Today I’m going to talk about something different, and something you have probably never heard about. I have even postponed the #NewBloggers post for one week, because this is a topic important enough for me and my country that I have to talk about it. And it had to be this particular day! Because today is the national day of the Book Smugglers, and we are going to learn why they were heroes.
…Plus, book carrying rebels! Guys!!! They’re like bookworm super heroes!! You clearly want to learn about this, don’t you?
Alright, so maybe now THAT much. But let’s get back on topic.
The reason I’m posting this today is because today, the 16th of March, is the book carriers’ day. And I struggle to even translate the word – because it only exists in my language. Scratch that – I think THE CONCEPT only exists in my country.
You might be really puzzled now. Book smugglers? Wait, why?
The history of my country is quite bumpy. During the middle ages, we actually had a few moments of stardom, when very briefly we were the largest country in Europe. But it was so long ago, nobody would even believe it now! You haven’t heard about it either, I’m sure. And that’s mostly because it was downhill from there!
The past, oh, I don’t know, 400 years are riddled without various larger countries stepping on our toes and claiming our land for theirs. And THIS is where the book smugglers come in.
See, we have our own language: it’s very old, used by a handfull of people, comparatively, and only one other country (Latvia) shares any roots with it. It’s pretty complicated and archair, and as for any country that has been denied its own heritage at times throughout history, it remains a very important part of our identity. But back when we were under the rule of Imperial Russia (basically the 18th-19th century, give or take – history is REALLY not my strong suit, though), they really wanted us to get rid of it. Peasants with an understanding of their own culture are harder to subdue! Even harder still, if they are literate.
So they banned writing in our language.
And they banned books.
You read that right. THEY BANNED BOOKS.
Because that involves studying the language and keeping it alive.
They might have not banned books in Russian – I don’t really know or care, because that’s not the language our people spoke in. Bottom line, they banned any written form of our spoken language. This happened between 1864 and 1904 (as Wikipedia says, and you can read more about this phenomenon here in general). The goal was to force the nation to forget their culture and just become Russian already. Which is why we get so pissed off all the time when people from other countries think we’re Russian. Which we are not. We are not even Slavic. We’re very proud of our Baltic culture, thank you very much.
Anyway, we had our intellectuals. They were not happy with the situation, so they formed quite a few secret societies for the education of the folk. These published secret newspapers with relevant news and patriotic content (which was punished severely if you were caught), but it wasn’t like you could just go to the market and buy a banned paper.
And that’s where the Book Smugglers come in. The most badass vigilantes of the book world, these brave people faced the danger of capital punishment (or going to a death work camps in a really, really cold land you’ll never come back from) – all for the sake of bringing people news in their language, and more importantly – books for their children to study language from.
Image courtesy of Kultūros Uostas
Cause, oh, I didn’t say. They banned schools too. For kids to learn reading in the banned language, right? So these groups formed underground secret schools for kids. And they needed books to teach them letters. The underground schools are a whole new topic to talk about, and I’m also very proud of the people who did that in order to not let our culture be snubbed out.
So personally, I think this is a pretty cool fact of my country’s history. And one that probably nobody else had. We smuggled books in order not to be robbed of our language and culture. I would say that’s pretty cool, don’t you agree? So next time, when you need a bookish hero, think of the Book Smugglers. If they’re not badass enough for you, I don’t know what is!
Do you have any bookish heroes in your own culture? What about bookish inventors or game changers? Share with me in the comments!
I’m Evelina and I blog about books that made an impression on me. I love middle grade, women’s, scifi and some literary too.
That’s really cool! Great post Evelina!
Thank you! And thank you for reading 🙂
Wow! What an interesting history! Thank you for sharing!
Thank you for reading too 🙂 I was glad to share something from my culture, especially book-related 🙂
Actually, in Ancient China, when there were still kingdoms and emperors, there was a time when all books were burned and scholars were buried. You can find more about it on Wikipedia if you search ‘Burning of books and burying pf scholars’.
