writers who address acute social problems. Five percent of each print run (some 150 copies) is automatically sent to Donbass libraries,” Rodionova said.
The LRUNB director said that the library had been getting books from all Russian regions. "It is challenging work for us as we have to systematize, sort out and distribute all these books among 550-odd libraries in the Republic," she said.
Earlier, “Piter” handed over to the LRUNB more than 10,000 books for libraries in LPR liberated areas. The Public Chamber and the Union of LPR Writers passed to LPR libraries more than 20,000 books in 2022.
The Ukrainian government launched the so-called anti-terrorist operation against Donbass in April 2014. The peace talks that began soon thereafter failed to reach tangible results due to Kiev’s position to settle the conflict by force.
On February 24, 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a special military operation to protect Donbass residents from Ukrainian aggression. Prior to that, LPR and DPR Heads Leonid Pasechnik and Denis Pushilin asked the Russian leader to provide military assistance. The LPR militia and Russian armed forces fully liberated the LPR territory from Ukrainian armed formations on July 3.
The Lugansk People’s Republic acceded to Russia on September 30, 2022 following the unification referendum.*i*v
