"The bad student of Limonov"

The story of Zakhara Prilepin - from service in riot police and membership in the NBP to one of the main propagandists of war

On May 6, the car with the writer Zakhar Prilepin and his driver and colleague Alexander Shubin, nicknamed the “evil”, was blown up in the village of Bor under Nizhny Novgorod, where Prilepin took his daughter. The writer's car was torn off the front part, Shubin died on the spot. Prilepin survived - he was taken to the hospital by helicopter. Now he is introduced into artificial to whom due to many injuries and fractures received in the explosion.

Zakhar Prilepin came to the Nizhny Novgorod region from the LDNR, where he has his own battalion. Since 2014, he has been fighting against Ukraine along with his colleagues. After the start of a full -scale war on Prilepin, the European Union, Great Britain and other countries imposed sanctions, and even before that the Ukrainian authorities brought him to their “black list”, calling the writer a “threat of national security”. The New Gazeta Europe tells the story of Zakhar Prilepin - a man who went from a riot police who served in Chechnya to a writer, according to the books of which Kirill Serebrennikov staged performances, and then again to a warring, now in Ukraine, politics.

“Poorly corresponded to the type of revolutionary romance”: how the former riot police came to the NBP

In 2010, several politicians and public figures signed an open letter “Putin should leave?”, In which they demanded that Vladimir Putin, who then occupied the prime minister’s chair before his next term, resigned. In the forefront of the signal, human rights activists were Elena Bonner and Lev Ponomarev, politicians Boris Nemtsov, Vladimir Ryzhkov and Ilya Yashin, as well as writers Viktor Shenderovich and Zakhar Prilepin. Prilepin then believed that Russia was "necessary for an open political space." “First of all, the country must be withdrawn from a state of political frost. This requires free parliament, discussion, independent press. As a member of the forbidden NBP, I support Eduard Limonov in almost everything. He has a program in which he indicates the need to return the election of the heads of regions, to deal with the social sphere, the cancellation of the registration of political parties, ”Prilepin explained to the“ interlocutor ”.

For Prilepin, it was always important that he is from the special class of the “one -dogs”, that is, people who were “recruited from boyars, monastery peasants” and “relocated to the outskirts of the empire so that they were engaged in borders and military campaigns”.

“My roots are from one -dogs, but there are no boyars there; In any case, these people are serving, ”he told the literary newspaper in 2020.

When Zakhar (then, Eugene Prilepin) was 19 years old, he was drafted into the army. After the military service, he went to study at the police school, and in 1996 he began to serve in riot police. He took part as commander of the OMON department in two Chechen wars - in 1996 and 1999, but in total spent only six months there. The writer left OMON because of the default in Russia in 1998. “I will not hide it, in the last year of work I took shifts on the Moscow highway, slowed down all the wagons from the Caucasus and took their watermelons, oranges, bananas, because there was only potatoes at home. Then I thought that if it went further, they would put me soon, and left riot police, ”he said in an interview.

Being still a security officer Prilepin met Eduard Limonov, who headed the National Bolshevik Party (NBP), and in 1997 Prilepin joined the Nizhny Novgorod branch. “At one time, he actually acted as the head of the head, but the Nizhny Novgorod branch of the NBP was quite strange. There was a collegial administration, other people really steamed the entire Nizhny Novgorod branch, ”says Roman Popkov, a former member of the NBP executive committee. - “In fact, Prilepin was not a very active party. In recent years, he has been trying to build such an image that he was supposedly an active National Bolshevik and almost the whole party held on it, like he was the second after Limonov. It's all funny. I, as a person who was in the party for about 10 years, is not familiar with any exploits of Zakhara, with any organizational successes. In fact, Prilepin was a regular author of the Limonka newspaper and through our then site actively promoted its books. ”

Popkov, describing Prilepin's activities in the NBP, tells the story of one of the actions in Nizhny Novgorod, where the writer lived. In 2006, the National Economic Development and Enterprise planned the campaign in Nizhny Novgorod GAZ plant management due to the fact that they wanted to dismiss a large number of workers there. It was a social action, a landing from Moscow came there and the party members turned to Zakhar Prilepin, who had ties with the protection of this plant, so that he consulted them.

