Wolf time in a pioneer tie

We talk about the history, values ​​and significance of publishing houses Individuum and Popcorn Books, whose employees were arrested this week

On May 14, the security forces detained more than 10 Eksmo employees and the publishers of Individuum and Popcorn Books. As a result, the head of the publishers Dmitry Protopopov, the ex-director for sales Pavel Ivanov and the warehouse manager, Artem Vakhlyaev, were charged with “propaganda of LGBT”. The court sent all three under house arrest. On May 15, Eksmo sent to book requests to dispose of the books that appear in the case - only more than 40 items. It also turned out that since last summer with Individuum, the Orthodox oligarch Konstantin Malofeev is sued-because of the book of journalist Andrei Zakharov. The main literary and political scandal of recent years occurred around the book published by Popcorn Books-“Summer in the Pioneer Tip”.

Both publishers remain one of the most daring and worthy in modern Russia. The New Gazeta Europe talks about their paths and discusses what happened with experts.

Individuum is a relatively young publishing house. It was founded in 2015 by media producer Alexei Dokuchaev and film producer Mikhail Vrubel. Initially, they wanted to release literature on media and cinema, but quickly realized that she had too narrow audience. As a result, Individuum focused on the non -infusion, which still dominates the publishing portfolio.

Individuum not only found interesting foreign books for translation, but also began to order research on the domestic authors.

“ 10 years ago, the segment of the original Russian-speaking non-fiction was ice. In Russian they almost did not write it and read even less, ”says Maria Alef , a former editorial director of Individuum, co -founder of Vidim Books. - When Individuum was opened - completely independent of book giants, invented by two absolutely non -book founders - the basis of its publishing portfolio was decided to make production projects. Just in order to change this situation. We were looking for people who could write an interesting book in Russian. Now such “innovation” seems very standard-everyone who works in the field of Russian-speaking non-fiction is the same. ”

Individuum avoided niche. The publishing house sought to combine the commercial side with the depth of immersion. In many respects, this balance was caught due to acute global problems: totalitarian regimes, wars, complex issues of the domestic past, problems of capitalism, hyperinformation society, cybercrime and artificial intelligence, psychology and bodily. The names of books often resemble the headlines of media texts.

The publishing house appeared in the period when there was a request for Longrids in society, and the format of the book gave space for a deeper analysis of problems that were in demand, in addition to the “one -day”, the texts of serious media tied to the information farms.

Many work of the publisher went beyond the authorship of bright journalists (for example, “outpost. Beslan and its hostages” by Olga Allenova, who received the Snob. Made in Russia in 2019).

“ It seems to me that everyone feels certain discomfort due to the fact that the world has become very incomprehensible, complex and contradictory. He has always been like this, but recently we have been increasingly poked with his nose into these contradictions, and social tension is growing in the world, ”the editor -in -chief (2018–2024) Felix sandals explained in an interview. -Anxiety for the future causes a million different factors from some of the 20,000-year-old superbacteria defrosting in the Arctic due to global warming of labor to automation, separation of society through social networks and fakenyus <...> in my opinion, they are quite deservedly alarming. We are a rather alarming publishing house in the sense that we are not very optimistic. For us, the book is a consolation <...> The book, even if it is on a very anxious topic, all the same allows you to think more about the problem and tell more about it <...> there is a certain number of arguments towards a bad outcome, realistic outcome or optimistic-one way or another, the story can be told from the beginning to the end <...> such sensationalism and exploitation of human attention do not happen, which the media does . "

Individuum not only perfectly selected texts for publication, but also developed a recognizable visual person created by the former art director of the Afisha Maxim Balabin. Separate art books were published. In recent years, among other things, Nikolai V. Kononov’s novel “The Night Done” (entered the short list of the Gift Award (2025)) and the experimental anti-utopian of the poet and essayist Alexei Konakov “Tabia thirty-two” have been published in Individuum. And one of the strongest new products Individuum last year was a detective novel about the black market of trade “Dionysius Board” by the artist and poet Alexei Smirnov von Raukh. The book was found and from afar for the first time, although it was written in the mid-1970s.

The most titled literary work of the publisher was the historical novel by Timur Kibirov “General and his family”, who received the Big Book Award (2nd prize, 2020).

The writer Nikolai V. Kononov emphasizes the important feature of the publisher: “ I think that Individuum and Popcorn Books (first of all, Individuum) take up the position of publishers that publish books about something important, which, however, will reach most of the publishers and readers literally after 2-3 years, but not now. Their editions are able to look forward. A typical example with a book about incidents (“Incels. How virgins become terrorists” Stefan Krakowski, 2023). How now this topic sounded, how the mananosfer sounded! And they released the book a few years ago. The same applies to my novel "The Night when we disappeared." He went out in 2022, and sounded after some time, but Felix sandals saw in him what they wanted to read about a few years later. There are many such examples. I am silent about the “Word of the kid” (2020) Robert Garaev. This is a visionary, in the best sense of the word, publishing house. And, of course, nothing like this is needed in Russia of the 2025 model. It simply covers rabies when people who were engaged in such a wonderful educational, cultural terrain, are sitting under house arrest, and what will happen to them, it is unclear . ”

