Over two years, the Ministry of Culture has spent more than UAH 24 million on books meant to strengthen the national unity of Ukrainians. There was a contest to select these books, and the state enterprise “The Centre for Protection of Information Space of Ukraine” (TsZIPU) dealt with their distribution.
However, a recent audit in this enterprise, the results of which were obtained by NGL.media, has found і the audit was conducted by the State Auditing Service of Ukraine; it analyzed the enterprise activity in 2022–2023 many problems on the stage of signing agreements with publishers and during the distribution of books.
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In addition to the content of the books, published at public expense, the major concern of the auditors was related to their distribution. It was found that a considerable portion of these prints remains in the warehouses; in some cases, this is 90% of the edition. Thus, the auditors make a logical conclusion about the reasonability of this programme. “A low percentage of the distribution of the published books indicates the lack of any need to publish them and a failure to achieve the aim of distributing the informational product,” reads the report of the State Auditing Service.
Yet the Ministry of Culture has no intention of abolishing the programme “Books to Strengthen the National Unity” – the deadline for applying for a new contest is November 15.
Books for the chosen
The start of the special programme “Books to Strengthen the National Unity” was announced by the Ministry of Culture in September 2022. As early as November 2022, the contest commission selected 18 books which were then published at public expense by the state enterprise “The Centre for Protection of the Information Space of Ukraine” (TsZIPU) і founded in 2017, a state-owned commercial enterprise under the management of the Ministry of Culture and Strategic Communication of Ukraine .
Since books and publishing houses were chosen for participation in this project based on the art contest, the TsZIPU signed agreements with them without any open bidding.
Next year, in 2023, 41 books were published within the “Books to Strengthen National Unity” project. Some winners were selected in August, and some — in December, but all agreements were signed only by the end of the year, and the payments were made at once. According to the auditors’ data, there was no reasoning behind the promotion of these books — some were presented right after being published, and others were either not presented at all or presented with a considerable delay.
In 2022–2023, the TsZIPU made a total of 59 agreements with publishing houses for the total amount of UAH 24.2 million. This year, the TsZIPU has not signed new contracts yet, but it has held open bidding for the publishing of the additional print run of the book “Ruscism is…” і the volume — 68 pages; 3,000 copies, including the ones in English (2,000 copies), in German (250 copies), in French (250 copies), in Italian (250 copies) and in Spanish (250 copies) and a book, entitled “Genocide” і the volume — 48 pages; 1,000 copies, including the ones in Ukrainian (500 copies) and in English (500 copies) . The winner in open bidding was “Samit-Knyha” in both cases, and the relevant agreements were made for the amount of almost UAH 630 thousand.
Actually, the “Samit-Knyha” and “Folio” publishing houses seem to be the favourites of the “Books to Strengthen the National Unity” project. These two publishing houses received UAH 17 million out of UAH 24.2 million, allocated to finance this project in 2022–2023.
At the same time, many well-known Ukrainian publishers have not even heard about the “Books to Strengthen the National Unity”. “I have not heard about this programme; I might have missed it. We usually receive letters from profile organizations about different possibilities for publishers. The team considers them and evaluates whether they are reasonable and whether we comply with the contest requirements. Our pool of solicited manuscripts does not always meet the requirements of contests and grants,” explains Anastasia Nikitina, the executive director of “Nash Format” publishing house, in a conversation with NGL.media.
Yulia Orlova, the director of “Vivat” publishing house, which periodically publishes books for the projects of the Ukrainian Book Institute, also told NGL.media that she had never heard about this project of the Ministry of Culture. “We have enough publishing houses which could probably take part in this programme; we just didn’t know about it — this is the first time I hear about the project,” the publisher said.
It was the first time a small publishing house, “Bilka”, found out about the “Books to Strengthen the National Unity” from NGL.media. We came to them for the commentary as its array of books meets the programme, initiated by the Ministry of Culture. “We definitely are a great match for the programme. However, I think the promotion is insufficient, we would have taken part [if we had known]. Yet we are a small publishing house, we don’t have departments to work with grants. We promote our books with the help of readers’ enthusiasm,” Iryna Bilotserkivska, the head of the publishing house, explains.
Several other large publishers didn’t want to talk about this project of the Ministry of Culture, explaining it by their scepticism of this project due to different reasons.
Large families of publishers
The Kyiv-based publishing house “Samit-Knyha”, the owners of which are brothers Ivan and Ihor Stepurin, has received the largest amount of money and commissions within the “Books to Strengthen the National Unity” project. The publishing house received UAH 5.3 million directly, and UAH 5.5 million more was divided between the publishers, affiliated with the “Samit-Knyha”.
For instance, Ihor Stepurin received UAH 1.1 million as a sole entrepreneur, and “Creative agency “Artil” LLC, where he compiles books, received UAH 1.7 million. More than UAH 711 thousand more was paid to “Vash Avtohraf” LLC, a related publishing house і “Vash Avtograf” is associated with Ihor Stepurin via his groupmate and former business partner, Ihor Lubin. Ihor Lubin and his wife Natalia, who is the official owner of “Vash Avtograf”, refused to provide any comments .
