Yevgeny Nikolayevich Prilepin (Russian:Евге́ний Никола́евич Приле́пин;[3][4][5][6] born 7 July 1975), writing asZakhar Prilepin (Russian:Захар Прилепин), and sometimes using another pseudonym,Yevgeny Lavlinsky (Russian:Евгений Лавлинский), is a Russianwriter,politician andparamilitary leader.
He was a member of Russia'sNational Bolshevik Party from 1996 to 2019 and the leader of the national-conservative political partyFor Truth from 1 February 2020 until it merged intoA Just Russia in February 2021.[7]
Yevgeny Prilepin was born 7 July 1975 in the village ofIlyinka,Ryazan Oblast, in the family of a teacher and a nurse. His family lived there until 1984, when they moved toDzerzhinsk.[8] He started working at age 16 as a loader in a bread shop.[4] He graduated from the Faculty ofPhilology of theNizhny Novgorod State University and the School of Public Policy. He worked as a laborer, a security guard, and served as a squad leader in the Russian police groupOMON, and subsequently took part in thefighting inChechnya in 1996 and 1999.[4]
Prilepin at the 6 Moscow International Book Festival in 2011
In 1999, due to financial difficulties, Prilepin left OMON and got a job as a journalist at the Nizhny Novgorod newspaperDelo. He published under many pseudonyms, the most famous of which is Eugene Lavlinsky. In 2000, he became the editor of the newspaper. At the same time, Prilepin began to work on his first novel,The Pathologies.[8]
"The newspaper, however, was horribly yellow and sometimes even reactionary, although it was part of the holding ofSergei Kiriyenko. And I realized that I spent a life for nothing – and began to write a novel. At first, it was a novel about love, but eventually (I worked for three or four years), it turned into a novel about Chechnya as about the most powerful experience of my life – as the saying goes, what we are doing always turns out to be a Kalashnikov rifle."[citation needed]
Works by Prilepin were published in various newspapers, includingLimonka,Literary Gazette, The Edge, General Line, as well as in the magazines North, Friendship of Peoples, Roman-gazeta, New World, Snob, Russian pioneer, and Russian life. He was the chief editor of the People's Observer, the newspaper of Nizhny Novgorod's National Bolshevik Party branch. He participated in the seminar of young writers Moscow – Peredelkino (February 2004) and in the IV, V, and VI Forum of Young Writers in Moscow, Russia.[citation needed] He also wrote a biography ofSoviet novelistLeonid Leonov.[9] He is a member of the ideological think tank theIzborsky Club.[10]
Prilepin was a member of the banned RussianNational Bolshevik Party[4] and a supporter of the coalitionThe Other Russia, and took part in the organization of the Nizhny Novgorod Dissenters' March on 24 March 2007. In July 2012, he published a short essay titled "A Letter to ComradeStalin,"[11] aStalinist critique aimed against modern Russian "liberal society", which was widely regarded as antisemitic.[12][13]
The media has repeatedly mentioned Prilepin's friendship withVladislav Surkov, whose cousin is married to Prilepin's sister, Yelena.[14]
In February 2017, Prilepin gave a lengthy interview, in which he revealed that he was leading a volunteer battalion in the self-proclaimedPeople's Republic of Donetsk. The battalion was the 4th Reconnaissance and Assault Battalion of the Special Forces of theArmed forces of DNR, commonly known as Prilepin's Battalion; Prilepin claimed it had been created in July 2016 on his initiative and announced "we will ride on a white horse into any town we've abandoned." Prilepin further said he was second in command with the rank of major.[15][16] Prilepin was an influential figure and a celebrity in the DNR and the concept of Malorossiya was seemingly created by him.[17]
In late July 2018, Prilepin returned "demobilized" toMoscow;[18] the battalion he had served in was disbanded in September 2018.[19][20] Prilepin boasted that the battalion had killed more Ukrainians than any other. However, there is no evidence that he took part in any actual combat.[21][22][23] He is wanted on terrorism charges in Ukraine, and was denied entry to Bosnia-Herzegovina for security reasons.[21][24]
