Russia Named Guest of Honor at Havana International Book Fair

Russia will serve as the guest of honor at the 34th Havana International Book Fair, in recognition of the historic ties of friendship between the two nations, organizers announced today. The event—the largest and most significant literary gathering in Cuba—will take place from February 12 to 22. This year's edition will also honor two distinguished figures of Cuban letters: writer Marilyn Bobes, a two-time Casa de las Américas Prize laureate, and José Bell Lara, PhD in Philosophical Sciences, Master in Caribbean Social Development, and Professor Emeritus at the University of Havana.

Juan Rodríguez, president of the Cuban Book Institute (ICL), delivered the opening remarks and expressed gratitude to both the Organizing Committee and the Russian Embassy. He emphasized the importance of dedicating the fair to Russia, describing it as a politically and culturally “friendly and brotherly nation” with which Cuba has long maintained close relations. Rodríguez said he expects the event to be another milestone in their shared history.

Rodríguez also recalled that, as announced during last year’s closing ceremony, this edition of the fair will be dedicated first and foremost to Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro on the centennial of his birth. The event will celebrate “his example, his memory, and the one who gave rise to this fair and nurtured it, the one who did so much for Cuban books and writers,” he noted. He added that there is currently a global wave of solidarity with Cuba, and that while the fair is cultural in nature, “it is also political.”

Russian Ambassador to Cuba Viktor Viktorovich Koronelli, present at the press conference, spoke about the honor it represents for the Eurasian nation to participate “in this prestigious fair, one of the most important cultural events in all of Latin America.” He stated that despite efforts to discredit Russia internationally, “we cannot cancel Pushkin, Tolstoy, or Dostoevsky, because their legacies do not belong only to the Russian people, but to all humanity.”

Koronelli expressed gratitude for the invitation and affirmed that Russia is preparing to showcase the best of its literature, cinema, music, and art. The embassy confirmed that Russia will present around 1,500 books at the fair, along with a special edition featuring a selection of Russian authors.