National Deputy Taniuk offers insight on state of Ukraine's book publishing

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Nearly two years after National Deputy Les Taniuk warned of the imminent demise of the publishing industry of Ukraine, new legislation has allowed for a resurgence, albeit minor, to occur within the sector.

The lawmaker, who chairs the Committee on Culture and Spirituality in the Verkhovna Rada, explained during an interview with The Ukrainian Weekly that before the development of a healthy publishing sector, however, much still needs to occur, including a change in the attitude of Ukrainians regarding the use of their language.

While it is still cheaper to print books in Russia, production in Ukraine is on the rise and the number of printing houses has increased. Today there are more than 400 publishers in the country - at least double the number of 15 years ago. In the past year the number of titles released in Ukraine rose to about 10,000 from 6,200 in 1999.

A report released on February 21 showed that a total of more than 50 million books were published in Ukraine last year, up by nearly 30 million from 1999, when the industry hit rock bottom with the publication of just over 21 million books.

Mr. Taniuk, who was a theater director before getting involved with politics, explained that whereas in 1999-2000 there were 56 Russian-produced publications for every Ukrainian one on the Ukrainian market, currently the ratio is down to 45-1.

The lawmaker attributed the improved situation to legislation passed in September 2000, which removed the 20 percent value- added tax (VAT) on the import of paper, printing machinery, equipment and ink into the country.

"This was a big thing," explained Mr. Taniuk. "The publishing industry won a big victory here."

However, the stifling tax remains on the sale of the finished products - the books, magazines and pamphlets - and until that tariff is removed Russian products will continue to remain cheaper.

Mr. Taniuk explained that the original draft of the 2000 tax exemption law on Ukrainian book publishing also had excluded the sales tax, but lawmakers - even national democrats from the center right - didn't support it in the final version of the bill. In his estimation, without the VAT, Ukraine could have collected another 400 million hrv in sales.

Even without the burden of the VAT, book publishing has been a more expensive affair for Ukraine than for its northern neighbor. Ukraine has few paper resources of its own and, therefore, must import most of its cellulose product. Much of that comes from Russia, which has ample paper resources, and from Finland, but that paper is much more expensive.

The Ukrainian book industry, on the rebound through the late 1980s and early 1990s as the Ukrainian language underwent a renaissance, suffered a major setback in 1995 when Russia's Duma removed all taxes on the export of published materials. As Russian publishers began to accommodate the needs of Ukrainian readers, including the publishing of books in the Ukrainian language, Ukrainian output began to slip. By 1999 it had shrunk by 70 percent to 21.9 million books and brochures.

The move by Moscow, which Mr. Taniuk said was an overt and successful political attempt to maintain the domination of the Russian language in the CIS zone and especially in Ukraine, allowed Russian publishers to continue to produce in large quantities and to dump their product on the Ukrainian market. In turn, it kept their prices below what Ukrainian printers have been forced to charge in order to see a profit.

Most of what is sold in Ukraine today, Mr. Taniuk said, falsely passes for literature. He called it "recyclable paper." The most popular books are sleazy romance novels and bloody detective stories, badly written by overnight authors and published in cheap Russian printing houses for tax-free export to Ukraine and the Commonwealth of Independent States.

He said that, unfortunately, suggestions to limit import of the low-brow offerings are rejected out of hand by politicians with the explanation that "today's trash is tomorrow's art."

Mr. Taniuk said that in his estimation only three, perhaps four, types of Russian-produced books should have a place on the Ukrainian market: Russian history and literature, books on high-tech topics and certain specialized publications.

Mr. Taniuk explained that another, more essential and more dire problem exists in Ukraine, one that must be overcome if the country is to ever have a thriving book industry: Ukrainians simply do not read Ukrainian- language literature - books, magazines, newspapers,etc.

Even without inhibiting taxation, the 400 publishing houses that exist in Ukraine today would not produce in the quantities that would allow them to make comfortable profits and offer competitive prices. Whereas a normal print run for a Ukrainian book 35 years ago was 100,000 to 200,000 copies, today it is between 5,000 and 10,000 issues. There is little demand for more in today's market, explained Mr. Taniuk.

"The lack of a tax-free status is the complaint, but there remains the problem of a lack of demand, a lack of high cultural interest in the Ukrainian product," he said.

During the cultural rejuvenation that began some 15 years ago when perestroika and glasnost were declared across Soviet terrotory, in Ukraine people sought Ukrainian historical, classical and contemporary literature. Today that has changed. In Mr. Taniuk's words, "the wave has passed," and today Ukrainian language books sit on bookshelves in bookstores gathering dust.

He said it is inconceivable as well that a country the size of Ukraine, with its culture and history, does not have the works of the internationally recognized classics of literature in the Ukrainian language - including a good portion of the writings of Shakespeare.

The lawmaker laid the blame for the shortcomings at the foot of Ukraine's intelligentsia, which he said has too often used the excuse that no financing exists to prop up Ukrainian book publishing, rather than take constructive steps to get people to read in Ukrainian.

Mr. Taniuk said lawmakers are at fault as well. In his opinion, they were so obsessed with political and economic matters that most of them didn't give much thought to the spiritual and cultural requirements for building a cohesive society. He added that many didn't have the education or ability to properly attend to these matters, even if they desired to do so.

Mr. Taniuk expressed a belief that the situation is far from hopeless, however. He said a new effort would get under way after the new Verkhovna Rada is seated in April to get tax exemptions for book sales.

He suggested, however, that a fundamental prerequisite for a strong Ukrainian book market would be the election of a leadership more attuned to the needs of Ukrainian cultural revitalization. He said such a development would allow for introduction and passage of other required legislation to spark the publishing industry.

While acknowledging that Ukraine is currently in a "transformation period from Soviet anti-culture," the lawmaker underscored that where it is headed culturally remains a concern and needs continued study. He noted that the language problem in the country lies not only in continued intrusions by the Russian language, but also in recent strong English language incursions in the form of films, music and international business.

"We must also be concerned with the Americanization of society and culture, which today is competing with the continuing Russification process," Mr. Taniuk observed.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, February 24, 2002, No. 8, Vol. LXX

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