Books that burned on 1 August at Ranok’s logistics centre in Kharkiv have been brought to Frankfurt. The scorched editions form the basis of the Born/Burn Alive installation, set up at Ukraine’s National Stand at the 2026 Frankfurt Book Fair. The installation’s creator is artist Valentyna Veremko. This was reported by the Ranok publishing house.
From 7 to 11 October, while the Frankfurt Book Fair is running, a glass display case will stand alongside the stands of bright new book releases. Inside it is a stack of 22 books with burnt pages and traces of ash. These books were saved after a Russian attack on Ranok’s automated logistics centre in Kharkiv on 1 August 2026.
That day, the strike and ensuing fire destroyed around 8 million copies of books, including more than 620,000 school textbooks.
“Looking at this installation, I see how four centuries of history fit into a single glass display case. The red scale on the glass begins in 1626, when Ukrainian books were burned for the first time,” said Viktor Kruhlov, CEO of the Ranok publishing house.
Valentyna Veremko, the installation’s creator, says the idea for the project first emerged in 2024 after a Russian strike on a Kharkiv printing house.
According to the artist’s concept, the scorched books are stacked into a vertical tower and enclosed in a glass display case. A vertical scale with 12 dates is marked in red on the glass. Exactly 400 years separate the first and last dates:
- 1626 — The Synod of the Moscow Church orders the removal from Ukrainian churches of books printed in the old Ukrainian tradition;
- 1627 – By decree of Tsar Mikhail and Patriarch Filaret, the print run of K. Stavrovetskiy’s Didactic Gospel is burned;
- 1720 — A decree by Peter I bans the printing of new books in the Ukrainian language;
- 1763 — Catherine I closes Ukrainian schools;
- 1775 – The destruction of the Zaporizhyan Sich together with its printing house and library;
- 1863 — The Valuev Circular bans the printing of educational and religious literature in Ukrainian;
- 1876 – The Ems Ukaz bans the printing and import of Ukrainian books;
- 1937 – The Executed Renaissance — the physical уничтожение of authors along with their texts;
- 2014 — The removal of Ukrainian books from libraries in occupied territories;
- 2022 — The destruction of libraries and book collections during the full-scale invasion;
- 2024 — A missile strike on the Faktor-Druk printing house in Kharkiv destroys 50,000 books;
- 2026 – The current phase of the war: the removal of Ukrainian books in occupied territories and the targeted destruction of Ukrainian libraries, printing houses, publishers and warehouses.