Thanks for sharing – oh, I think that burning books has happened on and off many times in history – like during the latest wars, even, or during the Nazi regime. The main point of this post though was to point out that people actually secretly taught others to read anyway, and smuggled books. Don’t know if this happened during the other times when books were burned (I mean, I think books were burned more often, sadly). Thanks for sharing, I will have to look it up and read about it 🙂 Actually, another person on Goodreads, upon reading this… Read more »
I understand. The fact that we can still learn about so much of our history proves how important these people are.
Indeed 🙂
A really sad piece of historical fact. Glad the smugglers rebelled.
Yeah. Thanks for reading, Rosie!
I’ve been on a blogging hiatus for a while, but this post looked so intriguing I just had to read it. What a fascinating look at the bookish history of your country. Very cool post, thanks for sharing!
Thank you, Darius 🙂 thank you for reading! I was very happy to share a piece of my culture, and especially something to do with books and literacy 🙂
Wow. This is such an amazing piece of history, and certainly one to be proud of!
Thank you, Emma 🙂 and thank you for reading!
That was very interesting, reading this about your country. It is quite amazing that those fought for their culture.
The USA has a dark history, of course, and one we rarely admit to ourselves. We did a similar thing during the slavery years. We had anti-literacy laws: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-literacy_laws_in_the_United_States
There were a few good people who fought back against that: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Crittendon_Douglass
These are the things that aren’t often discussed in polite society or focused on much in schools. But they should be because if we forget them they are bound to happen again.
Thank you, Paul, and thank you for reading – I was really glad to share something of my culture. Oh yes, I think I know what you mean. Been reading Kindred (on and off.. It’s a hard book to read :/ emotionally.) I think it’s a general problem of the human race… We just like doing ugly things to each other :/ Thanks for sharing the links with me! Always good to find out more about the people who fought this kind of BS 🙁 the fact that the lady wrote a book makes me want to pick it up..… Read more »
That’s really amazing history. Thanks for bringing it to my attention. 🙂
And thanks for reading! I was so happy to share something of my culture 🙂
I never knew any of this. Thank you so much for sharing your country’s history! I learned so much and am so glad that the book smugglers kept the language and culture alive!
Thank you for reading! I was super happy to share such a unique phenomenon.
This is a wonderful post, thank you Evelina for the history lesson of your country. I had no idea about this.
Thank you! Thank you for reading 🙂 I was really happy to share.
ha I actually did not know that this happened, but I cannot say that I am surprised that it had happened. On the other note my birth country is experiencing the same thing. I am from Ukraine and we get super pissed off when we are called Russian. Different country, different language and costumes. Plus, what Russia did and is doing to our people is horrific so it just disrespectful when it happens.
You’re from Ukraine? Oh, I do understand… It’s even more complicated for you, because your languages are much more related (ours is actually completely different and doesn’t share words or grammar. Yours shares a lot of word roots, and even some words, so it’s even harder…) And then the whole history with Crimea. Argh… It’s really sad. On an unrelated note, Okean Elzy is one of my favorite bands and that’s the reason I understand quite a bit of Ukrainian!! I was in their concert once. I think Ukrainian is one of the most beautiful languages ever, very poetic and… Read more »
Not sure about the similarities of the part I am from. I was born in Western Ukranian near the borders of poland so our language is heavily influenced by them, it’s different dialect I guess because I for one do not understand the russian language. Oddly enough I pick up on croatian as well, but I believe their language has slavic roots as well.
Yeah, a lot of common word roots. I can also understand some Czech and Polish because of the same reason.
Thanks for posting this fascinating history. I had never heard of The Book Smugglers or Book Carriers Day. I think that there is great potential for a film based upon them. A quick Google Search indicates that there are a couple of books on the subject.
Oh yeah, that’s actually a good point! It WOULD make a good movie, probably. Thanks for reading 🙂 yeah, it is quite an interesting phenomenon, but also almost completely unknown anywhere else but my country, so I was very happy to share it.