According to Popkov, he was not even asked to participate in this action, but Prilepin still refused any help to the same party members. The action eventually took place, but without its participation.

“He always had a cop identity above party identity. He was just chilled and leaked. And so it was all the time in him, ”Popkov continues. - “He was such a poser, Fanfaron, he is a man who thought the most about his PR and poorly corresponded to the type of violent revolutionary romance. This is a man with bar's manners, he was a foreign element in the party. ”

“He is a student of Limonov, and I think a rather bad student”: Prilepin is a writer and journalist

In parallel with the service in OMON, Prilepin studied at the evening department of the philological faculty of the Nizhny Novgorod State University. Lobachevsky. After Prilepin left OMON, he became interested in literary work, and in 2003 his works were first published in the newspaper Literature Day. Having become a member of the NBP, Prilepin began to write texts in the Limonka party newspaper.

In those years, Limonka was a very interesting newspaper: there was a super marginal young dugin, and Limonov himself, ”says political scientist Fedor Krasheninnikov. -All that some Simonyan or Solovyov is now carrying, in the 90s was published in patriotic newspapers that were sold from under the floor. They thought that if the authorities for democracy, for freedom, for values, and people live poorly and badly, then in spite of power it is necessary to praise everything in a row. The NBP then even chanted “Stalin, Beria, Gulag” at demonstrations.

These flirting with fascism and National Socialism were then an aesthetic game. But people like Zakhar Prilepin were very serious about this. This is very sad, because both he and others, of course, cross out everything that was there. ”

Despite membership in the NBP, Prilepin never called himself a politician-he used the word "writer-politician" in relation to himself. “For Rus', the writer-politician is not news. Take Derzhavin - a magnificent poet, but also a policy of the highest level, adviser to Catherine the Great, ”he said in an interview. - My main lesson is literature. Everything else is only additional ways to bring some thoughts to people. ”

“Zakhar Prilepin is not a politician,” political analyst Fedor Krasheninnikov argues in absentia in absentia. - This is a writer, and a female writer, because his main audience is adult provincial ladies who really like his stories about courageous men. He is a student of Limonov, and, I think, a rather bad student, because Limonov was a much brighter person. When I had seen Prilepin for a long time, he looked like a rather bohemian character, who flaunts the fact that he once served there. ”

In 2015, according to VTsIOM polls , Zakhar Prilepin occupied the second local in popularity among Russian writers, losing only to the author of numerous detectives Daria Dontsova, who is considered a female writer.

The former single -party Partyan Prilepin Roman Popkov also notes that Prilepin was always more interested in the promotion of his books. “He loved to communicate personally with Limonov and bask in the rays of his glory. He hoped that Edward would somehow promote him in a literary party. Limonov did this, although he also treated him with a certain share of the ironic skepticism. Prilepin was not immersed in our heavy prison days, ”he explains.

Despite this, in 2006, Prilepin released one of his most popular novels “Sankya”, in which he told the history of young revolutionaries who create their movement in Russia by analogy with the National-Bolshevik party. Although publicly the head of the NBP Eduard Limonov praised this novel, Popkov claims that he did not really like him.

“Eduard did not particularly like this book” Sankya, ”says Popkov.

- He said that this is a parody of Maxim Gorky’s novel “Mother”. National Bolsheviks are such remote people, hussars, and there are some reflective types. Limonov did not like it, he ironized it. ”

But the public liked this novel. Already in 2012, the performance “Sino” was staged by Kirill Serebrennikov during the work of the Platform project. After Sanka, Prilepin wrote several more books, but this novel remained the most famous of his work.

