Russian libraries remove Alexander Pelevin’s ‘Pokrov-17’ over Galina Yuzefovich quote after her foreign agent designation
Libraries in Moscow and the Arkhangelsk and Leningrad regions have begun removing “Pokrov-17,” a novel by the pro-war writer Alexander Pelevin, from their open shelves, TV host Ksenia Sobchak’s Telegram channel Krovavaya Barynya reported.
Readers can still request the book, but it is being taken out of reading rooms because its cover carries a quote from the literary critic Galina Yuzefovich. In July 2026, Russia’s Justice Ministry added Yuzefovich to its registry of “foreign agents.” The edition of “Pokrov-17” in question was published by Gorodets in 2021.
An employee of a Moscow library told the channel that librarians check the “foreign agents” registry once a week. Each week they also check the federal list of extremist materials, the list of extremists and terrorists, and an industry list of books that mention drugs. Not every library does this, however. A library in St. Petersburg said it does not run such checks.
The Yuzefovich quote on the cover of “Pokrov-17” comes from a review she wrote for Meduza in 2019 about a different Pelevin novel, published in 2018.
From Meduza’s archives
‘You can resist much more than it seems’St. Petersburg librarians on Russia’s book bans and the ways they fight back
‘The number of words you can say keeps shrinking’Meduza investigates how wartime censorship has (and hasn’t) reshaped Russia’s book industry
‘Censorship turns reading into deciphering’Nine artists confront the blacked-out pages erasing war, Putin, and queer lives from Russia’s books
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