Russia / 23-09-2012
A book for every Antisemite
Moscow - The international book fair taking place in Moscow’s Pavilion no. 75 continued the unfortunate tradition of including publishing houses that distribute and sell blatantly anti-Semitic materials.
The Institute for Russian Civilization offered browsers a selection of reading material by the Black Hundreds (an ultra-nationalist movement in early 20th century, known for its anti-Semitism), accompanied by a book titled, The Holy Martyrs of the Black Hundreds. This book could be found alongside The Encyclopedia of the Black Hundreds.
The Russkaya Pravda (Russian Truth) publishing house featured a wide selection of anti-Semitic literature. This included Notes About The Ritual Murders, which is attributed to Dal, as well as A. Alekhine's notorious tome, Aryan Chess.
Alongside these books, one could find publications by the contemporary anti-Semite [sic] A. Sebastianov and Antony Sutton, which deal with conspiracy theories that "prove" that Jews control the United States of America, and I. Diakov's book, which exonerates those who cooperated with the Nazi regime.
The Algorithm publishing house also had a booth, and it offered books that would appeal to a wide range of anti-Semites.
A Holocaust denier could pick up S. Koniav's Clergy and the Holocaust Victims. Conspiracy theorists could purchase a book by M. Nazarov, who is a member of the cult that broke away from the Russian Orthodox Church, books by the 'Father of Anti-Semitism,' I. Shafarevich, or the decorated edition by S. Nilus, It's Near, It's at the Door, which includes the notorious Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
Fans of B. Mironov, the former press minister and one of the leaders of the competing Unions of Russian People, could buy any number of his admired books, including the most recent, The War Against Jewish Oppressors. The anti-Semitic poet V. Khatiushin also presented his work, including the first volume of an anthology of his works.
The Mikrokov publishing house carried anti-Semitic publications by Nikolai Levashov, who has declared himself an academic.
It is worth noting that additional publishing houses beyond the four mentioned carried anti-Semitic literature.
Thus, the Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius publishing house was busy selling copies of Nilus's aforementioned book, It's Near, It's at the Door.
The book fair's management has adopted a policy of "eyes wide shut," and finds it sufficient to issue a non-binding suggestion to vendors to abstain from selling hateful materials that may foster hatred between peoples.
The directors of the fair see this as a form of "oppressing the right to publish," despite this being the single rule necessary to clean the book fair of any and all hateful publications.
