Матеріал від Читомо 15.11.2022
Only a few days have passed since the liberation of Kherson, which was occupied by Russia in March. It is probably still too early to talk about the restoration of normal life, but now is the time to sum up the results of the terrible occupation, and material and human losses. The entire city and region suffered from the actions of the Russians, and the libraries of the Kherson Region were also affected by the disaster.
Chytomo spoke with Nadiya Korotun the director of the Kherson Regional Library named after Oles Honchar about how the library and its employees coped during the occupation, the Russians stole valuable old prints and the destruction of book collections of the Kherson region, collaborators, and the danger to life if you do not cooperate with the occupiers.
— Was there any information from the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy after the start of the full-scale invasion about the need to evacuate and follow orders to remove books, evacuate workers, etc.?
— Unfortunately, there were no instructions. We made decisions about how to act in the situation.
From February 24 to March 3, no one from Ukraine remained in the city, except for the civilian population, and there was no one to organize the evacuation. You know that there are several questions regarding our mayor, and there was no one to turn to. I was lucky that I had the opportunity to communicate with the regional council, asking what to do. We decided that the most important thing is to save human lives. Since the beginning of the occupation, the library has stopped working. The male part of the team decided to protect the building from looters and occupiers. Thank God, at least the walls remained in the library.
— How did you work during the occupation?
— When Kherson was occupied by Russian troops on March 3, our employees — locksmiths, security guards, and electricians — took on the responsibility of protecting the library. Public transport did not run for almost the entire month of March, we had to walk. In March, the accounting department and the administration worked a little, in April I started going to work every other day to see how the security was doing, the guards called me twice a day to tell me about the situation, because already in April the occupiers started entering the building to check our basements and wardrobe.
When the fighting on the Antonivsky bridge first began, we decided to put tables and chairs in the wardrobe for women with children who live in nearby villages — in Antonivka, Stepanivka — so that they could spend the night somewhere if their houses were damaged or destroyed. For almost a week, more than 70 people lived with us, we ensured their overnight stay, and only then the men started leaving and checking their houses. Our cleaners prepared the premises, we asked restaurants and cafés to leave food for children, because there were many of them, of different ages, from 2 to 10 years. Patrons from Ye. Karabelesh Hospital agreed to provide us with the most necessary medicines in case one of the people gets sick.
On May 7, the Russians kicked out all the library's guards and locked themselves inside to "celebrate" Memorial Day.
The workers were released on the morning of May 10. It was a horror, the building was an absolute mess, all the doors of all departments on 4 floors were open, sometimes broken, cabinets and cabinets were broken on the floor. Stolen spoons, plates, cups, teapots, coffee, tea, sugar — everything. The entire floor was covered with paper, and in one of the departments, the glass was broken. Then the entire library staff spent another 2-3 days washing and arranging all this.
After that, we already understood that nothing good should be expected: the building was eyed. FSB officers came to check the basements without warning.
We did not know that the building would be taken over by the occupiers. In June, we destroyed the computer equipment that we could, to the basement, and took out workbooks, personnel files of our employees, and financial documents, we had to take everything out by taxi so that the occupiers would not see official cars. It was already scary.
In May, when I went to the library again to check the state of affairs, five people with assault rifles and an FSB officer entered the reception hall. They demanded that I give them a road map of Kherson and the Kherson region and a map of settlements. It was terrifying. I said that the library is poorly staffed, and I don't even understand where to look for it, because I'm not a librarian by profession, I need a library specialist. I was told to call him by the end of the week. Furthermore, I answered that there was nowhere to hire a specialist, everyone had left the occupation. I was very worried that the situation might not end very well for me, but in the end, I managed to convince them that all our publications are extremely old and of no practical use. The FSB official agreed with me about staffing: "Well, it's like that everywhere in libraries."I was away for three days from stress, it was terrible.
— Did they come back later?
— No. I don't know who exactly came, because I wasn't in the library all the time. The guards later found out that the Russians came every other day and asked where to find the leader because they wanted "negotiations". It was already when collaborators wanted to take positions. They used to come once every 3-4 days, but then almost every two days. The last time I warmed up with them for 10 minutes. After that, I looked for ways to leave, because the feeling of fear was terrible.