UAH 2 million more was received by Ivan Rotarchuk, the son-in-law of Ivan Stepurin, who signed agreements with the TsZIPU to publish five books. At the same time, the GetContact data demonstrate that people who know Rotarchuk record his phone number as that of a taxi driver and an expert in vehicle certification.
Thus, “Samit-Knyha” and the companies, affiliated with it, published 26 books for the total amount of UAH 10.8 million within the “Books to Strengthen the National Unity” project, as commissioned by the Ministry of Culture.
“Folio”, a publishing house from Kharkiv, received 19 commissions from the TsZIPU for the total amount of UAH 6.2 million. Out of this money, UAH 5.1 million passed through “Folio” LLC and “Publishing House “Folio” LLC, UAH 225 thousand — through “Fakt” LLC and UAH 820 thousand more — through “Bibkolektor” publishing house, which belongs to Lada Krasovytska, the wife of Oleksandr Krasovytskyi, the owner of “Folio”.
That is, 45 out of 59 commissioned books were published by only two publishing houses. Their share was UAH 17 million out of UAH 24.2 million.
The remaining amount was divided between ten more companies. Among these was “Green Pengiun Media” LLC, which published a thousand copies of the book “Why Ukraine Is Brave?” for UAH 475 thousand. This company is more known as a Kyiv-based creative agency, “Green Penguin”, which used to develop new logotypes for the Ministry of Culture. We have failed to find any information about the published book; there is no information about it on the agency’s website either.
“We merely offer good books”
Ivan Stepurin, the director of the “Samit-Knyha” publishing house, was surprised to hear that his publishing house has received the largest amount of money within the “Books to Strengthen the National Unity” programme. He says that he does not keep these statistics. Yet he believes that the reason for this success lies in the fact that the publishing house has a long history of active publishing and promoting Ukrainian books.
“We merely offer good books,” Ivan Stepurin explains in the conversation with NGL.media. “This is open bidding, after all. I would advise those who publish less within these programmes to be more active in applying for that. On the one hand, this is proper state support [for publishing houses], and on the other — this is important for libraries and Ukraine in general.”
Actually, the replenishment of library resources is the main task of the “Books to Strengthen the National Unity” programme. The books, published at public expense, are to be distributed among libraries and during presentations or official events. These books should not be on sale at all.
Ivan Stepurin confirms these assumptions. In his words, the publishing house can promote their distribution once asked, but generally, it is the Ministry’s job. The Ministry is the distributor of the published books.
“We publish them and give them to the Ministry, but they can keep [these books] in our facility. Of course, we are interested in the distribution of these books because their PR is very important for us,” Stepurin highlights.
However, NGL.media found that some of the books, published within the state programme, are sold on book-selling websites. According to the data of the State Auditing Service, the cost of these books on sale is lower than the one, stipulated in the agreements with the TsZIPU. For instance, a book by Yevhenia Bohoslavska, “Bakhmut: Chronicles of Unbroken Fortress”, is sold on the official website of “Samit-Knyha” at the price of UAH 500, although the TsZIPU has already paid the publishing house UAH 662.5 UAH per one copy і the “Samit-Knyha” received a total of UAH 662.5 thousand for 1,000 copies . A similar story is notable for the “Folio” publishing house, which has already received UAH 410 per book, entitled “Ballad about Potylytsia”, and yet sells it at the price of UAH 240 і “Folio” has received a total of UAH 410 thousand for 1,000 copies of the book “Ballad about Potylytsia” .
Oleksandr Krasovytskyi, the owner of “Folio”, said that this is the second edition of the book, paid for by the publishing house itself, without any support from the Ministry of Culture. He explained a considerable difference in prices by the cost of preparing the first edition for publication.
“One of the aims of this programme is to urge publishers to publish books on socially relevant topics, since the state takes the main burden of expenses for the preparation, copyright, printing plates, etc. for the book, when it commissions the print run. And so when the publisher wants to publish the next edition, there is no need to spend much money,” Krasovytskyi said.
“It seems like there are procurements for the sake of procurements”
It is remarkable that in 2022–2023, all the books were published in the same print run of 1,000 copies regardless of their genre, publishing house, and format. The only print run of 3,000 copies was made by the “Samit-Knyha”, it was a collection of materials from the Centre for Strategic Communications “How the Russian Information Ship Went… Propaganda Narratives during the Full-Scale War”. It is not clear even to publishers why all books are published with the same print run.
“I have many questions to the Ministry of Culture regarding some things in the rules of this contest,” Oleksandr Krasovytskyi from the “Folio” said. “Firstly, it seems to me that the Ministry should specify the topics to enter the contest more specifically. Secondly, I believe that different books may be very important, but one important book may have a print run of 300 copies and another — 5,000 copies, and this matter should be decided either by an expert council which knows what it wants or the enterprise of the TsZIPU, when it prepares the agreement, but unfortunately, it looks as if they are all painted with the same brush.”
