recent news about Kamkin Books

[Prof Steven P Hill]

Dear colleagues:  

I clicked the blue link & read the recent story (2/15/06; attached below) about the 
eviction of the Kamkin Bookstore. I had recalled a similar threat hanging over the 
head of the Bookstore, evidently back in 2002 AD (as mentioned again in the story 
attached below).  But I was completedly unaware of this new threat, reported on 
SEELANGS today, which was actually carried out (partially), according to the story 
attached below.   But the story adds that appx. 150,000 Russian books [probably 
also in other Slavic tongues] had still survived the Feb. 2006 eviction -- so perhaps 
there is some hope for those particular books...? -- Steven P Hill, Univ. of Illinois.
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Popular Russian bookstore sees its final chapter
Owner evicted, thousands of books thrown out at Gaithersburg shop
Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2006
by Jaime Ciavarra, Staff Writer [The Gazette]
 Workers move hundreds of books from the shop of Victor Kamkin Inc., one of 
the largest Russian book distributors in the United States, into bins for recycling. 
Dila Stepanov said it reminded her of Nazi Germany.
Thousands of books. torn, tattered, spines broken.were lumped into literary 
mountains on a Gaithersburg parking lot, men shoveling them into two green, 
10-ton Dumpsters. ..I won.t let my children watch,. Stepanov said, pointing to 
her toddler son, facing the opposite way in the back seat of her car. ..It is horrible. 
It.s like Hitler..
A Russian bookstore that has long been a haven for immigrants, researchers, and
.some say.even spies and CIA agents during the Cold War, unexpectedly closed 
its doors last week when the owner was evicted.
Thousands of books, all in Russian and some still in plastic packaging, were taken 
to the trash transfer station at Shady Grove to be recycled.
Victor Kamkin Inc., one of the largest Russian book distributors in the United States, 
was nearly six months overdue in rent at the brick building at 220 Girard Street in 
Olde Towne, the property manager said.
Last week, when the store owner had not moved the books from the site, First 
Potomac Realty Trust began the eviction process, removing nearly 400,000 of 
the estimated 600,000 Russian books as customers watched, and tried to salvage 
some titles, in the bitter cold.
Skip Dawson, executive vice president and chief operating officer of First Potomac 
Realty Trust called the incident unfortunate, but necessary.
..We did make efforts over a long period of time to work with the store owner,. 
he said. ..Unfortunately, the remnants had to be moved and we followed the 
[county] sheriff.s requirements..
Because of the enormous volume of books, he said, almost 150,000 are still in 
the store. Dawson said he has had offers by others to buy the books or sell 
them at reduced prices.
..We want to be sure to make the right move before we go forward on anything,. 
he said. ..We hope they don.t get thrown out. We hope they can benefit someone..
Igor Kalageorgi, owner of the more than 50-year-old bookseller, could not be 
reached for comment.
Contact numbers on the store.s Web site for Gaithersburg and New York have 
been disconnected. A person replying from the company.s e-mail wrote to The 
Gazette that Victor Kamkin Inc. holds books ..in the highest regard,. and that 
attempts to work with the property manager to have the books moved were 
unsuccessful. The person did not give his or her name.
The bookstore, which was previously housed in Rockville, came close to meeting 
a similar fate in 2002 when Kalageorgi fell nearly $200,000 behind in rent.
The store and books were saved when a going out of business sale raised record 
revenue, and some politicos, including County Executive Douglas M. Duncan, and 
the Library of Congress, moved to stop the eviction.
Kamkin Books moved to the Gaithersburg site in mid 2002, Dawson said.
The store.s Web site says their books will now be sold exclusively online.
For many in the Russian immigrant community, the closing of the store is a 
dispirited ending to years of tradition, said some who watched the eviction 
process Wednesday morning.
The sight of books being destroyed was particularly disheartening to those from 
Russia, a culture that holds books in high regard, said Gayl Gutman, president 
of The Friends of Rockville Library, a nonprofit voluntary organization.
..If this was jewelry, it wouldn.t be shoveled into the trash that way,. said Gutman, 
who is also a member of the Russian book initiative, a group that is pushing to 
get a 2,000-book collection at the library.s renovation reopening in September.
..That.s how Russians think of their books. They love them, they value them,. 
she said. ..They think of them as a primary means of being in touch with their 
world..
The piles in the store.s back parking lot will soon meet their fate: they.ll be 
shredded, beaten into a fibrous pulp and then mixed with chemicals and water 
to create recycled paper.
Those who once visited the store weekly are now planning to frequent another 
Russian bookseller in Kensington, or buy them online. The transition won.t be 
easy, they said.
..This is trash?. asked Vladimir Novikovs of Gaithersburg, holding up a Russian 
children.s pop-up book he salvaged from the rubble.
He and a half dozen others watched the working crew crane more into a Dumpster 
Wednesday morning.
..This is not trash,. he said.
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