Nikolai Lilin (pictured) has been living in the Italian province of Cuneo for 6 years. He became popular as the author of the bestseller Siberian Education, published by the Italian publishing house Einaudi. The book, which has become a literary sensation in Europe, is now being prepared for translation into 20 languages, and it is planned to make a documentary based on it. However, the author himself, it seems, is not happy with such fame and is forced to be under the protection of the carabinieri.

The thing is that Nikolai Lilin's book is dedicated to the Russian criminal tattoo, for which, according to the author, representatives of the "Russian mafia" are allegedly going to deal with him.
“My book annoyed many people and they threatened to kill me,” Lilin explains. The author of "Siberian Education" positions himself as a subverter of everyone and everything - communists guilty of the deportation of the lesson, criminal gangs exterminating "honest criminals". And even the church, which deprived women of equality and the right to occupy positions in the church hierarchy, not to mention law enforcement agencies and other state institutions. Lilin calls her creation "an autobiographical fairy tale." According to him, the author of the book inherited the art and tradition of tattoos from old Siberians.

“It is a language, an alphabet that tells the story of a man in his own skin. People are like the pages of a book, and the tattoo artist is a clergyman who knows the most intimate secrets,” he says.
The writer himself is also a kind of “open book”, as his body is tattooed from his arms to his neck. Only the back remains clean, which Lilin himself considers an "unfortunate gap" that will have to be filled after he turns 40 years old. Otherwise, despite the public fame that immediately came after the publication of Siberian Education, little is known about the author of the book. Nikolai Lilin is married to an Italian woman, has a four-year-old daughter and Italian citizenship.

From the book, however, it is clear that Lilin is a direct descendant of the Siberian lessons (whom he calls "honest criminals"), who were resettled for an unknown reason in the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic, where he allegedly grew up. Nikolai Lilin assures that by the age of 29 he managed to serve three years in Chechnya as part of the Airborne Forces, where he himself killed and saw death, “did it because he was a soldier,” although in fact the murders weighed him down. Nevertheless, Lilin took this episode of his autobiography as the basis for the plot outline for the next book, which is scheduled for release in March next year.

Now the author, fearing reprisals from all sides - from nostalgic adherents of "black communism" to hired killers of the Russian mafia - "sleeps with his wife and daughter in the same room, putting a Kalashnikov assault rifle under his pillow." According to Lilin, the carabinieri guarding him fear for the life of his family, and on the social network Facebook, various ill-wishers write dozens of messages to him with threats of imminent reprisal. One "authoritative" user even allegedly told Lilin that he had already "ordered it from the" Russian mafia ". By the way, the writer, who has the profession of a tattoo artist, would like to open his own tattoo parlor in Turin, but the threat of murder stopped these encroachments.

And the motive for the possible murder of Lilin lies in his very work. After all, having written a book, he encroached on the most sacred thing - on the sacredness of a criminal tattoo, divulging to the whole world the secret writing of "Zon" tattoos and the rules for reading them. In the book, he writes that "in Siberia, it is not customary to ask aloud about the meaning of a tattoo - this is considered a serious insult." It also expresses the idea that it is dishonorable to talk about the meaning of the tattoo, since it is a dumb language, and it is applied precisely in order to avoid conversation. Only a true Siberian can understand this truth: the one who interprets a tattoo kills the tradition and, in turn, risks being killed himself.

Therefore, for now, the writer is “shabash” tattoo underground, arranging a meeting with clients via the Internet, and then listening to their stories. For everyone, he creates an individual design and always tattoos in the traditional way - with wooden sticks, not a tattoo machine. However, Lilin's indisputable merit is that he has already unwittingly enriched the Italian language by introducing the word and the concept of "urca" into it. And some believe that soon the "lower classes" of Italian society may begin to live not according to the law, but "according to concepts." The Siberian lesson code contains a clear need to always tell the truth.
- I was taught to always tell the truth - a real urka never lies, - Lilin writes in the book.
The conclusion suggests itself: either Nikolai Lilin is not an urka, or he really does not lie.

Nikolai Lilin (pictured above) wrote a world bestseller about the special world of Siberian Lesson. The book has not been translated into Russian. But now a film is being shot on it, where John Malkovich plays the main role of the urki "Grandfather Kuzi". The book showed that in the West, Russia is again expected to tell stories about the "mysterious Russian soul."

... There is such a writer in the West Nikolai Lilin (this is his pseudonym, his real name is Verzhbitsky). He comes from Bender, he is 31 years old. He moved to Italy in 2003, at first he worked in a factory (his mother had previously settled in Italy). His first book "Siberian Education" has already been translated into 40 languages, the total circulation has exceeded 500 thousand copies, in Italy it was generally a bestseller. Now a film is being made based on the book, with Malkovich in the title role (the famous Oscar-winning director Salvatores).

