Farther from Moscow: How the war has transformed the Ukrainian book market.
During the course of the large-scale war, book sales in Ukraine dropped to nearly zero and then began to recover. The departure of Russian literature from the market allowed Ukrainian literature to take the top shelves in stores. What is happening in the book market at the end of the third year of war – in the report by RBK-Ukraine journalists Kateryna Honcharova and Yuliya Haliuk.
After the onset of the large-scale war, some book lovers completely stopped reading. For others, books became a form of therapy and a refuge from the terrifying news.
Many publishers are already stating that sales have returned to pre-war levels, and books have once again become an impulse purchase for Ukrainians. However, prices have significantly increased: a popular new release in a beautiful hardcover will cost no less than 400-600 hryvnias.
Have Ukrainians started reading more, what has happened in the market during the war, and how is the demand for literature recovering – read on.
Have Ukrainians read more during the war?
During the war, more people report that they cannot pick up books and read as they used to. Others, however, read to distract themselves from the surrounding events.
"Many viewed reading as a form of therapy. It can be something light, therapeutic, and distracting. Others during the war want to study historical experiences, the history of wars, and military experiences as such," says Anastasia Nikitina, executive director of the publishing house "Nash Format," in a conversation with RBK-Ukraine.
Ukrainians have started to read more as Russian books have disappeared from the shelves, leading to an increased demand for Ukrainian translations of global classics and contemporary bestsellers, says Dmitry Oskolkov, director of the publishing house "Knyholav," in an interview with RBK-Ukraine.
"The demand for books about understanding one's identity and experiencing similar events, the outcomes of which are already known, has grown. Therefore, Ukrainians have started to buy more literature about World War II," the interviewee is confident.
However, according to the Ukrainian Book Institute, the share of "non-readers" has remained at 30-34% for several years. In 2024, 30% of Ukrainians (aged 16-59) stated that they never read printed books, compared to 33% in 2020.
"There are also those who say they read a few times a year. But in my opinion, this is a cautious response from those who are embarrassed to admit that they essentially do not read. If we add this category, it turns out that half of the adult Ukrainians have no books in their lives," says Yuri Marchenko, head of the strategic work and analytics department of the Ukrainian Book Institute, to RBK-Ukraine.
Photo: How many Ukrainians read books for pleasure and spend their leisure time with books (infographic provided by RBK-Ukraine and the Ukrainian Book Institute)
When compared to European countries, we are somewhere in the middle, he says.
"Our reading levels are worse than in Scandinavia but better than in Greece and Portugal. And we are better off than our neighbors Romania and Slovakia. We are closest to the Poles," describes the trend specialist.
How book sales fell and recovered
Publishers greeted 2022 with positive expectations. The "COVID thousand" helped them significantly. This became a strong financial cushion and helped them survive for several months, say the publishers surveyed by RBK-Ukraine.
"Before the invasion, we had 'ePidhytrka.' On one hand, publishers increased their capacity. On the other hand, a massive number of Russian books were imported, which were also sold under this program. They lasted almost a year and were heavily present in our market," explains Alexander Krasovitsky, CEO of the "Folio" publishing house, to the publication.
According to his observations, today the book market has lost about 30% of its overall volume. Additionally, a significant portion of Ukrainians are abroad and no longer participate in the Ukrainian book market.
With the onset of the full-scale invasion by the Russian Federation, book sales nearly came to a halt. Anastasia Nikitina recalls: no one understood how necessary this would be for people. However, by March 2022, publishers began to resume operations. According to Nikitina, for customers, this became "a kind of wake-up call from peaceful life."
The volume of book printing then fell catastrophically. For comparison: in 2019, 24,416 titles were published, while in 2022, only 9,691. The highest circulation was in the pre-COVID year of 2019 – 61.2 million copies. Meanwhile, in 2022, it dropped to 9.7 million.
However, this statistic includes textbooks and various manuals, which are not related to the market, so these figures should be interpreted cautiously, notes Yuri Marchenko.
The catastrophic drop in 2022 is explained by the fact that the government did not finance the printing of textbooks, which accounted for 65% of the total circulation in 2021. In 2023, the financial indicators of publishers, according to Marchenko, improved. But mainly due to rising book prices.
Photo: In 2022, there was a catastrophic decline in the volume of new book prints (Getty Images)
"Of course, earnings were difficult in 2022. In 2023, publishers caught up and exceeded the 2021 figures. At the same time, they printed 55% of the previous volumes of 2021. But if the quantity of books has decreased while the money has increased, it means that books have become more expensive," he says.
In KSD, only 20 new books were published in 2022, while previously they printed around 300 new titles a year, says Larisa Guzhvinska, commercial director of the publishing house, to RBK-Ukraine. 2023 became a year of change for them, with the number of stores in the chain increasing to 61.
"We believe that the more people have access to books, the greater the interest in reading will grow. Bookstores, in this context, are not just points of sale but also an important tool for attracting a new audience," says Guzhvinska.
"This is our 'red line.' What has changed with the departure of Russian books from the market
The literature from the occupying country began to lose ground in Ukraine even before the large war. In 2017, Ukraine introduced restrictions on the import of books from the Russian Federation. According to a Cabinet of Ministers resolution, it was necessary to obtain permission from the State Committee for Television and Radio Broadcasting to import publishing products from Russia and temporarily occupied territories.
In June 2023, President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a law prohibiting the import and distribution of Russian books – a year after it was passed by parliament. After this, there was virtually a complete refusal to publish, print, and sell Russian and Russian-language books in the market.
Tatyana Gonchenko, author of the book Telegram channel "Nepozbuvny Knyhochytun," comments to RBK-Ukraine: Russia has flooded our market with its books for decades, and under such competition, Ukrainian-language books simply could not survive, thus they remained in the corner on lower shelves.
"Now Russians have been blocked from undermining our market, and Ukrainians who used to read in Russian have switched to Ukrainian-language books, leading to a 'boom' in Ukrainian publishing," notes the blogger.
According to her, there has also been a surge in Ukrainian book blogs and media, as a distinction between the markets has emerged.
"Ukrainian bloggers, who could gather a maximum of 5-7 thousand subscribers just three years ago, are now gaining tens of thousands, and this is just the beginning," she notes.
This year, an interesting situation has developed concerning reading language, say those at the Ukrainian Book Institute.
"In 2023, 57% of the books read were in Ukrainian, while 43% were in Russian. This year, the situation changed: 76% of the books read were in Ukrainian, 21% in Russian, and an additional 3% were in English. This is a positive trend. 53% of respondents noted that the Ukrainian language is more convenient for reading. The share of those who find it more convenient to read in Russian decreased from 12% to 8%," reports Yuri Marchenko.
In all the publishing houses surveyed by RBK-Ukraine, there is unanimous agreement: the idea of replacing Russian-language books in home libraries with Ukrainian ones is necessary, and many publishers had already abandoned printing Russian-language books even before language quotas were introduced.
Photo: Currently, books in Russian on the markets are mainly either old stocks or