In parallel with writing, Zakhar Prilepin was engaged in journalism. In 2000, he first got a job as a journalist at the Nizhny Novgorod newspaper Del, where he was published under pseudonyms, the most famous of which is Yevgeny Lavlinsky. Some, including Roman Popkov, believe that this is the real name of Zakhar Prilepin. In 2007, Prilepin became the general director and editor -in -chief of Novaya Gazeta in Nizhny Novgorod, and already in 2012, together with the current State Duma deputy Sergei Shargunov, he headed the editorial office of the Svobodny Press.

At the end of 2013, Prilepin had the same author’s program on the Rain TV channel. In each issue, he talked with a new guest on a topic set by the program leading program, and at the end the guest had to present the audience any of his work.

After Zakhar Prilepin supported in 2014 the “reunification of Crimea with Russia”, he began to conduct programs on federal television channels. “When Crimea happened, the authorities discovered the gateways - anyone who shouted” Crimea our, ”immediately fell under an amnesty and it doesn’t matter what he did before,” says political scientist Fedor Krasheninnikov. “Such people immediately began to call for all kinds of television shows, they brought them a tube with money, that is, they began to call to write columns in different media.”

At first, Prilepin was the host of the Salt musical television show on Ren TV, then he had the author’s program “Zakhar Prilepin. Russian lessons ”on NTV. Prilepin had his own program “Tea with Zakhar” on the propaganda channel “Tsargrad”. In March 2021, the writer bought an online publication from Veliky Novgorod “Your News” and became its editor-in-chief.

“Lied for power even stronger than Limonov could afford”: the first steps of Prilepin in politics

In 2007, the NBP, in which Prilepin was then, was recognized as an extremist organization. Around the same time, Zakhar Prilepin began to try to engage in politics. In the year of the ban on his party, the writer became the co-founder of the National Democratic Movement "People", whose co-chairs were the St. Petersburg politician from Yabloko Sergey Gulyaev, Alexei Navalny and Prilepin himself.

In 2010, some of the former members of the forbidden NBP created a new batch of another Russia, which was again headed by Eduard Limonov. Zakhar Prilepin also entered it, becoming a member of the executive committee - the highest party of the party. He planned that the “People” movement he created will join the “other Russia”, but this did not happen. Prilepin later said that in 2012, after rallies in Bolotnaya Square, he introduced Navalny and Limonov, but "they did not like each other in the most radical way."

“Limonov simply hated him - simply typologically, not even from political beliefs, jealous of growing fame,” said Prilepin “Medusa”. - We were sitting with Limonov, he already had cheekbones, but he did not say anything, did not drink. Leshka drank a glass of cognac, and I drank the whole bottle and sat listening to them to quarrel with each other. I looked at the map on the wall, saw Ukraine and asked: "Lesh, there will be a civil war, we will go for our own?" He replied: "No, of course, we won’t go, they have their own country, they will figure it out there." “Well, how so? These are our people, Ukrainians. ” And Limonov immediately: "Here, Zakhar, how to deal with this person?"

After the “joining” of Crimea, Zakhar Prilepin finally quarreled with Alexei Navalny, supporting the actions of the Russian authorities. Then he stated that "he declared a personal truce of power."

“I’m not sure that they noticed this, but I have not the slightest motive for confrontation. In Russia, one way or another, what I have been writing and dreaming about since the mid-90s, ”he said in an interview.

After the start of the conflict in the east of Ukraine, Prilepin, as a military correspondent by the self -proclaimed LDNR, visited these areas, and then published materials about this, including in Komsomolskaya Pravda and the Free Press, which he himself, together with a friend, deputy Sergei Shargunov.

Then Zakhar Prilepin became the assistant to the head of the "DPR" Alexander Zakharchenko. Two years after the start of the conflict, he writes about this a journalistic book “Everything that should be resolved”. “For me, this is an absolutely personal story that passes through my life as the most important event,” he told reporters. In 2018, his former chief Zakharchenko will die from a terrorist attack in the Separ cafe in the center of Donetsk.

