WORLD : Soviet Leaders’ Books Don’t Sell
Books by Soviet leaders, including President Mikhail S. Gorbachev, are no longer guaranteed space on store shelves, and those that don’t sell are being shredded, a newspaper said today.
However, books by the founder of the Soviet state, V. I. Lenin, are still considered sacred and cannot be destroyed, the weekly Sobesednik said.
The newspaper, aimed at Soviet youth, quoted a bookshop manager as saying works by Gorbachev, Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze and Prime Minister Nikolai I. Ryzhkov are not selling and have been written off.
“These books sell poorly, and to sell even one brochure is a victory,” M. Chuchaikina, director of Bookstore No. 67 in Moscow, told the newspaper.
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