A series of thefts of Russian classics have been committed in European libraries

In France, a group of criminals was detained who were involved in stealing lifetime editions of Pushkin, Gogol and Lermontov from libraries in European cities. Libraries in France, Switzerland, Germany, Finland, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia were affected. Reportedly Le Parisien, we are talking about people with Georgian passports, who probably worked for customers in Russia. Kommersant correspondent in France reports Alexey Tarkhanov.

The latest thefts in France were committed at the library of the University of Lyon (ENS Lyon) and the French National Library of France (BnF). The style of the crimes was the same: people who introduced themselves as researchers of Russian literature ordered rare books, lifetime editions of A. S. Pushkin and M. Yu. Lermontov, carefully studied them and either simply took them out, taking advantage of the moment, or replaced them with specially made copies.

The BnF thief motivated his interest in rare books, with which he worked from March to October 2023, by preparing a dissertation on the topic “Democracy in Russian literature of the 19th century.” As a result of his “intense scientific work,” the library was missing eight books, the cost of which could reach €650 thousand.

Thefts in a similar scenario took place in Finland and Germany.

In Poland alone, 79 books disappeared from the library of the University of Warsaw.

As reported by Deutsche Welle (included by the Russian Ministry of Justice in the list of foreign media outlets), after the disappearance of rare editions of Russian classics of the 19th century, the director of the library, Anna Volodko, lost her post. Seventeen works by Pushkin and Gogol were stolen from the Latvian National Library. Eight books are in the library of the University of Tartu in Estonia, and, as local newspapers wrote, two criminals motivated their interest in publications by preparing a scientific work on “the organization of censorship and printing policy in Russia in the early 19th century.” Pushkin’s collection was stolen from the library of the University of Geneva. According to the newspaper La Tribune de Geneveanalysis of the DNA left behind pointed to the arrested authors of the thefts committed in different European cities.

In October 2023, a group of attackers robbed the storage facilities of the University Library of Languages ​​and Civilizations (BULAC) in the 13th arrondissement of the French capital. Having broken open the doors and smashed the display cases, they took out books, the list of which never became known to journalists. The case of the library thieves was carried out by French investigators from the Central Office against the Smuggling of Cultural Property (OCLBC), and after the burglary in BULAC they were joined by specialists from the BRB Anti-Banditry Brigade.

They detained a certain Micheli Z. at the Brussels airport, then it was the turn of his alleged accomplice Valerian R., who documented in detail Pushkin’s copies from the BnF, using not only a camera, but even a ruler, in order, as the investigation believes, to make copies to replace the originals .

The 57-year-old holder of a Georgian passport himself stated during interrogations that he was simply an amateur antiquarian who sells facsimile copies of books from the 18th–19th centuries in his homeland. Currently in France there are three people under suspicion of theft, one of them is in pre-trial detention, the other two are placed under police surveillance. But the investigation believes that this is just one of the groups operating throughout Europe with a mysterious goal – to collect a collection of unique works of Russian classics and printed art, lifetime editions of museum quality and value, and not only Pushkin, Lermontov, Gogol, but also later books Dostoevsky or Tolstoy.

The stolen books have not yet been found. It is assumed that they are on their way to the masterminds of the thefts, probably controlled by criminals from Russia, or are already in their hands.

Investigators even suggested that, perhaps, we are talking about an unofficial program for the forced repatriation of “canceled” Russian classics from Europe to their homeland – but this assumption still seems dubious. Perhaps the French simply extended to national literary shrines the idea of ​​a massive return to Russia of church shrines, often serving Russian businessmen as indulgences – like the recent case with the relics of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, which came in handy after the scandal with the party at the Mutabor club. But love for literature and Pushkin can be not only a state matter, but also a purely personal matter.