Russiaa key commercial partner and political ally of Cuba, will star as guest of honor in the 34th International Book Fair of Havana next February.
The event, which will be held from February 12 to 22, 2026 in the usual San Carlos de la Cabaña Fortress, will offer Cuban readers “the best samples of Russian literature, cinema, music and art,” according to the ambassador of that nation in Havana, Víctor Viktorovich Koronelli.
In statements to Granmathe diplomat assured that the Havana Fair is “one of the most important events in the sphere of culture in all of Latin America.”
Viktorovich denounced “the disinformation campaign unleashed by the West on Russia,” which seeks, in his opinion, to “erase” his country “from the global cultural context, from world art, which by its own definition should be outside of politics.”
However, he added, “this rabid anti-Russian impulse has suffered a crushing defeat,” when it is “impossible to cancel Pushkin and Lermontov, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy and Bulgakov,” authors whose legacy “does not belong only to the Russian people, but to all humanity.”
Cuba and Russia, traditional allies since Soviet times, have promoted their bilateral relationship in recent years and even more so currently, when the island is experiencing its worst economic crisis in three decades, with a shortage of basic goods and an inflationary spiral, accentuated by the structural weaknesses of its production and the recurring failures of its electrical system.
At the last Fair: decrease in audience and copies sold
According to the organizers of the Fair, although 61 countries participated as guests, a record number for the literary event, the last edition concluded with a decrease in audiences and copies sold. Then, around 400 thousand people attended, distributed between the main headquarters of the Morro-Cabaña Park and the 19 sub-headquarters located in different institutions in the city.
The figure, according to Juan Rodríguez, president of the Cuban Book Institute, reaffirmed the event as the “largest gathering of Cuban culture”, although it was below 450 thousand attendees reported in 2024.
The Book Fair says goodbye to Havana with fewer audiences and copies sold
The number of printed copies sold also fell, and more significantly. On that occasion there were about 250 thousand, far from the more than 725 thousand last year, at a time when the severe crisis on the island is taking its toll on the publishing industry and Cuban families.
In keeping with the difficult context, the organizers said to OnCuba that it was not realistic to expect a fair “with the dimensions and variety of previous years”, although they highlighted the celebration of the event itself as a success, which they considered “the best possible in our circumstances.”
This year’s Book Fair, which had South Africa as a guest country, this time had 2,500 literary and artistic activities in its program, which once again brought together writers, editors, researchers, booksellers and followers of literature in general.
In 2026, the largest literary event in the country will be dedicated to the poet and narrator Marilyn Bobes, and José Bell Lara, doctor in Philosophical Sciences, professor and consulting professor at the University of Havana.
