Book Festivals in Siberia and the Far East: Preserving Traditions and Role in Promoting Books and Reading

Abstract

The paper characterizes the development of the book festival movement in recent decades in the eastern regions of Russia. The application of formal-logical and comparative-historical methods allowed us to expand the previously studied aspects of the functioning of book fairs. The main directions of the modern regional book festival movement were revealed: library book festivals; projects organized on private and public initiative in collaboration with governmental authorities; federal book festival projects. Long-term (“Book Salon” — Ulan-Ude, since 1996; “Pechatny Dvor” — Vladivostok, since 1997; “Published in Altai” — Barnaul, since 2006; Krasnoyarsk Book Culture Fair (2007—2021), etc.) and recently appeared (“BookMart” — Irkutsk, since 2019; “Book Square” — Kemerovo, since 2021, etc.) regional projects are analyzed. The federal initiatives of 2023 are characterized: “Red Square. Far East” (Vladivostok), “Reading August” of the All-Russian interregional network library-publishing festival movement “Book Beacons of Russia”. The increasing sustainability of the projects due to co-financing by federal and regional authorities, public organizations, sponsors, grant and subsidy support was established. The main trends of the regional book and festival movement were identified. Unresolved problems that can become points of growth are revealed. The relevance and significance of the study of the conditions of development and the current state of the book festival movement in the Siberian Federal District and the Far Eastern Federal District are determined by their growing communicative potential and its influence on the formation of the regional cultural field.