Program "Support and development of reading": The crises is favorable to reading habits of Russians

The Russians have started to read more often. This encouraging poll has appeared for the first time after the long years of book stagnation. How to consolidate the progressive result? The national program “Support and development of reading” was initiated 3 years ago in Russia, however until very recently the interest for books was only decreasing. More than half of Russians didn’t read nor buy any book a year. The desire to read something appeared among many people in the time of the world financial crises. This year people display a really keen interest to the book fairs and meetings with authors, and the special projects carried out by the Russian libraries and supported by the government have managed to attract new readers. The strategy of such effective measures is being worked out at the annual All-Russian conferences, where they figure out the share of participation of each branch concerned – publishing houses, book shops, libraries and Mass Media.

“For a long time we were doing nothing, for a long time we considered Russia to be the most reading country in the world and thought that that would be forever”, – remarked the Head of the book exhibitions and reading promotion department of the Federal Agency for Press and Mass Communications Alexander Voropayev.