At the beginning of 2021, information appeared on the Russian-language Internet that Ukraine had banned the distribution of Mikhail Bulgakov’s most famous novel in the country. We checked how true such publications are.
At the end of January and beginning of February, a whole series of publications appeared on social networks, which stated that the Ukrainian authorities had “banned Bulgakov.” The authors of some posts adhered to vague wording, from which one could conclude that there was a ban on the distribution of the writer’s texts, while others were more specific: “The Master and Margarita,” along with other works, cannot be imported from Russia. In particular, Verkhovna Rada deputy expressed their indignation Maxim Buzhansky and ex-deputy of the Ukrainian parliament Elena Bondarenko. Russian parliamentarians did not lag behind their colleagues - for example, the chairman of the temporary commission of the Federation Council on information policy and interaction with the media, Alexey Pushkov named the ban is “another example of the impenetrable stupidity and inertia of the Ukrainian farm bureaucracy.” February 1 article about Ukrainian censorship regarding Bulgakov released "Arguments and facts".
The reason for the appearance of these publications and corresponding headlines on news resources was interview Sergei Oliynik, an employee of the Ukrainian State Committee for Television and Radio. In a conversation with a correspondent of the Ukrinform agency, he spoke, in particular, about the restrictions that the state imposed on the import of books with “anti-Ukrainian content” from Russia. Oliynyk also emphasized that in most cases the ban concerns books with “propaganda in favor of the aggressor state.”
The journalist asked Oliynik to give examples of books that were banned from import. Listing such publications, the official mentioned, among other things, the book “The Untold History of the United States” by Oliver Stone and Peter Kuznik - it “contains several myths about the Ukrainian national liberation movement created by Soviet propaganda, which have long been debunked by historians.” The Ukrainian authorities also banned two volumes of “History of the Russian State” by Boris Akunin, which “translate an exclusively imperial view of history and are replete with various historical myths.” It turns out that Senator Pushkov was in vain worried for the fate of detective stories about Fandorin, the “ban” of which he called “incredible stupidity” - these works by Akunin are not in the regularly updated book list, prohibited for import into the territory of Ukraine. True, Oliynik is about them too spoke out very negative.
A representative of the Ukrainian State Committee for Television and Radio drew the journalist's attention to the fact that the import of books could be banned, including because of the “details” of a specific edition. Explaining his idea, Oliynik gave the following example: “In the preface to Mikhail Bulgakov’s book “The Master and Margarita,” representatives of Russian cinema are mentioned who, for their public support of military intervention in Ukraine, are included in the List of Persons Posing a Threat to National Security.” IN list There is indeed only one edition of “The Master and Margarita” that is prohibited for the import of books, which was published by the ABC-Atticus publication in 2018. The preface to this publication talks about the film adaptations of the novel and mentions director Yuri Kara, as well as actors Nikolai Burlyaev and Valentin Gaft, who died in December 2020. All three are included in the official list of cultural figures, whose actions pose a threat to the national security of Ukraine. Although the restrictions and prohibitions listed by Oliynyk are imposed in accordance with the current Ukrainian legislation, the law itself causes a lot of criticism as inside countries and beyond.
About the ban on the import of this edition of “The Master and Margarita” as Russian, so Ukrainian The media reported back in the spring of 2019. Even then, journalists emphasized that we were talking about only one edition published by a specific publishing house, and cited the same arguments that Oliynik refers to. However, this did not reduce the intensity of media passions about the same issue two years later. And in 2021 tens Ukrainian bookstores offer their customers a variety of editions of The Master and Margarita, including those in Russian and those printed in Russia. Director of the Ukrainian publishing house "Folio" Alexander Krasovitsky in his commentary to the publication "NV" emphasized: “A dozen different editions of The Master, including those imported from Russia, aren’t enough for you? Do you really need exactly where the preface contradicts Ukrainian laws? <…> Yes, you just need to understand that in the information wars in our country there are no winners and there are still no people punished for lying.”
Mostly not true
- https://nv.ua/ukraine/events/master-i-margarita-zapreshchen-li-roman-v-ukraine-i-kakie-knigi-zapreshchayut-novosti-ukrainy-50138852.html
- http://comin.kmu.gov.ua/control/uk/publish/article?art_id=141781&cat_id=141650
- M. Bulgakov. The Master and Margarita
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