Russian publisher blacks out mentions of Stalin and Hitler in Nobel laureate Günter Grass's novel
Russian buyers on the Ozon marketplace noticed that publisher Alpina Publisher blacked out a phrase referencing Hitler and Stalin in Günter Grass's novel The Rat. The publisher confirmed fragments were removed by agreement with rights holders.
The independent Russian outlet Verstka first reported on complaints from users of the Ozon marketplace who discovered censored text in The Rat, a novel by German writer and Nobel laureate Günter Grass.
The original text contains a phrase describing how "a certain Hitler and a certain Stalin devoured all of Poland," referencing the 1939 Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, which led to Poland's division between Germany and the Soviet Union.
One user posted a video showing that in the 2026 Russian edition, the phrase "a certain Hitler and a certain Stalin" has been blacked out, with a footnote stating: "This fragment of text has been removed in accordance with the requirements of the legislation of the Russian Federation." The redaction appears in both the print and digital editions. Meduza found no other instances of hidden text, and no other footnotes reference removed content.
Buyers complained in the comments section that the publisher gave no warning about the censorship. However, the "Questions About the Product" section contains a January response from Alpina Publisher stating that "some fragments of the book were blacked out in agreement with the rights holders."
About the author
Günter Grass was one of the most significant German writers of the 20th century. He achieved international acclaim with his 1959 debut novel The Tin Drum, which, along with Cat and Mouse (1961) and Dog Years (1963), later formed the Danzig Trilogy. Grass received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1999 and died in 2015.
The Rat, an apocalyptic novel structured as a dialogue between the narrator and a rat, was first published in 1986 and had never before been translated into Russian.