This was a wonderful history lesson, Evelina! It reminded me a lot of the Book Thief and also Fahrenheit 451 hahaha These peepz were the real deal and awesome heroes all right! 😀
Yeah, it’s related for sure 🙂 I’m sure there were people who were trying to save books in other situations too, like many wars etc, but I think this is the only case I know of when it happened for decades and was actually a phenomenon. Thanks for reading, I am glad I was able to share this fact about my country 🙂
That’s very interesting post. Thank you for sharing your wonderful and kinda difficult history.
Book smugglers, real heroes. They saved the real heritage of your country.
Thank you! And thank you for reading it 🙂
An amazing history. Books will always find a way to the hands of people who need them and make heroes of us. Closest thing I remember about book smuggling is when my mom went on a “tour” of China when I was a kid. They actually smuggled bibles for the underground churches there. They were almost caught twice.
Wow, that’s admirable! I mean, maybe it’s not on such a large scale, but hey, if it goes against binding people’s freedoms, helps them and builds them up, then it’s definitely a great thing. They were almost caught huh? That’s really brave. I am super impressed 🙂 respect to your folks!
WOW! You gotta love serious bookworms!! Anyway this is so cool… we wouldn’t have been able to read about this any other way than someone from your country sharing it with us… so thank you Evelina!! I love learning about lost little histories like this… <3
Thank you, Dani, I am glad you liked learning about this 🙂 it’s definitely not something you hear every day. Thanks for reading!
Oh wow, that’s interresting !!
We kinda fought to have our french taking as much place & respect as the english did … but eeeh.. not like that x)
Yeah.. It’s no fun being a really small country! But at least we get to have awesome heroes like that, I guess 🙂
Great post! I really enjoyed this history lesson, which is so close to your heart which makes it even closer to mine. I kind of wish/don’t want to wish that this happened to my ancestors. I think it would be really cool to say that since my ancestors are booklovers it means I am one too, but it would be sad to hear someone say that my culture was almost destroyed by an overruling government. Anyway, have a fun time celebrating your national holiday!
Thank you, Nicole 🙂 yeah, it’s something to be proud of when it has happened in your history, but it’s also something you never really want to happen to your country 🙂 but I’m sure a lot of people, no matter the nationality, would stand up to protect their culture like that. After I shared this, someone shared a similar story from the Middle East (can’t remember where, unfortunately…) – but it was pretty recent, and they were saving books from a museum, like ancient manuscripts – from the dangers of war and the occupation regime. It was pretty inspiring…
Wow this was such an interesting and insightful post! Thanks for sharing your history with us
And thanks for reading 🙂
no wonder russians make a good villain in any story…
this was a really interesting post and i love learning interestig bits about other cultures. i used to work with a latvian woman annd she mentioned some stuff about the russian influence every once in a while
they took over my native country for a while as well, but never got this far thankfully
Haha 😀 I’m glad you liked it 🙂 yeah, Lithuanians, Latvians and Estonians, we all got affected – our countries are really small, so it’s just… really easy to get trapped between different larger powers. Where are you from, actually?
I’m from Hungary originally 🙂
Cool! I will try to remember 🙂
Wow, that is just bonkers to even think about. These book smugglers really are heroes. Thanks for enlightening me!
I’m glad you liked it, and thanks for reading 🙂
Wow, I had never heard about this. Writing, books and schools were banned? It reminds me of Fahrenheit 451. I’m glad there were some brave people in your country willing to risk everything for the sake of education. There is so much we take for granted!
Yep. Well, this was still in the era when a lot of people were feudal slaves, basically. So that opens the door up for a lot of crap… I don’t think a lot of people were literate at that time at all, not just in my country. But sad nonetheless!
Thank you for reading 🙂
This is the coolest story! I’m always so impressed at the lengths people will go to protect their histories. It’s seriously inspiring.
Thank you, Lydia 🙂 I’m glad you liked it, and thanks for reading.
