The occupiers took away valuable pre-revolutionary books from the Kherson library

The occupiers looted the Kherson Regional Universal Scientific Library named after Oles Honchar, in particular, they took away pre-revolutionary publications. The Kherson City Council reported it in Telegram.

“Today all Kherson residents accept greetings! We want to shout to the whole world — glory to Ukraine! Glory to the Armed Forces! Glory to the parents who raised such Ukrainian sons! There is also sad news. The occupiers took away the pre-revolutionary publications that were published in the Kherson Governorate. They are priceless! This is the largest collection of local history funds! For scientists and teachers, students and local historians it was a source of information for research”, said Nadiya Korotun, director of the Honchar Regional Library.

She also reported: “The information resource for everyone who is interested in the history of the southern part of Ukraine has been destroyed. It hurts us to accept it! We have hope and faith that this collection will return to our native Honcharivka! May such pleasant news about the liberation of Ukraine and the Kherson region come to us every day! I am proud to be Ukrainian! Victory to all of us!!!”

Currently, there is no definitive list of the stolen. However, other library employees also write about it in their social networks.

Kherson Regional Universal Scientific Library named after Ukrainian writer and public figure Oles Honchar is a regional library in Kherson. There were publications in 45 world languages. The library’s book storage is designed to store 1 million 200 thousand volumes.

The library fund contained rare and valuable publications:

• Fund of pre-revolutionary, pre-war and post-war publications.
• Rare editions of the 18th century.
• Miniature editions: the smallest book measuring 17×20 mm «Лучше всяких лекарств, пития да явств» (Better than any medicine, drink and food), a collection of proverbs published in Moscow in 1975.
• Books with autographs of Oles Honchar, historian Yevhen Tarle, writers: Mykola Bazhan, Yakiv Bash, Chingiz Aitmatov.
• The collection of foreign editions of the Ukrainian diaspora includes rare editions of the works of Taras Shevchenko, Mykola Kulish, Yevhen Malanyuk and others.

Kherson is a port city of Ukraine, the administrative center of the Kherson Oblast, which is situated near the Black Sea coast. Russia took Kherson in early March and it was occupied for eight month. On November 11, the Ukrainian army liberated the city.

It shall be reminded that in captured Mariupol, the invaders took all the books “for safekeeping” from the surviving premises of the library.

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