<
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/dec/24/vladimir-kosarevsky-librarian-defied-russia-purge-of-lgbt-books>
"As a gay man growing up in Russia, books were Vladimir Kosarevsky’s refuge,
offering him a precious glimpse into lives that in some way echoed his own. So
when the Moscow librarian received orders late last year to destroy books
referencing same-sex relationships – part of a sweeping attack on gay and
transgender rights – Kosarevsky knew it was a line he wouldn’t cross.
“I realised that if I did it, I would never ever be able to forgive myself,”
Kosarevsky told the
Guardian from northern Spain, where he is claiming
asylum. “It had always been important to me to see those heroes in books,
because it represents you somehow. It makes you visible, even when the politics
in Russia are determined to erase you.”
Kosarevsky, who at the time was the manager of Moscow’s Anna Akhmatova library,
decided to ignore the orders. Instead, he began hiding books, loading them into
boxes that he tucked away at the library.
Others, such as a signed copy of
My White, a tale of two lesbians raising a
child by the Russian author Xenia Burzhskaya, he stashed in the library safe.
When pushed for proof that the books had been destroyed, he handed over
falsified documents.
He went one step further, leaking the list of the more than 50 books he had
been told to purge – from authors such as Haruki Murakami, Danielle Steel and
Jean Genet – to independent media.
To hear the 39-year-old tell it, it was a rebellion that had been long in the
making. As an openly gay man living in Moscow, he had constantly grappled with
discrimination. But the situation spiralled after Russia invaded Ukraine and
the country’s politicians seized on the promotion of “traditional values”,
pushing through anti-LGBTQ+ legislation that cast Kosarevsky and others as
scapegoats for the country’s woes. “Basically the masks came off,” he said.
He initially attempted to tune out of the political situation, burying himself
in work at the library. After his brother died from cancer last summer, his
focus shifted to supporting his sister-in-law and the couple’s five children.
That is, until the instructions to comply with the anti-LGBTQ+ law came
trickling down from his superiors. “I had been discriminated against many
times. Now I had to be the one who censors things? And destroys books? No,
that’s fascism.”
He worried that the law – which rights groups say functionally outlaws any act
or public mention of same-sex relationships – was a slippery slope. “They’re
banning LGBTIQ literature today. What comes tomorrow – they take away our right
to live?”"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