A full list of the books published within the “Books to Strengthen the National Unity” programme
The report of the State Auditing Service describes a grievous situation with the distribution of the already published books. For instance, in 2022–2023, out of 1,000 copies of the book, called “One Ukraine, One Nation. Conversations with Leonid Kravchuk” і the author — Oleksandr Krasovytskyi, “Folio” publishing house , only 459 copies were distributed, including 168 received by the Ministry of Culture itself.
A 48-page-long booklet for teenagers, “Slava Ukraini!” [Glory to Ukraine] (creative agency “Artil”), and “Fairy-tales of Little Patriots” (sole entrepreneur Ihor Stepurin), published and transferred to the TsZIPU at the end of 2023, were still in the warehouses as of August 2024. By the way, the books are not kept in the warehouses for free. For instance, in 2024, the TsZIPU made an agreement for the storing of books by the “Ukrvydavpoligrafia” for the amount of UAH 227 thousand.
Some published books are given to non-governmental organizations, but they do not hurry up to distribute them either. For instance, the NGO “Brovarska Hromada” managed to distribute only 250 books, although it received 925 books at the end of last year.
Within the “Books to Strengthen the National Unity” programme, some books were published in English, and the situation with their distribution was found to be even worse. As of the moment of the audit, 70% of the print runs of these books remained in the warehouses, which forced the auditors to the obvious conclusion: “…Improper management of the MCIP and improper marketing by the SE TsZIPU which failed to ensure a wide network of distributing the printed materials in the English language along with a low percentage of distribution demonstrate that the publishing houses do not need to publish them in the same print run as the books published in Ukrainian (1,000 copies) and there is the irrational use of the state budget finances.”
Anton Martynov, the founder of “Laboratoria” publishing house who previously was the counsellor for the minister of culture і Martynov was the counsellor for Minister Volodymyr Borodianskyi from August 20, 2019, till his resignation on March 4, 2020 does not see any sense in such projects at all, and considers them non-transparent and inefficient.
“I believe this is the wrong way. It is inefficient because the path of this book is unknown and it seems like there are procurements for the sake of procurements,” Martynov says. “So, the experience shows that there has been nothing more efficient for publishers than this one thousand given to each Ukrainian to buy books і In 2021, within the state programme “yePidtrymka” [eSupport] all Ukrainians received UAH 1,000 which they could use to buy books; since 2024, there is also a state programme, by which all Ukrainians receive a certificate for UAH 900 to purchase books when they reach the age of 18 . It has boosted the industry immensely and allowed them even to survive the market crisis.”
Kost Bondarenko, Professor Lyzanchuk, and Cossack Potylytsia
The State Auditing Service has also investigated the texts of the books, published at the public expense, and found that some published books had contradictory content, or, rather, the content which “does not comply with the main aspects, defined by the Concept, and is not aimed at ensuring the protection of national interests and supporting the positive image of Ukraine in any way.”
A fragment of a comic book “Ballad about Potylytsia” (a screenshot from the “Folio” publishing house)
The stated examples were taken from a comic fairy tale by Oleksandr Semiakin “Ballad about Potylytsia”, published by the “Folio”, the main character of which is supposed to embody a brave Ukrainian soldier-protector but looks like a drunkard and fun-seeker instead. In addition, Russian words are used in the comic book, like “Heh-heh! What a shalun [a naughty boy]!”, “May it be obman zrenia [a trick of the eye]?” “Muzhchina [Man]! Find me!”, “Prakaznik [mischief-maker]!” etc.
There are also questions for some authors whose books have been published at the expense of the state budget. For instance, it concerns Kost Bondarenko, a former known political analyst, whose data have been entered into the database of pseudo-sociologists, manipulating public opinion and promoting the interests of former members of the Party of Regions. After the beginning of the Russian full-scale invasion, Kost Bondarenko decreased his public activity considerably, yet he still comments on current events in pro-Russian channels. It didn’t prevent the Ministry of Culture from paying UAH 357 thousand for his book “Andriy Melnyk: Unlearned Lessons”, published by Ivan Rotarchuk, the son-in-law of the head and owner of the “Samit-Knyha” publishing house.
The auditors found that among the books, published within the “Books to Strengthen the National Unity” programme, there is a textbook by Vasyl Lyzanchuk, a professor at the Lviv National University, “Chronicles of Unbroken Spirit (genocide, ethnocide, linguicide of the Ukrainian nation)” which was written and first published as far back as in 2008. The amended edition was re-published by “Vash Avtograf” LLC. As of the time of the audit, 90% of the print run was still in the warehouse, and the mass media still do not have any information about the book. The potential reader might learn about its existence only accidentally in one of a few libraries or once given this book in their hands during some conference.
What does the state enterprise of the Ministry of Culture say?
NGL.media sent a list of questions about the “Books to Strengthen the National Unity” programme and the results of auditing the enterprise activity to the state enterprise TsZIPU. Olha Dudchenko, who headed the TsZIPU only on October 25, 2024, after the change in the Ministry of Culture leadership, asked for several weeks to prepare the answer.
Two weeks after sending the inquiry, NGL.media have not received any response yet. We will surely publish it as soon as we get it.