Putin aide and war propagandists take over Russian ‘writers’ union’ while Ukrainian literature banned as ‘extremist’ in occupied Ukraine

The Russian occupiers are currently staging a supposed ‘public vote’ before removing the monument to Taras Shevchenko in occupied Luhansk.  Since such monuments to the great Ukrainian poet existed even in Soviet times, Russia cannot simply ban his works as ‘extremist’, as it has other Ukrainian writers.  People were, however, persecuted by the Soviet regime for gathering around such monuments and reciting Shevchenko’s poems, and Russia immediately reinstated such methods of repression in occupied Crimea.

If, back in 2015 -16, the aggressor state was still treading cautiously, virtually all restraint has now been dropped. The Russians are reported to have removed Ukrainian literature from libraries on any territory that has fallen under their control.  Huge lists have been compiled of historical and literary works banned as ‘extremist’, with the lists including works by world-renowned historians from Ukraine and other countries, as well as contemporary Ukrainian literature.  By ‘extremism’ Russia essentially means anything that reflects Ukrainian identity.  The covering letter from the occupation ‘Luhansk people’s republic education ministry’ made this abundantly clear, claiming that the purge on Ukrainian books in educational establishments was in order to get rid of “literature of an extremist nature, reflecting the ideology of Ukrainian nationalism.”

Ukraine’s National Resistance Centre reported in January 2025 that the Russians in occupied Kherson oblast had reported the eradication of Ukrainian ‘extremist’ literature from libraries under their control.  By ‘extremist’, the occupiers meant classic works of Ukrainian literature; history textbooks; books about Holodomor, the manmade Famine of 1932-33;  the crimes of the communist regime, and even fairytales.

It is scarcely surprising that textbooks should be viewed - and banned - as ‘subversive’.  Russia ha long taught a seriously distorted picture of events in 2014, in which Russia did not invade Crimea, Just over a year after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a standard ‘history’ textbook had been produced which claimed that Ukraine had started the war, that it was Ukraine that persecuted ‘dissidents’ and Russian-speakers, and that presented a laundered account of Russia’s aggression that omits the war crimes committed in Bucha; Mariupol; Izium and other Ukrainian cities. 

Both these ‘works’ were edited by Vladimir Medinsky, Putin adviser, former culture minister and head of the Russian military history society, created by Putin to “consolidate the forces of state and society in the study of Russia’s military-historical past and counter efforts to distort it”.  The latter has taken part in moves to install a museum and bust of bloody Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin and to rewrite proven historical facts about the mass graves of victims of Stalin’s Terror at Sandarmokh.

On 27 February 2025, Medinsky was also made the new head of Russia’s ‘Union of writers’.  There was a supposed ‘vote’, however it is unclear how Medinsky could have lost this, as there were no other candidates.  Russia is essentially reinstating the Soviet writers’ union, whose members were invariably loyal communist party members, with talent of considerably less importance. The congress on 27 February was very much a state event, at which Medinsky first read out greetings from Putin and then plunged into his so-called ‘pre-election speech’.in which he asserted that the main problem of contemporary Russian literature was the lack of the state in this sphere, with literature receiving neither money, nor attention from the authorities. The task of the union would be to take part in forming a book market, pushing state interests and purging shops of “low quality reading trash”.  Medinsky leaves no doubt as to the qualities that members of the union must have, with talent, imagination, originality not on the agenda.  They “invite all of those who will strategically share our views to work with us, or more simply, all of those who are for Russia.”

The congress was also addressed by Sergei Kiriyenko, a key figure in Putin’s administration who played a major role in Russia’s control of occupied Ukrainian territory even before the full-scale invasion.  He claimed that “culture and literature  today are also the front line, it is also the engagement line, and the future of our country depends on victory here as well.”

With ‘culture’ clearly viewed as part of Russia’s war effort, it was to be expected that the new members of this union would include notorious war propagandists, like Zakhar Prilepon, Aleksandr Prokhanov and Karen Shakhnazarov. 

Given the current US administration’s new willingness to work together with the Kremlin, worth noting that Prilepin’s role on the literary frontline is not just aimed at attacking and destroying Ukraine.  NTV, one of the Russia’s most warmongering propaganda channels, has just begun broadcasting a new serial, based on a novel by Prilepin.  One of the motifs is that ‘Donbas insurgents’ are trying to prevent Ukrainians and Americans who are planning to use biological weapons against them in Donbas.

Efforts, such as those around the ‘writers’ union’, are purportedly aimed at raising the authority of ‘writers’. They come at a time when essentially any artist who has criticized Russia’s war; written the truth about its war crimes in Ukraine, etc.  faces persecution.  In some cases, especially those where the writers have left Russia, their books are removed from bookshops.  In occupied Ukraine, the situation is even worse, with an invading state aggressively trying to eradicate Ukrainian identity and push a lie about ‘shared Russian culture’.