Russian publishers—specifically, an organization called the Russian Book Union (RKC)—are concerned that a new “LGBQT Propaganda” bill could lead to the banning of Russian classics by the likes of Dostoevsky and Bulgakov.

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According to independent Russian news organization Meduza:

…the RKC says it’s received “many inquiries from publishers” regarding which books will be banned if the bill becomes law. They list a scene in Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s novel Devils that describes child sexual abuse, a monologue from Alexander Ostrovsky’s play The Storm that could be considered “suicide propaganda,” and an excerpt from Mikhail Bulgakov’s novel Morphine that could be considered “drug propaganda” as three examples of content that should ostensibly be prohibited under the prospective law.

The proposed version of the new bill would take Russia’s hardline anti-LGBQT stance even further by making it illegal to “promote non-traditional sexual orientations” and, in what would be a death blow to most of what we think of as art: “deny family values.”

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Jonny Diamond

Jonny Diamond

Jonny Diamond is the Editor in Chief of Literary Hub. He lives in the foothills of the Catskill Mountains with his wife and two sons, and is currently writing a cultural history of the axe for W.W. Norton. @JonnyDiamondJonnyDiamond.me