On 29 November 2018, he joined theAll-Russian People's Front.[25] Because of this, he was excluded fromThe Other Russia political party by its founderEduard Limonov, who had earlier, together with party members, told Prilepin to choose between the two political structures.[26]
On 29 October 2019, he created the public movementFor Truth (За правду). He intended for the movement to be transformed into a political party that will participate in the2021 legislative election.[27] However, the party merged intoA Just Russia in February 2021.[7]
Prilepin strongly supported Russia's renewed invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. For his support of the war in Ukraine, Prilepin has been sanctioned by Australia, Canada, the European Union, New Zealand, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom[28] The European Union had included him in the very first round of sanctions on 28 February 2022 on those supporting the invasion.[29]In January 2023, Prilepin signed a contract to join theRussian National Guard and fought in Ukraine for a second time.[30]
In July 2012 Prilepin published a short essay titled "A Letter to comrade Stalin",[31] which provoked outrage[32] and accusations of antisemitism.[33][34][35] In the essay written in the 1st person of collective Jewish consciousness[13] contains "autoaccusations" of antisemitic nature, and "admissions of crimes" against Russian people, culture and economy.[36]
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On 6 May 2023, in the Nizhny Novgorod region, on the way to Moscow from the Russian-occupied territories of the Donetsk and Luhansk, Prilepin's car was blown up. Prilepin was injured, and his bodyguard died.[37] According to the BBC, theAtesh partisan movement claimed responsibility for the attack.[38] The attack was the third of this type targeting pro-war figures to happen in Russia after the start of its invasion of Ukraine, with the earlier ones having been the killing ofDarya Dugina and the2023 Saint Petersburg bombing that killedVladlen Tatarsky.[39] On 6 June 2023,Vladimir Putin awarded Prilepin theOrder of Courage.[40]
On 30 September 2024, Alexander Permyakov, a former pro-Russian separatist fighter from theDonbas region of eastern Ukraine, was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for his role in the attack.[41]
Собаки и другие люди. (Dogs and other people) (a novel in short stories)AST, Moscow 2024. On English publishing on 2025 at the Lyra Publishing house, St. Petersburg
"Knigochet" (a manual on the latest literature) - 2012, ed. "Astrel"
Compilations:
"What day of the week will happen" (a collection of selected short stories from the books "Sin" and "Shoes Full of hot Vodka") - 2008, ed. "Yasnaya Polyana"
"Sin and other stories" (a collection of short stories, including the books "Sin", "Shoes full of hot vodka" and 2 stories that were not included in these books) - 2011, ed. "Astrel"
"Peresvet is coming to us" (a collection of essays based on the books "I came from Russia" and "This concerns me personally" with the inclusion of several new essays) - 2012, ed. "Astrel"
"The Road in December" (a collection of prose in one volume; with the exception of the collection "The Eight") - 2012, ed. "Astrel"
The compiler:
"The War" (an anthology of short stories) — 2008, ed. "AST"
"Revolution" (short story anthology) — 2009, ed. "AST"
"Name day of the heart. Conversations with Russian Literature" (collection of interviews with writers and poets) — 2009, ed. "AST"
"Litperron" (anthology of Nizhny Novgorod poetry) — 2011, ed. "Books"
The Ten (an anthology of modern prose) — 2011, ed. "Ad Marginem"
""Limonka to prison" (an anthology of memoirs about a modern prison by NBP members) — 2012, ed. "Tsentrpoligraf"
"14" (anthology of modern women's prose) — 2012, ed. "AST"
"Zakhar Prilepin's Library. Poets of the XX century" — 2015, ed. "Young Guard"
"Limonka in the war" (anthology of military memoirs of national soldiers) - 2016, ed. The "Algorithm"[43]
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