Date: Tue, 2 Sep 1997 04:28:48 -0400
From: aaron-AT-burn.ucsd.edu (Aaron)
Subject: M-NEWS: New radical left library in Moscow asks for support


THE VICTOR SERGE FOUNDATION, INC
16 rue de la TEINTURERIE
34000 MONTPELLIER, FRANCE

TEL/FAX (334) 67 63 14 36
<richard.greeman-AT-hol.fr>

Press Release, August 30, 1997

SMALL MIRACLES OCCASIONALLY OCCUR!
"BOOKS FOR STRUGGLE" PROJECT A SUCCESS:
VICTOR SERGE PUBLIC LIBRARY OPENS IN MOSCOW,
APPEALS FOR CONTINUED SUPPORT.

The following report has just been received from Julia and Alexei Gusev* in
Russia: "The Victor Serge Public Library in Moscow has been open since the
1st of May 1997. It is the first and only Russian library to take up the
task of acquainting the Russian public with scholarly and political
literature of a left-wing (anti-capitalist and anti-bureaucratic)
orientation." In addition to lending books, the Library is used for
discussions. The Library welcomes donations of books and journals as well
as financial contributions (see addresses below).

"We are working in cooperation with the Self-Government Committee of a
public library in a Moscow neighborhood," the Gusev's report. "Books are
leant out, there are classes and discussions, most recently on the 1936
Spanish Revolution. The Library Committee appeals to all organizations and
individuals that would like to support the spread of left-wing ideas and
the development of the workers' movement in Russia to help our work."

The opening of the Library culminates a successful international project
which began in 1995 with "Books for Struggle," a campaign to "send
political dynamite to Russia" by shipping left-wing books and journals
donated by U.S. activists and publishers to Moscow. To quote the "Books for
Struggle" Appeal:

Russian activists and intellectuals have been cut off for seventy-five
years from serious information about Western labor struggles and trends in
socialist thought. Such knowledge is vital to the new Russian left that is
struggling to find its way under the most difficult and confusing
conditions.

During 1995-96 forty six cartons of donated radical material were collected
and stored in the office of "News & Letters," the Marxist-Humanist
organization based in Chicago. The Victor Serge Foundation organized the
shipment by truck, ship, and rail to Moscow via Hamburg.  The Institute of
Political and Labor Studies offered them a space -- a near-miracle in
high-rent Moscow. Renfrey Clarke, the Moscow-based Australian journalist,
organized the actual miracle of getting them through customs. (He
eventually  succeeded by enlisting the aid of an unemployed actor, who
impersonated an irate official.)

Another goal of the project was to create a center around the books where
members of the fragmented Russian "new left" could come together for
discussion and reflection around the donated books, according to Richard
Greeman of the Serge Foundation.** The Library was set up "on the initative
of representatives of various left-wing currents (from democratic
socialists to anarcho-syndicalists), with support from the Victor Serge
Foundation," according to the Gusevs. It was named after Victor Serge
(1890-1947) the Franco-Russian writer and revolutionary who was active in
many countries and whose career spanned Marxism and anarchism.

Cartons of books and journals can be mailed directly to the Victor Serge
Public Library, Balaklavsky Prospect 4-6-365, 113639 Moscow, Russia. FAX:
(095) 292-65-11, Box 8020 "Struggle." Tax-deductable financial
contributions should be made out to the Victor Serge Foundation	and mailed
to 16 rue de la Teinturerie, 34000 Montpellier, France.

	Contact Person: Richard Greeman <richard.greeman-AT-hol.fr>

	# Please copy and pass on!
	# Please print or excerpt in your publication!
	# Please post on E-Mail forums and the Web!

* Julia Guseva recently translated Victor Serge's Memoires of a
Revolutionary and Conquered City into Russian for publication this Fall.
Alexei Gusev is active in organizing a conference on Leon Trotsky's legacy
(including discussion of Serge) for October 1997.

** The the non-profit Victor Serge Foundation Inc. was established in 1996
when the Yale University Library bought Victor Serge's archives. The
proceeds are used to provide modest sums to support translation and
publication of Serge's writings as well as small projects like "Books for
Struggle." Tax-free contributions are welcome.

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