So what does Lilin talk about in Siberian Education? In the magazine "Spark", No. 39, an interview with Lilin is given, a brief retelling of the plot is also given there:

“In 1938, by order of Joseph Stalin, the community of Ukrosh was exiled from Siberia to the Transnistrian city of Bendery. Urks are not ordinary thieves or bandits, but an ancient Siberian clan of noble criminals, in fact, a separate small nation. They live in strict accordance with their own moral code, which, in particular, states that real urks are obliged to despise power, whatever it may be, royal, communist or capitalist. Urks rob savings banks, freight trains, ships and warehouses, but live very modestly, spending the loot only on icons and weapons. They brutally crack down on policemen, but always come to the aid of the destitute, the elderly and the disabled. Almost from the cradle they learn to kill, but they respect women.

In 1980, in one of the most authoritative families of this community, the boy Nikolai was born (later he would be given the nickname Kolyma). The book was written from his perspective. The cover says that this is an autobiography, and Nikolai Lilin is a “hereditary Siberian Urka”. The first weapon, the first gathering, the first term, a couple of murders, the death of friends, the second term, learning the craft of a prison tattooist - that's the whole canvas.

Autobiographical stories are flavored with stories about Siberian criminal laws, such as the rule forbidding criminals to talk to law enforcement officials. “You cannot contact them, answer their questions or make any contact with them. The criminal must behave as if the policemen do not exist. A relative or neighbor of the criminal can act as an intermediary between them, but only if she is also from Siberia, the book says. The criminal tells her what he wants to say to the policeman in bandit jargon, and she translates what she heard into Russian. Urka should not look a law enforcement officer in the eye. And if he mentions him in his speech, then he should call him abusive words like "garbage", "dog", "abortion victim".

In accordance with another Siberian tradition, it is impossible to store “noble” weapons (used for hunting) and “sinful” ones (which are used for business) in the same room. “If a noble weapon is in the same room as a sinful one, it is considered infected. It is impossible to use such a weapon, it can bring misfortune to the family. It should be wrapped in a sheet on which the newborn baby was lying, and buried, and a tree should be planted on top, ”says an ancient Siberian custom according to Nikolai Lilin.

Judging by the many laudatory reviews of Nikolai Lilin's book in the European and American media, Western readers have no doubts about the reliability of the facts presented by him. “We could learn a lot from the compilers of the code of honor of this Siberian criminal caste. Nikolay Lilin presented a detailed account of an amazing culture, which, to my deep regret, is disappearing under the onslaught of globalization, writes the popular Scottish writer Irwin Welsh (author of the famous Transpoiting) in a review published by the British Guardian newspaper. common to all, the world would not face an economic crisis generated by greed, we would not destroy nature and other inhabitants of the planet. It's hard not to admire the people who opposed the tsar, the communists and Western material values. Siberian urks are the last anti-heroes of the Facebook era.

Similar enthusiastic responses to Lilin's book appeared in almost all major world media. Here is some of them:

“She talks about a world that has disappeared - the Siberian Lesson, a community of criminals deported by Stalin. You must force yourself to forget about the categories of good and evil while reading this book. You should just be there and .. read, having a pleasure that is hard to forget. Roberto Saviano, author of the book Gomorrah."

“Terrible, fascinating, terrible and cruel - this is how Lilin's memoirs can be characterized. But at the same time - instructive and exciting. Simon Sebag-Montefiore, author of " Young Stalin.

“It's an amazing, very strange world. It is full of violence, but still atonement for sins that gives hope. A wonderfully authentic book!” Misha Glennie, author of the book “ McMafia».

“The wickedness in the book comes from politics. Lilin, on the other hand, depicts the underworld, full of strict morals, secret logic and cruel justice. The book is full of images of anarchism, devotion, humor and respect." The Wall Street Journal.

“Crime has its own truth. There are also traditional concepts of law and morality, the deification of one's clan and freedom. national post.

From these descriptions it is clear what the West expects from Russian literature. All the same description of the "mysterious Russian soul". Well, and further - about the carriers of this "soul": exotic people who are not found in the White World (or have already died out there). A sort of "Dostoevshchina", adjusted for the degradation of the imaginary "Russian man" over the past hundred years.

At the same time, interestingly, such a “Russian exotic” is not ridiculed by Westerners. He is not a savage, not a degenerate (like Tolkien's Gollum, who was once a hobbit, and then degraded to a half-animal), he is simply "different". Western leftists and anarchists, on the contrary, see in such a “Russian man” a “future white man” who fights against globalization and injustice. Western rightists also find in him an example to follow - with "primitive Christianity" and "traditions".

But, probably, in order to write such books, one must be at a distance from Russia. How did Lilin do it?