The creator of the Berlin bookstore "Babel" Natalya Smirnova calls Individuum one of his favorite publishers. “ Individuum, according to the sensations, is the most modern (for lack of a better word) publisher, and this is apparently the main thing that puts it under attack in Russia today. In principle, a person with a wide range of interests could easily form his library only from Individuum books and would hardly have missed something. The circle of topics and so careful selection of books and authors of this publishing house is so wide, ”says Natalia. - We have absolute bestsellers related to the history of Germany: the “wolf time” of Harald Jenera and “Collapse. The accidental fall of the Berlin Wall” by Mary Eliz Sarrot, as well as one of the last books of the Fatherland (American journalist Burkhard Bilger goes to Elsa, where his grandfather headed the cell of the Nazi party in the occupied France to answer difficult questions about the history of their family) . ”

At the end of 2017, Bookmate acquired 51% of the publishing house. Individuum began to expand. Then the PopCorn Books book brand appeared, focused on the youth audience. Then the Young Adult genre in Russia was just starting to develop. The publishing house started with translation literature, which quickly became popular.

The Book Industry Expert, Technical Director of Freedom Letters Vladimir Kharitonov says: “ Popcorn Books was an excellent project that brought Young Adult to the Russian market, books for young adults, dedicated to social and psychological issues relevant for this audience. Naturally, a significant part of the Popcorn portfolio was associated with Quir Tematics, Gender’s questions, growing up, etc., because it is really relevant for the modern young audience. It is great that Popcorn produced not only translations, but also original young authors. With a change in the political climate, the publishing house had to change the course. Satenik Anastasyan left, who, in fact, in many ways invented the project. In the conditions of Popcorn restrictions, however, it was possible to keep his face. Most of the audience remained in the context of serious competition by other publishers who began to actively work in the Ya market . ”

Popcorn Books and Individuum began serious problems with the Russian authorities in May 2022, after Zakhar Prilepin was indignant at the combination of LGBT and the Soviet context in the very successful book in the Pioneer Tip (Popcorn Books, 2021) Elena Malisova and Katerina Silvanova. The fire of the main literary scandal - 2022 spread through patriotic public and propaganda show. In August, the "League of a safe Internet" wrote a denunciation for a publishing house and a book.

In October 2022, Alexey Dokuchaev, Bookmate Director Andrei Baev and the service itself were included in the Feet -Agents Register. Both in August, both in August, sold their shares to the co-owner of the network “Read Gorod-Bukvoed” Denis Kotov.

Then the journalists suggested that Oleg Novikov, the Eksmo-Ast group, is behind the deal, and seemed to be right. In the summer and autumn of 2023, Popcorn Books and Individuum control was really acquired by Eksmo. Nevertheless, publishers, as often happens in the Eksmo---AST group, retained most of the team and, apparently, acted relatively independently. There were no noticeable changes from their work.

In January 2023, after the complaint of Alexander Khinshtein, an administrative case under the updated Law “On LGBT Propagand” was opened against Popcorn Books. But gradually the political noise around the publishers fell silent. And even the information about the claim for Individuum of the Orthodox oligarch Konstantin Malofeev, filed last summer, did not seep in the media. Malofeev demanded to destroy the circulation of the book of the journalist-investigator Andrei Zakharov “Crypt”, which was mentioned about the involvement of the oligarch in the prediction of cryptocurrency by the customers of the WEX exchange and the FSB ties in the persecution of the exchange administrator. Of the 9 stated statements, supposedly “defaming the honor, dignity and business reputation” of the billionaire, the court recognized only one thing, actually rejecting the lawsuit. Both Zakharov and Malofeev (last month) were filed for appeal - the process continues. It is impossible to exclude his connection with the current persecution of Individuum and Popcorn Books employees.

New political attention arose in April this year, when Individuum was not allowed to participate in the large book fair Non/Fiction. This looked like a manifestation of the self -censorship of the organizers, but indicated a vulnerable position of the publisher.

The literary critic and co -founder of Vidim Books Alexander Gavrilov says about the new “publishers”: “ Individuum and Popcorn Books can be conditionally called technocratic publishers. Due to the deep penetration in the technology of working with the networks of the company, they have ceased to be publishing houses that work for the general public. But they became publishers that work for many minorities. And in these small groups they were able to quickly, in seven years, to collect an outstanding portfolio and show outstanding financial results. Because they responded very flexibly to thin and indistinguishable in a more rude tool of traditional book marketing requests.

The destruction, which is now, on the one hand, is a collision with political freedoms, and on the other, a collision with modernity as such, not only in ideological approaches, but also in technological ones. The real clash of Putin’s power with modern technologies inevitably leads, at best, to abuse of their goals, and in the basic case, to the Abuez and their destruction . ”

“ Over these 10 years, an incredible chemical reaction has passed within the Russian -speaking book market - including thanks to Individuum and Popcorn Books. The one that they proved their vitality and competitiveness, not being part of the media giant, was a market inspiration, ” says Maria Alef, but both of these publishers have always gone beyond the mainstream. Unfortunately, it is logical that they were the first to encounter repressive state censorship. ”