— For what purpose did they want to meet with you?
I think they wanted to offer to head to the library. They wanted me to gather the team to tell them that "everything will be fine", they asked if I conveyed their wishes and promises. Because of this, I had to leave the city for a week and asked for help with leaving the occupied territory. She was afraid to repeat the fate of the conductor of the Kherson Philharmonic (Yuriy Kerpatenko was shot for refusing to cooperate with the occupiers — ed.).
On June 30, I left for Odesa, and before that, on June 21, the occupiers seized the library building.
I must have been saved by the angels, because I think a "visit" to my house would definitely happen.
I wrote to a joint group of library workers that I was leaving because there was a threat to my life. Everyone knew I was leaving town. Maybe that's why this visit didn't happen to me. In total, I was in the occupation for 4 months.
— But did someone from the team agree to cooperate with them?
— We have only three people from the librarians who agreed to cooperate with them, and also the technical service, a watchman, and one person from the administration. A total of 19 people out of 155 library employees. Russians often announced that they were hiring, and with a large salary. Three librarians went to work for the occupiers. A small percentage, but still very unpleasant. All 19 are now out of contract, and several have resigned. All library guards who have become collaborators must resign of their own free will, otherwise, we will resolve the matter following the law.
Our library is known for its teamwork, so the people who collaborated were a big surprise.
I know that when the Russians already felt that they had to flee, they closed the entire staff of one of the library's departments, so no one knows what they took away or what they did. One of the departments or the basement may be mined, because the area of the library is extremely large (almost 13,000 km², it is the largest book collection among the regional libraries of Ukraine), and the Russians walked through the entire building. The book depository, where there were valuable publications on exhibition stands, is empty. So we know that the Russians stole the pre-revolutionary publications that were on those stands. It is not known what is in the book repositories. There were periodicals and literature on the Kherson province (Kherson, Odesa, Mykolaiv, and Kirovohrad regions), so now all local historians and other scientists will not have this source.
— Were these editions digitized, or at least part of them?
— Of course. We digitized a part by our efforts, participated in one of the digitization programs for another 3 years, and have microfilms of valuable, rare periodicals, but the library does not have a device for reading them. About 300 valuable publications were digitized by the library staff themselves, but this, of course, is not an option. We do not know what equipment the occupiers took away, or whether they left the server. We are very much waiting for the sappers because now the library cannot work and start the inventory while there is danger.
The most important thing was, of course, to save people's lives. I bow my head to every librarian who stayed in a horrible occupation.
Now the library building is damaged. From the blast wave, when the TV tower was blown up, all the windows were blown out, there are no double-glazed windows on the 2 windows of the first floor, we covered them with racks.
The Ukrainian flag is already flying on the flagpole near the library, it used to be the flag of the enemy. They could not remove the flag and therefore blew up the flagpole. As a result of the blast wave in the library nearby, the glass in the exchange-reserve fund, where all the literature is distributed among the libraries of the Kherson region, flew away. We have to do something urgently because if it rains, the consequences for the funds will be terrible.
Kherson Regional Universal Scientific Library named after Oles Honchar is innovative and modern, we are leaders in digital information, 3D technologies, popularization of Ukrainian books. We were the first among libraries to start providing services for those who took Ukrainian language tests and helped elderly people use the banking system every month.
We valued and valued our library very much because it is not just a building. The library is alive. She has a newly opened Facebook page with incredible reviews. But as a library, we have temporarily suspended our work. Our partners in the controlled territory of Ukraine conduct online training on creating digital hubs in libraries, and the head of the department of literature in foreign languages did an internship in Germany. Our library is registered on the map of Ukraine to conduct free courses on the popularization of the Ukrainian language, and Ukrainian literature by modern authors. We have a historical club "Dieslovo".
— Do you have information about other libraries in the Kherson region?