PS From Lilin's interview with Le Monde newspaper:

“Russia is all marked by violence, this is the norm for the country. Communism was not a problem for Russia, the problem for her is the mentality of the people. Two types of people now live in the country - with a slave psychology, and with the psychology of freedom, well, approximately, like you have in France - these are urks and oligarchs.

Also, Nikolai Lyalin is now participating in the Italian art project "Kolyma", whose motto is "Return to the Roots".

Here is Lyalin presenting one of the Kolyma exhibitions:

And this is the symbol of the Kolyma project.

Nikolai Lilin (pictured above) wrote a world bestseller about the special world of Siberian Lesson. The book has not been translated into Russian. But now a film is being shot on it, where John Malkovich plays the main role of the urki "Grandfather Kuzi". The book showed that in the West, Russia is again expected to tell stories about the "mysterious Russian soul."

The Russian "literary process" by world standards is a small-town blot. Which of today's writers is for sale in the West? Only Ulitskaya, Sorokin and Erofeev in scanty circulations (and even then in scanty circulations in Germany). The White world is not interested in Russian literature.

But there is an exception. There is such a writer in the West, Nikolai Lilin (this is his pseudonym, his real name is Verzhbitsky). He comes from Bender, he is 31 years old. He moved to Italy in 2003, at first he worked in a factory (his mother had previously settled in Italy). His first book "Siberian Education" has already been translated into 40 languages, the total circulation has exceeded 500 thousand copies, in Italy it was generally a bestseller. Now a film is being made based on the book, with Malkovich in the title role (the famous Oscar-winning director Salvatores). Frames from this film are given as illustrations for this text.

By the way, Lilin's book has not yet been translated into Russian.


So what does Lilin talk about in Siberian Education? In the magazine "Spark", No. 39, an interview with Lilin is given, a brief retelling of the plot is also given there:

“In 1938, by order of Joseph Stalin, the community of Ukrosh was exiled from Siberia to the Transnistrian city of Bendery. Urks are not ordinary thieves or bandits, but an ancient Siberian clan of noble criminals, in fact, a separate small nation. They live in strict accordance with their own moral code, which, in particular, states that real urks are obliged to despise power, whatever it may be, royal, communist or capitalist. Urks rob savings banks, freight trains, ships and warehouses, but live very modestly, spending the loot only on icons and weapons. They brutally crack down on policemen, but always come to the aid of the destitute, the elderly and the disabled. Almost from the cradle they learn to kill, but they respect women.

In 1980, in one of the most authoritative families of this community, the boy Nikolai was born (later he would be given the nickname Kolyma). The book was written from his perspective. The cover says that this is an autobiography, and Nikolai Lilin is a “hereditary Siberian Urka”. The first weapon, the first meeting, the first term, a couple of murders, the death of friends, the second term, learning the craft of a prison tattoo artist - that's the whole canvas.


Autobiographical stories are flavored with stories about Siberian criminal laws, such as the rule forbidding criminals to talk to law enforcement officials. “You cannot contact them, answer their questions or make any contact with them. The criminal must behave as if the policemen do not exist. A relative or neighbor of the criminal can act as an intermediary between them, but only if she is also from Siberia, the book says. The criminal tells her what he wants to say to the policeman in bandit jargon, and she translates what she heard into Russian. Urka should not look a law enforcement officer in the eye. And if he mentions him in his speech, then he should call him abusive words like "garbage", "dog", "abortion victim".


In accordance with another Siberian tradition, it is impossible to store “noble” weapons (used for hunting) and “sinful” ones (which are used for business) in the same room. “If a noble weapon is in the same room as a sinful one, it is considered infected. It is impossible to use such a weapon, it can bring misfortune to the family. It should be wrapped in a sheet on which the newborn baby was lying, and buried, and a tree should be planted on top, ”says an ancient Siberian custom according to Nikolai Lilin.

Judging by the many laudatory reviews of Nikolai Lilin's book in the European and American media, Western readers have no doubts about the reliability of the facts presented by him. “We could learn a lot from the compilers of the code of honor of this Siberian criminal caste. Nikolai Lilin presented a detailed account of an amazing culture, which, to my deep regret, is disappearing under the onslaught of globalization, writes the popular Scottish writer Irwin Welsh (author of the famous Transpoiting) in a review published by the British Guardian newspaper. common to all, the world would not face an economic crisis generated by greed, we would not destroy nature and other inhabitants of the planet. It's hard not to admire the people who opposed the tsar, the communists and Western material values. Siberian urks are the last anti-heroes of the Facebook era.


Similar enthusiastic responses to Lilin's book appeared in almost all major world media. Here are some of them:

“She talks about a world that has disappeared - the Siberian Lesson, a community of criminals deported by Stalin. You must force yourself to forget about the categories of good and evil while reading this book. You should just be there and .. read, having a pleasure that is hard to forget. Roberto Saviano, author of the book Gomorrah."

