Lawlessness Encyclopaedia. The Svetlana Ismailova Case
Published on: 28 September 2016
In mid-April 1998, a series of similar articles was published by some Moscow publishing houses. One of publishing houses was named “Avanta+” and the second one was “Russian Encyclopaedia”. However, those identical articles were signed by different authors.
What did happen? Svetlana Ismailova, who then was a well-known person in the literature and publishing society, in particular, as a person with unblemished reputation, was employed with Avanta+ Publishing House. In March 1996, there was a split in the employees of the publishing house. Some employees, including Svetlana Ismailova, who were annoyed with Avanta+’s wicked financial policy, established their own publishing house “Russian Encyclopaedia”. The new publishing house published a History of Arts book under the editorship of Svetlana Ismailova. Avanta+ was dissatisfied with this fact and stated that its author’s rights were infringed.
On 10 March 1998, Svetlana Ismailova was arrested and placed in a remand prison cell. At that time, there were 50 and more women in each cell. A person may be arrested, if only he or she is charged of a grievous crime connected with violence and social danger. But what a threat was the publication of a junior book which was a matter of a commercial dispute only?