Fw: STOLEN BOOK MESSAGE

[Yoshimasa Tsuji]

Hello Andrew,
The forwarded message contains nothing peculiar. We need to be extremely
cautious, that's all.

Here are some points I would like to make:
1. All exports from Russia now requires payment in cash in advance.
  Otherwise one cannot export anything commercially. That is the law.
2. Books do not always arrive if sent by surface post. FedEx, DHL,
  ExpressMail are much safer. Airmail post is often reliable if
  properly registered. Trans-Siberian railway is so unreliable
  (seven wagons out of thirteen vanished during the journey
  recently) that most cargos travel via Suez instead.
3. Reference books, dictionaries, books with illustrations, etc.
  are now freely exportable, but there are officers who are not aware
  of the new rules (at customs and at post offices) and refuse to accept
  them without an export permit.
3a. There is a confusion as to whether books are freely exportable after
  1945 inclusive or after 1949. I have seen notices saying a 50-year
  rule, but post office people seem to act upon the previous
  after-the-war rules.
4. Books of the 20th century can be exported if accompanied by an export
  permit, but officers at the Ministry of Culture(MK) are often reluctant
  to issue permits to tradesmen.
4a. One must show the book to the officer in the MK to obtain the
  permit, which means one may not afford to buy a book and get a
  refusal. Small book exporters are so poor that they collect orders
  from abroad, receive money in advance, buy books from shops, and
  send by post. What if something went wrong?
5. Books of the 19th century or earlier are not exportable.
  The only method available is the inter-library book exchange.

  It is no wonder that Russian goods are much more expensive outside
Russia than in Russia due to the risks of all kinds.

Cheers,
Tsuji

-------
P.S.
40 kg of very rare books I sent from Petersburg this summer have been
lost. They included Chekhov's five volume Letters and Marks' edition of
Shchedrin. Let me hope that they will turn up in the second hand book
shops again.