Millions of propaganda books and textbooks were destroyed in a fire at Wildberries' warehouses in Russia
More than 11 million books were destroyed in fires at the warehouses of the Russian marketplace Wildberries, which were attacked by Ukraine.
According to industry organizations, the destroyed books were mostly works of fiction, children’s literature, and popular science.
The Eksmo-AST publishing group told Vedomosti that among the destroyed publications were, in particular, copies of Nadezhda Zhukova’s “Alphabet Book” by Nadezhda Zhukova and the new edition of the Russian Constitution, road atlases, as well as books by Margarita Simonyan and Zakhar Prilepin.
Among the burned publications were also books by Simonyan, including the novel *In the Beginning Was the Word—In the End Will Be the Number*, and copies of Ray Bradbury’s novel *Fahrenheit 451*.
In addition to fiction and children’s literature, a vast number of study guides for the ODE and EDI—Russia’s state exams for schoolchildren—were destroyed.
Exmo-AST noted that due to the massive losses, the group’s publishing houses have already urgently launched additional print runs of the books.
Attacks on Wildberries’ logistics infrastructure have become systematic in recent weeks: according to Reuters, at least 20 of the company’s logistics centers were hit, some of which were completely destroyed by fires.
These estimates were released by the Russian Book Union, the Association of Russian Book Publishers, and the Association of Book Distributors.
As a reminder, in Russia’s Tver Region, a drone damaged a Wildberries marketplace warehouse. The facility is located approximately 150 km from Moscow, and its area, according to preliminary data, was estimated at around 150,000 square meters.
Attacks on Wildberries could exacerbate Russia’s economic problems, according to The Wall Street Journal.
As a reminder, sales of military goods on Wildberries fell following Ukrainian attacks.
The Russian marketplace Wildberries plans to launch a network of “partner hubs” for storing goods as part of its support for sellers and owners of order pickup points.
