A campaign to donate books and rebuild a library

A once well-stocked library in the Kerala capital that disappeared with the fall of the Soviet Union in the 1990s is now being slowly rebuilt - book by book

A once well-stocked library in the Kerala capital that disappeared with the fall of the Soviet Union in the 1990s is now being slowly rebuilt - book by book.

The Russian House in Thiruvananthapuram, which houses the Honorary Consulate of Russia and the Russian Cultural Centre, launched a campaign this month to set up a library at its Vanross Junction campus through public donations of English and Indian translations, particularly Malayalam, of Russian works and books dealing with Russia.

The initial response has been encouraging. Among the first books that it received was a priceless 12-book collection of the works of Fyodor Dostoevskiy and a copy of Boris Pasternak’s Doctor Zhivago. The hard-bound collection of Dostoevskiy’s works, in Russian, arrived from Siberia as a gift from a couple, Mikhail Dubaev and his wife Anna. The Doctor Zhivago came from the personal collection of the writer Paul Zachariah.

Among the first contributors were also writer and critic George Onakkoor and the poet Rosemary. Dr. Onakkoor donated a number of books including a copy of Anton Chekov’s finest tales.

Mr. Zachariah has welcomed the Russian House campaign. Establishing a physical library, with old-fashioned racks with paper books, holds great relevance even in the digital age, according to him. “There are extremely well-kept libraries and people still choose to visit them,” he said.

And on Sunday came yet another windfall for the Russian House; books from the personal collections of the late K.P.S. Menon (Sr) and K.P.S. Menon (Jr), both of whom held the post of Foreign Secretary. Among these new acquisitions is a book presented to K.P.S. Menon (Sr), independent India’s first Foreign Secretary, when he visited Yasnaya Polyana, Leo Tolstoy’s birthplace, Ratheesh C. Nair, Honorary Consul of Russia in Thiruvananthapuram, said.

During the Soviet days, the present Russian Cultural Centre in Thiruvananthapuram was the House of Soviet Culture. Its library had a collection of books including Russian classics published by the Soviet publishers Raduga and Progress, journals and propaganda material. Mr. Zachariah recalls that library as a neat and well-kept one. After the USSR fell in 1991, the House of Soviet Culture was shut down and the books in the library were lost. The institution reopened as the Russian Cultural Centre some ten years later.