Book ban
March 26, 2010
Russia has decided to ban Adolf Hitler's 'Mein Kampf,' some 85 years after it was first published. The decision came from a municipal court in the central city of Ufa, where prosecutors found copies of the book easily available. Although it contains passages which are anti-Semitic and anti-Russian, some far-right groups in Russia have praised its content.
Russian prosecutors said in a statement on Friday that Mein Kampf has "a militaristic outlook, justifies the discrimination and destruction of non-Aryan races and reflects ideas which, when implemented, started World War Two."
The Russian justice ministry's list of banned extremist books currently has 573 entries, including some Islamic texts and publications by Jehovah's Witnesses. Distribution of Mein Kampf has been illegal in Germany since World War Two, with exceptions only allowed for research purposes.
Impossible to stop?
Hitler wrote Mein Kampf, which translates as 'My Struggle,' while in prison in Bavaria in 1924. It details both his views of a superior German race and plans to annex parts of the Soviet Union for German "living space."
Russia already has a law calling all books by Nazi party leaders extremist, but Mein Kampf itself was not included on Russia's list of banned books, leaving its legal status ambiguous.
Skeptics in Russia said the ban is likely have little effect because the book would still be available on the Internet.
"I have a feeling that some people needed to show that they were fighting extremism," said Galina Kozhevnikova of SOVA, a Moscow-based non-government organization that tracks extremism. "It's impossible to stop it spreading."
acb/AFP/Reuters
Editor: Ben Knight