It is sad to see the dusty window of the Writers' Bookshop on Kuznetsky Most, closed for a year now

It is sad to see the dusty window of the Writers' Bookshop on Kuznetsky Most, closed for a year now. It is, it turns out, the oldest surviving bookshop in Moscow.

One feels moved to appeal to the city authorities. In the capitalist race, not every cultural institution can withstand the pressure of the market. Moscow is a very wealthy city, and I am certain it can afford to keep alive places as critically important to the cultural context as its oldest bookshops. Surely something else can be devised?

Founded in 1934 by Maxim Gorky, the Writers' Bookshop, where many journalists and authors worked behind the counter to earn a little extra, did not close for a single day, even during the years of the Great Patriotic War.

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It is sad to see the dusty window of the Writers' Bookshop on Kuznetsky Most, closed for a year now

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