What Russia’s pro‑war writers dream of. Inside the brutal and awkward fantasies of Z‑literature

“Crimean Cauldron”

Author: Nikolai Marchuk

What the book is about: The entire world, excluding North Korea, has turned against Russia. A nuclear war unleashed by the West destroys the Earth’s largest cities, but even amid the ruins, Russia defeats everyone and captures the Capitol building in Washington, D.C. However, the main events of Marchuk’s books are flashbacks describing past, incredibly successful, and daring operations by heroic Russian soldiers.

The hero of the first book is a terminally ill retired soldier with the call sign “Psycho”. He decides to sell his life dearly and travels to Crimea, which the plot portrays as controlled by Ukraine and Turkey. Psycho assembles a squad of similar superheroes, and their missions proceed flawlessly until they encounter particularly vicious Nazis. Ultimately, the hero sacrifices himself, becoming a guardian angel for the remaining fighters. The next book follows a similar formula with different events.

How it’s written: Roughly like a novel version of the 1985 movie “Commando”, where Arnold Schwarzenegger’s character singlehandedly kills more than eighty opponents. Marchuk works hard to portray Ukrainians as Nazis, drug addicts, and perverts, a characterisation that works to his heroes’ advantage time and again. Add to this obsessive descriptions of military hardware and battles.

A quote describing a crushing Russian attack: “Four Russian armoured personnel carriers, adorned with the white ‘V’ symbol, jumped suddenly from the right flank and unexpectedly opened fire from all barrels into the poorly protected sides of the Ukrainian combat vehicles. Paratroopers dismounting from the armoured personnel carriers struck the assaulting groups with machine guns and grenade launchers. And Russian 82mm mortars, concealed nearby, began lobbing mines into the rear of the Gotenland battalion’s positions, striking the mortar crews of the Ukrainian Nazis.”

What the author dreams of: That the failures and huge losses of the Russian army will be forgotten, and everyone will once again believe in a Russian prowess capable of defeating America.

“Colonel Nobody”

Author: Alexei Sukonkin

What the book is about: After the failure of the Russian offensive in 2022, an explanation emerged that it was the fault of intelligence services claiming Ukrainians would greet Russian soldiers with flowers. Sukonkin offers an expanded fictional take. His main character is a young, unscrupulous deskbound intelligence officer who builds his career, and lines his pockets, with falsified reports.

The plot sees the hero move between Russia’s Far East, Moscow, Syria, prison, and two tours in Ukraine. The narrative mainly focuses on his corrupt schemes. Towards the end, the protagonist is recruited from prison into the Wagner private military company, is won over by the spirit of military brotherhood there, and sacrifices himself for a comrade.

How it’s written: The book serves as overt propaganda for the Wagner PMC, dating from the period when its late leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, was openly criticising the regular army. This criticism is so pronounced in the book that one character even praises the Ukrainian forces, suggesting their army is better organised. The author strongly implies inside knowledge of the security services. Prigozhin himself promoted the book, claiming it explained “why everything is happening the way it is today.”

A quote in which a Russian soldier speaks about Ukraine’s Armed Forces: “Company commanders deal with personnel, equipment, and combat training. The army constantly rotates through the ATO zone, resulting in a huge number of Ukrainian soldiers gaining combat experience. Lying in reports exists, I don’t deny it, but nowhere near the scale we’re used to. Consequently, headquarters use genuinely reliable information and make objectively justified decisions. We currently think that because there are so many of us, we can easily crush them… but not a chance. They are literally us, just as stubborn, brave, and heroic. But unlike us, they are not infected with our pervasive deceit, mutual protection, and padded reports like ‘write more, why spare them’. Isn’t that right?”

What the author dreams of: A reputation as a writer, albeit fictional, who understands the inner workings of Russia’s security apparatus.

“PMC Chersonesus”

Author: Andrei Belyanin

What the book is about: A fairly typical example of the popadantsy genre, where protagonists find themselves in another time or reality. The hero, an archaeologist and former marine, gets a job at “PMC Chersonesus”. Here PMC stands for “Private Museum Complex”, a play on the usual abbreviation for Private Military Company. It turns out our world is populated by figures from antiquity: the hero’s colleagues are recognisable as Aphrodite, Heracles, and Dionysus. Together they undertake a mission to return artefacts and museum treasures to Crimea.

