Sales of military-patriotic and historical literature have increased in Russia

At the end of 2023, the demand for military-patriotic and historical literature has increased in Russia, they reported RBC a number of major publishers. The best-selling books are “The Art of War” and “The Fall of an Empire. Russian lesson.” Demand for Remarque’s novels has increased by almost 80%.

Sales of military and patriotic literature began to grow even after the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine, but last year these categories became even more in demand. According to Eksmo, the largest in terms of the number of non-periodical publications, sales of books related to patriotism, history and the art of war increased year on year by 15% in terms of the number of copies sold and by 30% in rubles.

At the AST publishing house, the second largest number of non-periodical publications in Russia, sales of fiction in the category “patriotism, military and historical prose” increased by 43% in units compared to 2021 (no dynamics by 2022). In February 2024, sales of books in this category increased by 61% compared to the same period last year. Separately, AST notes an increase in sales of military-patriotic children’s literature. Sales of such fiction for children increased by 78% from 2022 to 2023.

“Azbuka-Atticus” (part of “Eksmo-AST”) has been recording a stable increase in sales of historical literature since 2021. Sales growth in the categories “military affairs” and “history” in 2022 was 11%, and in 2023 – by 27%. The growth in sales of Alpina non-fiction in 2023 was due to historical literature: sales grew by 17% year-on-year, in 2022 – by 10%.

In the Read-Gorod store, the “military affairs” category in physical terms increased by 15% by 2022. In Biblio-Globus, by February 2024, the demand for historical literature increased by 40% compared to February 2023.

Top 5 bestsellers by AST publishing house in this category: “The Art of War” by Sun Tzu, “The Book of Five Rings” by Musashi Miyamoto, “Bushido” and “Memories of War” by Nikolai Nikulin. Sales of books by Erich Maria Remarque increased by 80% from 2020 to 2023.

ABC-Atticus draws attention to the interest in the book “A Nation Mobilized” by Nicholas Stargardt, published in January 2021. Since February 2022, its average monthly unit sales have increased by 33%; in October 2022, against the backdrop of partial mobilization, it increased sevenfold, to 2.5 thousand units per month. The peak of 5.5 thousand copies occurred in December 2022 and February 2023. The publisher associates this with the anniversary of the start of hostilities.

In Eksmo, “The Art of War” is the leader in this category. At the end of February, the ranking of best-selling books also included “The Art of War. The Experience of the Greatest Commander” by Napoleon Bonaparte, “After the Good War” by Mark Solonin, “Notes on the Gallic War” by Guy Julius Caesar and “The Great Patriotic War 1941–1945. The most complete illustrated encyclopedia” by Alexey Isaev and Artem Drabkin.

In 2022 and 2023, the absolute leader of “Alpina non-fiction” was the book “Saying Yes to Life!” by the Austrian psychiatrist Viktor Frankl, who went through four Nazi concentration camps and described his experience. Top sellers include A Brief History of the Soviet Union by Sheila Fitzpatrick, Napoleon by Andrew Roberts, The Last Days of Stalin by Joshua Rubinstein, The Peloponnesian War by Donald Kagan and Crusaders by Dan Jones.

In Biblio-Globus, the most popular book in this segment in February of this year was called “The Death of an Empire. Russian Lesson” by Metropolitan Tikhon (Shevkunov), dedicated to the February Revolution of 1917. In second place are “Stories from Russian History. Peter the Great” by Vladimir Medinsky, “Memoirs” by Felix Yusupov and “History of the Russian State” by Nikolai Karamzin.

Read more about bookselling in Russia in the Kommersant publication. “Paper books have mastered the Internet”.