— All regional libraries, as well as the central city library, were seized by the occupiers. That is, the occupiers did not capture the city, the deputy director herself opened the door for them. In the youth library named after B. Lavrenev, the Russians imprisoned their men and "resumed work". In our case, the situation is a little different, because we have a large building that is visible, so FSB officers constantly monitored us and did not let people go to work.
There is no information about other libraries in the region. In Oleksandrivka, where the village was destroyed, the library is no longer there either, where residential buildings were destroyed, there is no question of preserving libraries. I think both Chaplinskyi and Boguslavskyi districts were shelled. The occupiers are now in Skadovsk and Henichesk, they have just de-occupied Bilozerivka, where there is also a library. Wherever there were occupiers, we are not talking about looting funds or destroying the building, we are talking about the destruction of the library premises as such.
Worried about our equipment, we had a cutting plotter, gaming stations for users, projectors in almost every department, and TVs. I think it was stolen, but the guards who worked there said that it could have been worse. Trucks drove up, and the occupiers removed everything from furniture to rare antiques.
— Did you hide these rare editions from the invaders?
— Yes, they hid it, but it didn't help, unfortunately. Collaborating workers knew about the hiding places.
Not only old prints were stolen, the occupiers took new computers, which were also hidden.
We could hide everything only at home. I know about a driver to whom 10 soldiers came at 5 in the morning, and the main collaborator made a "search" in the entire apartment and the neighbors. There was nowhere to take things, there was no evacuation at all. No one expected that the city would be occupied so quickly, and when it was already occupied, it would be quickly liberated. This did not happen.
We hid everything possible on our premises. We don't even know if the occupiers knew about it. Everything the librarians could take home, they took. It is risky, if stopped in the city, they could take it away. No one ever organized a planned evacuation. We took away all documents, personnel files, and workbooks already in June. They did not want them to see the addresses and phone numbers of the employees. Other documents had to be destroyed and cut so that they would not receive information about library projects, etc.
— Was there any coordination with the Association of Librarians?
— Our employees are already undergoing online training on how to act in the event of occupation, war, and post-war times. In addition, every year we filled out the documentation on the priority of evacuation of publications, evacuation exits, etc. We did this, but there were no centralized evacuation orders even after a full-scale invasion.
— What are the current needs of the library?
— Now we are looking for partners and are asking to provide publications, we are communicating with the Association of Publishers and Book Distributors regarding literature. There are no problems with new editions, it is much worse if the occupiers took out the old archives. I think that this is the situation with libraries everywhere in the region.
I think that this is the situation with libraries everywhere in the region.
As for Kherson, evacuation from the city was impossible. No one has ever done it. It surprises me.
As for the library staff, we hid everything we could. A very small part was taken out, and the rest were hidden in their homes. I hope that the occupiers did not get to this. Well, we will ask the whole world, we will participate in projects, and we will fill the library again.
There are gaps in the funds even regardless of the occupation because the libraries of the Kherson region were poorly stocked even before the full-scale invasion. Undoubtedly, we need, firstly, industry literature to be able to send it to other book collections in the region. The State Television and Radio Committee offered to send 300 of the best books by modern Ukrainian authors to our library to be shared among the libraries of the Kherson region. Yesterday, representatives of the Ministry of Culture asked me about our needs as well. We need a scanner, and cameras to digitize the salvaged remains of the funds. We need a machine to read the microfilms with the archives, which saved us a lot from the complete loss of the library collection. Of course, generators, restoration of the mobile network, and the Internet are needed, but this is a general problem for the de-occupied territories. Literature and technical means are the most important needs, not to mention computers.
I did not leave immediately, I stayed in the occupation for 4 months. I know what it's like when the occupiers drive around the city in armored personnel carriers, check documents, and stop them on the streets. But the people who stayed there suffered twice as much. Because of this, we and the entire team of the library want to restore everything as soon as possible, to prove to Russia and its collaborators that they are worthless. We are invincible. I am very grateful to the entire team, our only desire is to return.
Fortunately, we have no human casualties. This is the most important thing. It remains to return to the library and restore everything.
