The total circulation of books and brochures in Russia in the first quarter of 2026 amounted to 57.3 million copies. This is 26% lower than in the first quarter of 2025 (77.5 million units), I mentioned At the conference “Book Industry in Russia”.
The bell ConfirmsThis is the strongest decline in trading in at least six years. Previously, similar collapses occurred in 2020 (-19%) amid the pandemic, and in 2023 (-23%), when the book market adapted to the consequences of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The conference also noted a growing imbalance between book sales channels, as marketplaces gradually replace traditional bookstores. In 2025, the volume of offline retail sales will reach 36.9 billion rubles, the minimum for seven years.
Among the causes of the book market crisis, conference participants cited high taxes, inflation, low purchasing power of the population and the demographic problem. “Fewer children are being born, and if they still read little, this will spread throughout the entire book industry very quickly,” said Evgeny Kabaev, director of the Exmo publishing house.