It will not be possible to eradicate all literature with LGBT characters in Russia, but some writers will begin to engage in self-censorship, and Russians will inform on the authors, literary critic Galina Yuzefovich said in a conversation with The Insider. Commenting on the disappearance of some books from the shelves of bookstores against the backdrop of a new law banning “LGBT propaganda” signed by Vladimir Putin, the critic recalled that now many works are published online, and Russians already have experience bypassing Roskomnadzor blocking.
“LGBT literature is not some kind of homogeneous concept, because it is both fan fiction that is published on the net, and high literature, which has elements of LGBT themes. And, of course, the heaviest blow will fall on high and serious literature in which these themes are present, because this literature has always been published by publishing houses that need legal distribution channels. It will be much more difficult for her to reach the Russian reader. A significant part of this literature is translated, it will no longer be purchased in large quantities, translated, edited and published.
As for fan fiction, online novels – literature that lives bypassing the standard channels of sale, promotion, and so on – almost nothing will happen to it, because it goes way below the radar. Our state is not yet able to deal with the Ficbook website, with other networks of this kind. Even if they start blocking these sites, the Russian reader has already become dexterous to bypass the blocking, so it will not be possible to completely eradicate [such literature]. I think the main problem will be what we call "normal" literature that is sold in bookstores. This is going to be really bad for her.
I know that many major publishers are simply starting to include expertise in the budget of the book, that is, experts will say that this is not propaganda and does not fall under the law. But this increases the cost of the book, since the examination is not free. In addition, this will also work until the first show trial.
Authors who have only some scenes with LGBT characters will also be affected by the law. I don’t think that this will concern absolutely everyone, but writers will have a special motor in their heads that will generate thoughts: “How much do I need this? How much will my book suffer from this? Will this greatly degrade the quality of the plot? The writer will begin to think about what he would never think about before. But this will not be the case for everyone. We won't hear about some self-censorship of writers, but it will be an important factor.
Compared to the USSR, there was a much tighter censorship system where no book could be released before the censor had read it. There was also very strict censorship on the way out. In our country, no one will start such strict censorship, through which the mouse will not slip, because it is very expensive and the state cannot afford it. There will be censorship after the fact, when someone found something and wrote a denunciation, after which punishment falls on the one who released it. This could not have happened in the Soviet Union, because there was a different censorship scheme.
There must have been some underground literature on such topics, samizdat was an important cultural phenomenon, but its coverage was negligible. Well, if 3-5% of the population were covered by it, and most likely even less. The main part was still not samizdat with some controversial topics from the sphere of identity or sexual orientation, because the complete liberalization and legalization of LGBT people, even in the West, is a relatively recent event. In some 50s, there was no LGBT samizdat in the Soviet Union, because there was none in America, anywhere. So samizdat dealt mainly with socio-political problems or authors who, for one reason or another, were banned in the USSR.
Earlier it became known that the bookstores Respublika and Chitai-Gorod withdrew some of the books describing “non-traditional relationships” from sale due to a new law signed by Vladimir Putin banning “LGBT propaganda”. As employees of retail outlets told Novaya Gazeta Europe, they themselves are still unclear on the criteria by which works can be recognized as promoting “non-traditional relations”. The LitRes service, in turn, will not only withdraw books from sale, but also ask authors to rewrite texts so that they can be returned to sale, Yevgeny Selivanov, director of the content development department of the LitRes group of companies, told RBC. Now the service has no more than 1% of books that the authors were recommended to rewrite because of possible “propaganda”.