This is so cool, Evelina!! And definitely a part of your country’s history worthy of plenty of pride 🙂 You’re right: I had no idea that this had happened, or even the details of Russia’s dominance in the area. (For better or worse, my world history course emphasized non-white cultures, so while we learned a TON about Asia, Africa, and South America, my recall of European history is much shakier than I’d like.) Do you know if there are any English-language books on all of this, or is Wikipedia the best source? I’d love to read more about it sometime… Read more »
Thanks, JJ 🙂 I’m not surprised, from what I’ve heard, American schools spend about 5 years on the Civil War, and then a half a year on the rest of everyone else’s history 😀 well hey, at least your school emphasized non-white cultures! That’s good. We barely studied Asian history, which is all too bad, cause it’s so rich and got an old heritage. We studied a lot of Greeks and Romans though. And way too much WWII. Nope, I don’t know anything about English books, so Wikipedia is probably the source to go to 😀 it’s so cool that… Read more »
Very cool post. Book Smugglers are badass. I shared for this weeks Sunday Post 🙂
Oh, awesome! Thank you <3 I have actually been neglecting my comments for much too long so I only noticed this now 😀
This was an amazing post and I loved learning more about these awesome book smugglers <3.
Thank you! 🙂 Glad you enjoyed it, and thank you for reading.
Nice! Very cool piece of history 🙂 True heroes indeed
Oh those Russians…
Hmm well in Finland, we (as many other countries) had a stage of so called romantic nationalism. And this era led to a lot of great stories of a small brave country stuck in between two great empires (Sweden & Russia) + tales of female huntresses + Kalevala + https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tales_of_Ensign_St%C3%A5l (story basically describes Finn-Swede who courageously fools Russians every chance he gets…)
Thank you 🙂 well, I believe that any country that’s big enough to be an empire can cause some real trouble. I would believe that China and the UK has caused plenty of trouble in what became their colonies in certain centuries. It’s just a sad reality of humanity :/ Oh yeah, I’ve also heard a lot of stuff about Finland who also had a bumpy history with both Russia and some other nearby countries. Romantic nationalism isn’t bad if it’s not directed agressively towards other countries 🙂 especially if it produces some great stories 😀 (by the way, we… Read more »
Wow, that’s fascinating! Thanks for sharing that.
And thanks for reading 🙂
Sadly, that is a very good way of overwhelming a country. You invade it, then you obliterate its history, customs and language, often by killing the educators and those who are custodians of its traditions, then you enslave/resettle the men and boys, while intermarry with the women and within two generations, there is no culteral identity left. It’s been practised repeatedly throughout history and is a tried and tested way of invading and absorbing a country and expunging their culture. How brave and far-sighted of those book smugglers to fight back in that way…
Yeah. That and alcohol. They did that too. It’s really strange that we somehow kept our culture. Such a small country, I really don’t know how we managed to get out, and be the first to do that in 1989, actually. But yeah, it doesn’t even matter what country we’re talking about – if it’s big enough, it will attempt that. Sadly, it’s our human nature. And I hate it :/ perhaps the saddest instance of this ‘culture’ of ours is how the Mesoamerican cultures were wiped out. So badly that nearly nothing remains. Gosh.. It just makes me so… Read more »
I had no idea about any of this story. What an amazing part of your culture to remember and to celebrate. Sadly for me, being English, my country has spent far more time trying to stamp out other cultures than in needing to preserve our own. Your book smugglers are real heroes!
Here’s a question for you – can you recommend Lithuanian books/authors for my WorldReads?
Yeah, it’s a pretty odd (unexpected?) story, but a very inspiring one 🙂 that is true, unfortunately, but on the bright side (well, I say bright..) – it’s not just your country. I mean, any country would be like this, provided they’re big enough :/ it’s just human nature (although not one we should be proud of). I wish humanity wasn’t like that :/ And I can definitely recommend some Lithuanian authors. Don’t know what’s been translated… Well, this is a book written by a German Nazi camp survivor, who was also a writer before he was exiled there, it… Read more »
What an amazing story, thank you so much for sharing it. I can’t even imagine what it would feel like when someone is trying to take away your whole identity. Thank goodness for the Book Smugglers!
I’m glad you enjoyed it, and thank you for reading 🙂
What a great post Evelina! I had never heard of this thing or even the concept like “Book smugglers”. This is pretty nice to read about. And wow, your country really has muhc history 🙂
I don’t think that my country has even a history something like this. As far I have studied, the literature was not a main “thing” in ancient India and often women were not allowed to read. I am glad my country has gotten far from that situation 🙂
Thank you, Sim 🙂 yes, I know – it’s such a unique concept!