In 2016, a former participant in the Chechen warrior Prilepin became deputy commander of the special forces battalion as part of the DPR army, which was headed by a friend from another Russia Sergey Fomuchenkov.

“Prilepin came to the trenches, photographed there, wrote some pathos posts and went back to Donetsk and to Moscow. He did not participate in any real operational leadership, ”says Roman Popkov. -He was, as it were, an instagram warrior, this phenomenon appeared just in 2014. At the same time, in terms of propaganda, he was a significant figure, because he, unlike all insects from the “Channel One” and NTV, had the image of the supposedly disinterested, honest, romantic “revolutionary” formed by NBP. And therefore, his voice was, unfortunately, significant in this war. ”

“When I met Prilepin in 2010-2011, he was not yet in power. It was a man who was regulated by the liberal public, and the liberal public is afraid of all sorts of marginals. But he was a favorite of bohemia and, in general, in all this he felt very well, - the political scientist of Krasheninnikov describes Prilepin. -I think that in all this he is much more comfortable than in the role of a regimental commander somewhere in the DPR. Of course, he is not at the front line. Of course, he is not where they kill. Of course, he is about pose, taking pictures, taking a loud position. He has a family, he is worried that the circulations of his books are poorly sold. ”

In 2018, Prilepin joined the ONF created by Putin - and this was the last straw in their relationship with the head of “other Russia” Limonov. For this, he excluded Zakhara from the party where he still consisted.

“If all of his other things-fights of a media spoiled person we somehow endured, then this time we were forced to react. We presented Prilepin an ultimatum, they say you choose a guy, or are we or ONF?

In his pride, Prilepin did not even understand that the party had the right to present an ultimatum to any party member. <...> The party is not another television show, not tea with Zakhar, ”Limonov wrote in his LJ (spelling and punctuation are preserved). - My decision is what it is: we do not consider Zakhara Prilepin to be more than our party comrade. He no longer has the right to call himself such. <...> If Zakhar Prilepin is unprincipled, then we cannot afford to be unprincipled. ”

“He already at that time fell under power even stronger than Limonov could afford,” says Roman Popkov. - Their conflict developed after I left the party ( Popkov left the party in 2009 during one of its schisms - ed. ), But I know for sure that when the question arose of that potential successor of Limonov, when his health became worse, Prilepin claimed this place. He believed that he was an equilibrium figure, which, of course, is not so in terms of literature and in terms of politics. As a result, Prilepin was outside the party with a bunch of close comrades. These people went to the service of the state that put us in prison, beat us and repressed us in every way, and killed some of us. Prilepin considered that it was acceptable to him. ”

In the same year, Prilepin, along with the pro -government theater director Eduard Boyakov, headed the Moscow Art Theater. Gorky, becoming deputy head of the theater. Despite the dismissal of Boyakov from there in 2021, after contacting Vladimir Putin, the former leader of the theater Tatyana Doronina, Prilepin remained in the Moscow Art Theater.

«Он видит политику глазами восторженного подростка»: собственная партия и выборы в Госдуму

В 2019 году Захар Прилепин снова попробовал создать собственное движение, правда, теперь уже без участия Алексея Навального. Оно получило название «За правду», а его идеологической основой стала «критика либерализма». Через несколько месяцев движение бывшего нацбола превратилось в политическую партию, а сам он заявил о желании участвовать в думских выборах в 2021 году.

Уже в начале 2020 года Прилепина включили в рабочую группу по подготовке предложений о внесении поправок в Конституцию. В том же году умер его бывший соратник и глава «Другой России» Эдуард Лимонов.

Спустя год новоиспеченный политик Прилепин решил объединить недавно созданную партию «За правду» со «Справедливой Россией» Сергея Миронова и с «Патриотами России». Я сказал: «Ребят, вы что, хотите повторить историю НБП — «Другой России»? Ну давайте еще лет 15 будем независимо воевать на площадях и улицах… Вы реально готовы к этому?» <…> Мы рациональные политики, у нас есть план, у нас есть программа, мы должны стремительно достичь целей. Мы нисколько не преступаем свои представления о политической нравственности», — так он объяснил свое решение в интервью «Медузе».

