#SaveBookshopsofMoscow
In February 2015, I took a train journey from Moscow to St.Petersburg. As you may know, living in Russia can be dangerous; travelling therefore, can be extremely dangerous. Despite of my fears, I gathered all my courage (everything that was left of it) and decided to visit the city that Russians consider their Northern capital.
As my train reached St.Petersburg — my opinion of Russia had changed completely. It was so different from what I expected it to be. People, food, architecture, tourist sites — everything differed from Moscow. My hotel was next to old 19th century building, which used to be stables for royal horses. Further down the street, there was a shop that sold traditional Russian doughnuts. People on the street seemed to dress more stylish and were more relaxed in comparison to passer-bys of Moscow. But what fascinated me more was the number of bookshops.
I was walking down the street taking pictures, in other words, being a typical tourist and I began to notice bookshops in every corner. Small bookshops and large bookshops, historical bookstores and modern ones — they were everywhere. Yes, to tell the truth, not each of them had a fascinating selections, but believe me, when you live in Moscow for a year - you start to appreciate the small things.
After several hours of wondering around the streets of Petersburg I discovered the city’s main book store. Right on Nevsky prospect — Petersburg’s main avenue — a dark green building with glass dome holds Russia’s best and perhaps oldest bookshop. As I entered in, I understood that I found my favourite spot in St.Petersburg. The bookshop had a large selections of works of different genres and it also had an old traditional Russian cafe-slash-restaurant, where you could immerse yourself into a good read or just enjoy the view out of the window.
I was very impressed by St. Petersburg, it wasn't anything that I expected it to be. If you are planning to visit Russia and you are choosing between Moscow and St. Petersburg — choose the latter, you will not regret.
I will have to write three or four more posts to tell you everything about the city, but the reason why I write this is because I'm worried. Recently, I read an article, which told that the bookshops in Moscow are in a big trouble. The new legislation, which was introduced by the government, demands more ‘taxes’ to be paid by the book stores. That’s reason why bookshops are closing down today.
The Russian capital is home for 199 book stores. Eighteen bookshops were closed in Moscow in 2015 alone. If the financial situation will continue this way — Moscow will lose half of its bookshops in five years. What makes it all worse is that the voices of bookshop owners’ are not being heard by the authorities. The store owners are left face-to-face with their financial problems, in times when the entire Russian economy is plummeting down.
It’s time to realise the importance of the bookstores in our cities and authorities of Moscow should realise this as well. Good roads, big churches, large malls may make the façade of Russian capital more beautiful but as they say ‘what’s inside is more important than what’s outside’.