Well, women were not allowed to read in many places, but I think you are forgetting something important about Indian heritage – India has a very long history when it comes to spiritual literature.. Except it was in sanskrit 🙂 so maybe it’s less about fiction, but more about spirituality – which is a very big thing to be proud of. India has an amazing heritage.
And then there’s Tagore… And Krishnamurti… 🙂 although Krishnamurti is more spiritual, again.
Wow, I had no idea this happened. Thanks for educating me!
Thanks for reading, Cahleen, I was so happy to be able to share 🙂
I love this! Rebelling gets a bad rap, but it’s one of those things that really depend on the context and personal morals. I enjoy random, seemingly useless facts, because they make for good tidbits in conversations (and generally good conversations). This factoid especially interests me because of the education bit, in that it proves just how important it is! Ugh, my kid cousins are all, “What is the point of an education?” but the more people know, the less likely someone is able to control them.
Yeah, that’s a good point – when it comes to education though, I think your kid cousins are half right and half wrong though. Obviously, education is very important, you just have to look back at cases like the one this post is about to realize why. But then again, when you think about the state of education currently? I am also one of those people really disappointed in it. I was a model student, graduated with honors both from school and uni, and now I don’t even work in the same industry, and don’t really support the ‘classic’ setup… Read more »
Since you asked if I had any bookish heroes in my own culture… I do have a post coming up in May about gems and geniuses of Spanish literature. It will be Spaniard and Hispanic [latin america] Since my family is from Spain but I was raised in South America. So Spanish Cervantes, Nobel prize Colombian Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Chilenean Isabell Allende, Venezuelan Romulo Gallegos, Cuban Jose Angel Buesa [best poet ever!] among others! This is a absolutely awesome post! I loved learning more about Lithuania. So terrible that they banned writing in your language and schools! Of course I… Read more »
Ooh, that sounds great 🙂 will be curious about that post. Thank you! I’m glad you enjoyed this. I was super thrilled to share something about my country, and it’s an interesting historical fact as well.
Omg I didn’t know anything about this
This was definitely a very interesting and cool post for me to read – I love it
I’m glad 🙂 thank you for reading!
Your post was so interesting, I had no idea about al of this. Thank you for sharing it! 🙂
I’m glad! Thank you for reading 🙂
[…] Book Smugglers – a historical reality? https://avalinahsbooks.space/discussion-badass-book-smugglers-historical-reality/ I loved reading this amazing story of resistance and bravery in the face of overwhelming […]
This is fascinating! You must be extremely proud of your heritage, it’s such a cool fact that I’m sure is unique and special
Oh yeah, pretty proud 🙂 I’m glad you liked it! I was really excited to tell about this to all of my blogger buddies. Like, I marked this date on the calendar like a half a year in advance 😀
What a great, informative post! I can’t imagine having to live in a time where books were banned period. It’s so sad to think about things like this in history, but its awesome to learn about those strong ones who fought!
Thanks 🙂 glad you enjoyed it! Well, back when this happened, I don’t think a lot of the population knew how to read at all – pretty dark times in general. But it’s sad that they were forced into further ignorance that way. But yes, the story is indeed very inspiring 🙂 thank you for reading!
I love this post so much, Evelina! It’s amazing how the bravery people show to protect their culture, that’s why no matter how “traditional” or “conservative” I may come across I’m so proud to show off my cultural heritage whether it be in what I wear or what I read. God alone knows the unwritten troubles our country men have gone through <3 This has inspired me to look more into the topic!
I’m so glad you liked it 🙂 I was so excited to share this with our community. Precisely for the same reasons 🙂
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I love hearing this history! Thanks for sharing!
And thanks for reading 🙂
[…] we all have our own unique interests. I’m part of this this wonderful discord chat Evelina @ Avalinahs Books created and honestly, I feel like I’ve found my people. *chuckles* when you can have a […]
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