Along their journey, they encounter not only figures from Greek mythology but also zombie Nazis. The final mission involves stealing Scythian gold from the Netherlands. In reality, this gold, loaned before the annexation, was awarded to Ukraine by Dutch courts and never returned to occupied Crimea.

How it’s written: Overt propaganda becomes more noticeable towards the end, but the entire book is laced with crude humour, persistent smut, and scenes of excessive drinking. This content was so strong that even the Tauric Chersonesus museum in Crimea refused to host the book’s presentation, citing its “lowbrow tone” and the “infernal nature of the plot itself.” This didn’t deter the author from writing a sequel.

A quote describing another drinking session celebrating a successful mission: “We all clinked glasses heartily together again.

‘Perhaps someone else wishes to speak?’

‘I do’, Denisych instantly jumped up. ‘I have a toast in verse: Those who listen to Dud / Will regret it before long / Because this Dud fellow / Clearly wants to screw everyone / And since he has nought to screw with / Dud just spews filth in people’s ears!’

Nobody understood the reference or its relevance, nor why the blogger had annoyed our linguist alkonaut, but they clinked glasses anyway, purely out of politeness”.

What the author dreams of: Andrei Belyanin has penned around two hundred popadantsy novels; presumably, he aims for a thousand.

“White Z on the Front Armour”

Author: Mikhail Mikheev

What the book is about: A Russian agent, described as having “a dangerous reputation and a pile of corpses behind him”, poses as a liberal journalist and enters Ukraine after the start of the full scale invasion. His mission remains unclear to the reader for some time. The hero travels around, expanding his arsenal and body count, while expressing extremely spiteful opinions: “What, pigface, you wanted to take Crimea? But you only managed to take it in the mouth? Behind those fat pig cheeks?”

The result is an action story about a tough guy who can defeat any enemy, usually accompanying his victories with macho aphorisms, before finally apprehending a vital Western intelligence agent.

How it’s written: With immense resentment towards Ukrainians, liberals, and the West. It’s less overtly fantastical than “Crimean Cauldron” but lacks the insider pretensions of “Colonel Nobody”. There’s little humour; the overwhelming impression is one of malice and boredom.

A quote containing the protagonist’s reflections on Ukraine: “The country all around is foreign, and the local corpses didn’t trouble his nervous system either. But the consequences of their internal squabbles for his own country and his own pocket (the ruble had halved in value back in 2014) provoked a harsh dislike for the skakuasy.”

What the author dreams of: Most likely, revenge for some past slight, but perhaps it’s better not to try looking inside this person’s head.

“Studies in Black”

Author: Olga Uskova

What the book is about: Olga Uskova is an entrepreneur in the artificial intelligence sector. In 2023, she wrote her first novel and subsequently filed a complaint against the renowned author Vladimir Sorokin, which resulted in his novel ‘Heritage’ being removed from Russian bookshops. The heroine of Uskova’s book is clearly based on herself. In the story, she is approached to create an artificial intelligence designed to replace the presidents of Russia and the G7 nations. This becomes necessary because Putin is recovering from an assassination attempt, while the other leaders were poisoned at a summit and are now represented by body doubles.

This entire situation is revealed as a conspiracy by ancient Zoroastrians aiming to hasten the apocalypse by promoting LGBT rights and anal sex. Their scheme fails because Russia possesses the world’s most advanced artificial intelligence. Its creator is hailed as the “Russian mother of terminators” and “Elon Musk in a skirt.”

How it’s written: Uskova asserts the book was co written with an AI developed by her company. The text frequently references neurobiology or management theories, employing phrases like “situational modelling of variable histories”, making the writing dense and challenging. The plot is convoluted and overloaded with conspiracy theories. The only certainty is the portrayal of the main character as a genius whom men find irresistible.

A quote describing a successful cyberattack through which Russia supposedly defeated the rest of the world: “Our cyberneticists, utilising the robotic Artificial Intelligence IPG7 Ippolit 1.0, infiltrated practically all decision making centres for launching ballistic missiles from silos via the base GPTX engine and executed a session of simultaneous and brilliant play, achieving victory on all NATO boards at once in a single move.”

What the author dreams of: To become as influential as her novel’s heroine, and to receive universal recognition for it.

Editor: Anna Pavlova