Although the Ministry of Culture has decided that from January 1, it will not buy books in Latin for libraries, publishers will continue to publish them. This means that this new measure will not help the Cyrillic alphabet, and that it has deprived libraries of many good and important books. Only the state will save again
It's been a month since the Book Fair ended, publishers have finished deducting expenses from earnings, and it's time to start a new business year. They have known since September 15 that it will be less favorable than the previous ones, which were also extremely unfavorable.
Then, let's recall, the Minister of Culture, Nikola Selaković, announced at the Vukovo Sabor that from January 1, 2025, his Ministry will only purchase books published in Cyrillic from publishers for libraries. Because, he said, Cyrillic is a Serbian script, and it is endangered, so the Ministry, as part of the Serbian government, wants to preserve it. Currently, only 10 to 20 percent of books are published in Cyrillic in Serbia, which can have a negative impact on Serbian identity. The Ministry will not allow that, and that is precisely why it intends to expel the Latin alphabet from Serbia. After all, if in the region, for example in Croatia, they favor the Latin script, why should Serbian publishers publish books in their script. Only, so that it is not misunderstood: the Ministry has nothing against the Latin alphabet, but it will not spend money on books that are not printed in the national script, even if they are the most valuable in the world.
In the background of this idea is the expectation of the Ministry of Culture that the publishers, considering that they are barely making ends meet, will not want to be deprived of the state subsidy, and that is why they will start printing books in Cyrillic.
Well, will they - we asked the publishers.
EXTREMELY HARMFUL DECISION
"Laguna will certainly not change anything in its publishing policy," says Dejan Papić, the founder of this publishing house, which annually publishes around 350 titles and has about fifty bookstores in the country and about fifteen in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro.
"We will continue to print all children's books primarily in Cyrillic. We will continue to leave the possibility to all domestic authors to decide for themselves the letter on which their book will be printed. We will continue to print the translated literature for which we believe there is significant interest outside the borders of Serbia, in Latin," says Dejan Papić.
And then: "I consider the decision to exclude books printed in Latin from procurement for libraries extremely harmful, above all for libraries and readers, because in that way they will be deprived of many quality books." But that is just a continuation of the years-long neglect of these key literacy institutions of a nation. All attempts by publishers to point to problems with acquisitions and unacceptably small budgets that are nowhere near enough to meet the needs of libraries have been doomed to failure, and the latest decision is just another example of the absence of intent for any kind of dialogue in culture."
And "Kreativni centar", a company that publishes books for children and by children, has published books in one and the other script until now. Ljiljana Marinković, director of this house, says that "almost everything intended for the age of 8 is in Cyrillic, as are all school books. For older ages, we opt for one or the other letter according to the assessment of who the future readers are and depending on the topic of the book". He states that they have "constant requests from people from the diaspora to publish our Cyrillic editions in Latin, because Latin is a kind of bridge to learning the Serbian language for children growing up in the diaspora. Here, for example, since we published the book My Serbia (in Cyrillic), readers keep asking us for its Latin version".
"Akademska knjiga" from Novi Sad signed a contract with the Faculty of Philosophy from Ljubljana on the joint publication of a study in the Serbian language, meaning Latin, so that readers would both countries could use it.
Bora Babić, the director and editor-in-chief of this publisher, says that she will not change anything because of the Ministry's decision. This means that in the future, all books related to Serbian literature and the Serbian language will continue to be in Cyrillic, and that academic editions, due to the wide readership, will be in Latin. "With this, we want to promote publications in the Serbian language in the post-Yugoslav area in the best possible way," said Bora Babić. "The mission of 'Academic Book', as well as other publishers, is to make our culture the leader in the region."
I WILL NOT CHANGE ANYTHING
Ivan Bevc, founder and editor of the "Booka" publishing house, says that "such decisions cannot affect us. The state participates with one to two percent of our traffic and I don't know how it could blackmail us. After all, the state allocates one million dinars for all publishers. We will absolutely continue to publish books in Latin".
The editor-in-chief of "Blum izdavaštva" Aleksandar Šurbatović says that he will not change anything either. "It doesn't occur to me! Maybe I thought of publishing some subsequent books in Cyrillic, but now I won't. I will not be blackmailed. The letter on which the book is published must not be a criterion for the Ministry whether it should be purchased for libraries or not."
The literary workshop "Rašić" publishes books in the Latin script. "We have a miniature sale of our editions in Banja Luka, and there is interest in Serbian authors in Croatia as well. I doubt that there would be any if they were in Cyrillic", says Aleksandra Rašić, director and editor-in-chief of "Rašić".
Gojko Božović says that "the issue of the Cyrillic alphabet, as it has been raised in recent months, is not an expression of concern for culture and literacy, but the spin of the authorities. When the Kosovo policy of the government led to the outcome that only such a policy could lead to, the government, in order to restore its legitimacy and divert attention to other topics, reached for Tito, Draža, military service and the Cyrillic alphabet. They don't really care about any of those topics, but they believe that they can serve in the strategy of the spin management".
He points out that "the position of the Cyrillic alphabet will not be better this way, but some damage will be done, because the already multiple divided society will be divided over another topic", and asks: "Will the cultural influence of Belgrade and Serbia be greater or less because of these decisions? Is it in the interest of readers and society that libraries remain without some significant books published in Latin? In what way will the national cultural, literary, artistic and scientific heritage published in Latin in the last 100 years and more be treated? Do you think about the children of our diaspora who grow up in a Latin environment?"
By the way, Gojko Božović reminds that "Archipelag" publishes books in both Cyrillic and Latin, and concludes that "the decision on the choice of font usually depends on the author's proposal." Nothing will change there."
PROFESSIONAL SUGGESTIONS
The increase in Cyrillic editions is planned by those publishers whose editions have so far been the most visible script, most often due to their orientation towards a certain target group, due to the type of books and their topics, their tradition, ideological commitment... These are, for example, "Pčelica", Zavod for textbooks, Serbian literary cooperative, Novi Sad "Prometheus"...
Perhaps everything would have been much different if the Ministry of Culture had made a decision about this way of favoring the Cyrillic alphabet after consulting with the publishers. Each of our interlocutors had a good and feasible proposal that would work in practice.
As an example, here is just one - Ljiljane Marinković from the "Creative Center":
"I believe that it would be much more necessary for us to institutionally improve language culture and reading habits. Because nothing will change if we are illiterate and don't read, so let there be Cyrillic everywhere around us. I would only suggest some possible measures to the Ministry. First of all, in a practical sense, it could finance the creation of as many high-quality Cyrillic fonts as possible, which would then be available to everyone, so that we could print more beautiful Cyrillic books and so that we would not have to remake Latin or Russian and Bulgarian fonts. Next, it could design a sustained campaign to encourage reading at all levels, including a significantly larger book buyback fund. It could focus on constant concern for public speaking, especially in the media, but also in all other spheres of public life. And finally, instead of punitive measures, it could pay attention to all the good and important things publishers are already doing to protect culture and language, which often goes completely unnoticed."
So far, the color vs. Latin score is as follows:
Pressure on publishers did not help the Cyrillic alphabet. Both letters will continue to be more or less represented as they have been so far. The libraries will be at a loss, and thus the readers. There won't be many new books in them just because they were published in Latin. Which means a lot of good ones and necessary for readers.
All this would not have happened if the Ministry cared about spreading literacy, reading, culture, knowledge, strengthening libraries and publishing, but we will not talk about that.
The only profit will be made by the state. If only Cyrillic books will be purchased in 2025, it is possible to assume that there will be fewer of them in total than usual, which means - there will be savings in the budget. For the Expo and some other things, the state has more priority.
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