A symbolic venue was chosen for the signing ceremony: the Russian National Library. Executive Director of the Russkiy Mir Foundation Vladimir Kochin and ASKI president, Director General of Beliy Gorod Publishing House Konstantin Chechenev put their signatures on the document.

Awesome challenges will yet to be met as the interest in book reading, alas, is steadily flagging all over the world. Thus in Russia, according to the survey made by the Public Opinion foundation, 44% of Russians never open a single book during a year. And in UK, for example, according to the data of sociological surveys, 62% of citizens only appear to be reading classics in public places (faking their interest in the books of George Orwell and Charles Dickens), hoping to make an impression on those around. And half of all British respondents admitted that they keep the works of well-known writers on their book shelves, at home, which they’ve never read… 

But there are positive shifts as well. Thus, according to Rospechat and Russian Book Chamber, Russia currently ranks fourth in the world by the number of annually published books, ceding only to China, USA and UK. And just 10 years ago this statistics seemed a pipedream.

But the main thing is that the works of Russian writers from the “golden fund” still rouse keen interest in the world. We mean above all the masterpieces of Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Leo Tolstoy and Anton Chekhov.

“Today we can state that interest in the Russian fiction is now resurging in the world,” stressed Executive Director of the Russkiy Mir Foundation Vladimir Kochin at the signing ceremony. “Hence the conclusion of this highly relevant agreement which will become an effective element of promoting Russian culture in different parts of the world, I believe.”

“The Russkiy Mir Foundation is one of the few organizations which directly promotes the Russian book,” noted ASKI president Konstantin Chechenev. “I am happy that we’ll now be working together towards the common target: that Russian centers established by the Foundation all over the world not only be filled with books in Russian, but also could live a saturated life: meetings with writers, publishers, experts, scholars – everybody bearing the Russian word and promoting the Russian culture.”

In his turn, director of the Russian National Library Alexander Visly congratulated the sides on the signing of this agreement and addressed an optimistic valediction to all those present: “I have a very simple wish for all of us: please read your books to tatters! Then we’ll not only have to publish them, but also to reprint them!”