The organizing committee of the nonfiction intellectual literature fair, which was scheduled for April, recently announced that the event has been postponed to December 2022.

Organizers said in a statement.

The head of the New Literary Review publishing house, Irina Prokhorova, commented on the decision to postpone the fair in an interview with Polit.ru.

International/non-fiction book fair

According to Prokhorova, the refusal of many foreign publishers to cooperate with their Russian counterparts jeopardizes the quantity and quality of published books.

Prokhorova expressed hope that “the common sense of the publishers and the solidarity of the guild will prevail”, because “the publishers are always on the side of the enlightenment and in no way on the side of glorifying the rulers.” However, he sees the future of Russian book publishing as “dark” against the backdrop of anti-Russian sanctions imposed due to military special operation in Ukraine.

Galina Yuzefovic

Literary critic Galina Yuzefovich is no less pessimistic. According to him, the increase in book prices by summer may reach up to 50%, and in parallel with this, the quality of book production will decrease. It will be very difficult for bookstores to survive and most likely publishers will continue to reorient themselves to audio and electronic formats. But Yuzefovich believes that prospects in this direction do not look “bright”. Recently, Storytel, one of the most popular audiobook streaming services, suspended its operations in Russia.

Among the challenges the industry will face, the critic also listed the tightening of censorship and the disappearance of social networks where the main communication between publishers and readers takes place.