Политолог Федор Крашенинников затруднился описать политические взгляды Прилепина, поскольку «он за свою жизнь много раз менял свои взгляды и свою позицию по отношению к власти». «На текущий момент, конечно, у него абсолютно пропутинские и милитаристские взгляды. Подозреваю, что в вопросе экономической политики он придерживался левых взглядов, потому что он все-таки вышел из национал-большевистских кругов, и был, в общем, любителем Советского Союза. Его политические взгляды можно назвать крайне правыми», — говорит эксперт.

Роман Попков же считает, что создание подобной партии и тем более объединение со «Справедливой Россией» доказывает, что Прилепин никогда не был нацболом по духу. «У нас [нацболов] очень развито эстетическое чувство, чувство вкуса. А объединиться с Мироновым и такими неандертальцами, выбрать себе в качестве союзников одну из самых отвратительных партий — это и есть отсутствие вкуса.

Он хотел и хочет иметь образ такого русского Хемингуэя или нового Лимонова. Но у него психология конюха из колхоза, поэтому чего удивляться, что он с Мироновым нашел общий язык?

Для него партия — это возможность тусоваться, иметь свое поместье в Московской области, где он принимает молодых писателей. Очень жаль, что мы партбилеты выписывали таким мудакам в свое время. Очень сожалею и прошу у страны прощения», — говорит он.

Несмотря на то, что в 2021 году Прилепин высказал желание выдвинуться от объединенной партии на выборах в Госдуму, позднее, выиграв мандат, он от него отказался. И все же он до сих пор остается сопредседателем партии «Справедливая Россия — За правду», главным лицом которой является Сергей Миронов. «Он в политике ничего не понимает. Он видит политику глазами восторженного подростка из НБП, до сих пор не понимая, что российская политика простая — в ней есть один человек и это Путин, а остальные — просто винтики механизма, которые выполняют задачи, которые на них возлагает вышестоящий начальник. И никакой самостоятельности там нет», — говорит политолог Крашенинников.

После начала полномасштабной войны в Украине Прилепин снова стал посещать линию фронта с российской стороны. За это писателя включили в санкционные списки Евросоюза, но он назвал это «международным признанием и наградой за службу». «Пушкин, например, вообще не был за границей. Я и так живу в самой красивой европейской стране», — сказал он РБК.

«Прилепин основную часть своей жизни, свое творчество, свою репутацию бросил под ноги Путину. Там это все и горит», — подытоживает Крашенинников.

Уже в августе 2022 года под председательством Прилепина прошло первое заседание «Группы по расследованию антироссийских действий», чьи участники планировали «зачищать культурное пространство» от любых деятелей искусства, которые не стали активно поддерживать военное вторжение России в Украину. Позже ГРАД представил списки из около 150 «агентов иностранного влияния и их пособников».

Среди тех, от кого Прилепин предлагал «зачистить культурное пространство», оказалась и издававшая его книги Елена Шубина.

«В партии считали, что эта партия двигала Захара вперед, а не он — партию своими книжками. Я бы не преувеличивал, скажем так, роль Прилепина, — говорит Роман Попков. — К тому времени, как он стал известным, НБП уже была легендой. До тех пор, пока Лимонов не сошел с ума и не лег под Кремль, пока сама партия не легла под Кремль, пока она была реальной оппозиционной силой — эту партию любили все. Ее любили литераторы, журналисты, тусовка, правозащитники. Прилепин был не самым важным штрихом в этой картине. Это партия и Лимонов в «нулевые» годы Прилепина продвинули мощно, ввели в эту тусовку бывшего ОМОНовца из жопы мира и он обрел благодаря этому некую историчность».