Russians are increasingly looking and buying for books on Nazi Germany and World War II after President Putin’s “partial” mobilization of civilian reservists for the battle in Ukraine.
Sales of books on World War II surged by 20% despite an overall decline in book sales across Russia, the reports stated citing leading bookstores and publishing houses.
Literature critic Galina Yuzefovich said that, “Literature that directly collects the events of the actual moment has not yet been written & will not be written for a long time, so people intuitively look for historical times with seemingly correlating experiences. Everyone is trying to look where they can look for a convincing metaphor or allegory that will permit them to know something about today.”
Meanwhile, sales of Nicholas Stargardt’s “The German War: A Nation Under Arms, 1939-1945,” which examines how German nationals perceived the events of the war, were up quintuples after Putin’s September 21 mobilization statement in the Chitai Gorod bookstore chain.
At the same time, the LitRes online bookstore recorded a 17% increase in sales of Stargardt’s book.
Moreover, the Alpina publishing house stated it saw a 40% spike in sales of Viktor Frankl’s “Yes to Life: In Spite of Everything,” which explains the psychology of being in a concentration camp. Whereas, sales of digital copies of Frankl’s book on LitRes were 3.7% higher in September as well.
Announcement about Putin of a “partial” nationwide mobilization sparked protests in several regions of the nation and a huge wave of emigration. The chaotic roll-out of the mobilization campaign has forced the president to admit “mistakes” in the process.