“Terrible, fascinating, terrible and cruel - this is how Lilin's memoirs can be characterized. But at the same time - instructive and exciting. Simon Sebag-Montefiore, author of " Young Stalin.

“It's an amazing, very strange world. It is full of violence, but still atonement for sins that gives hope. A wonderfully authentic book!” Misha Glennie, author of the book “ McMafia».

“The wickedness in the book comes from politics. Lilin, on the other hand, depicts the underworld, full of strict morals, secret logic and cruel justice. The book is full of images of anarchism, devotion, humor and respect." The Wall Street Journal.

“Crime has its own truth. There are also traditional concepts of law and morality, the deification of one's clan and freedom. national post.


From these descriptions it is clear what the West expects from Russian literature. All the same description of the "mysterious Russian soul". Well, and further - about the carriers of this "soul": exotic people who are not found in the White World (or have already died out there). A sort of "Dostoevshchina", adjusted for the degradation of the imaginary "Russian man" over the past hundred years.

At the same time, interestingly, such a “Russian exotic” is not ridiculed by Westerners. He is not a savage, not a degenerate (like Tolkien's Gollum, who was once a hobbit, and then degraded to a half-animal), he is simply "different". Western leftists and anarchists, on the contrary, see in such a “Russian man” a “future white man” who fights against globalization and injustice. Western rightists also find in him an example to follow - with "primitive Christianity" and "traditions".

But, probably, in order to write such books, one must be at a distance from Russia. How did Lilin do it?

PS From Lilin's interview with Le Monde newspaper:

“Russia is all marked by violence, this is the norm for the country. Communism was not a problem for Russia, the problem for her is the mentality of the people. Two types of people now live in the country - with a slave psychology, and with the psychology of freedom, well, approximately, like you have in France - these are urks and oligarchs.

Siberian Education is a hefty volume of 450 pages. Murders, robberies, stabbings and similar crimes are enough for a dozen detective novels. The autobiographical novel tells about the fate of the author - Nikolay Lilin, who grew up and was brought up in the community of Siberian Uklas living in Pridnestrovie.

Siberian Indians in Moldova

Outwardly, 30-year-old Nikolai Lilin is a very imposing phenomenon. A strong young guy with a springy gait, a high forehead, a receding hairline, a shaved head, a "demonic" look from under thick eyebrows, a wedge-shaped beard that makes Lilin's already narrow face even narrower, his arms and neck are tattooed ... The body seems to also tattooed, only the back remained free, but Lilin intends to compensate for this shortcoming later.

Due to copyright, we, unfortunately, cannot publish Lilin's photo, but the author can be found on his website and on the youtube video portal. By the way, the "hereditary urca" from Bender, who did not really study and has been living in Italy for no more than seven years, speaks the correct, intelligent Italian language. He speaks weightily, keeps calm ... In general, viewers are delighted with him.

Literary critics, however, too. True, they praise not the artistic side of the book, but the theme. The Siberian criminal clan, about 40 families that Stalin in the 30s for some reason exiled from their native taiga to the Moldavian city of Bendery (although they were usually exiled, so to speak, in the opposite direction) - this, in essence, is the main character of the book. The history of this criminal community is so incredible that one of the (few) skeptical reviewers titled his article "Siberian Indians in Moldova."

Nikolai Lilin tells about the clan and its fate from other people's words: all this was told to him by his grandfather Kuzya, a criminal authority and keeper of the traditions of the "Siberian lesson", who works as a shoemaker in between bank robberies. These traditions in the description of Lilin are a very exotic concoction. Really existing thieves' laws are bizarrely intertwined with prison stories and just anecdotes. This is clearly felt by the critics. If at first they spoke about Lilin's autobiographical novel with an emphasis on the word "autobiographical", now they are more pressing on "novel".

A real urca, a humble partisan

The Urks in Lilin's book are something like an ethnic minority or anti-communist guerrillas. They even interpret the robberies of savings banks as an act of resistance to the hated authorities: after all, the savings banks belong to the state. A real urka does not take money in his hands, does not store hunting weapons along with combat weapons (which, judging by the book, in Bendery and in Soviet times were in bulk), beats the enemy he despised with a knife only in the thigh - so as not to give him too much honor "real "Knife wound. Urks live unpretentiously, modestly, spending money on only two things: weapons and icons.

Just as bizarre is the biography of Nikolai Lilin, told by himself. From an early age, he was in prison for robberies and attempted murder - a total of four times. You could say he grew up behind bars. Then he was allegedly drafted into the army - and for some reason into the Russian one, although he was not a citizen of Russia. For three years he fought in Chechnya, about which he writes in detail in his new novel (it is called "Free Fall").

After Chechnya, as the correspondent of the German magazine Stern assures - again according to Lilin - he was an "Israeli mercenary". What it is is not clear, because no information about mercenaries in the Israeli army could be found. Perhaps, we are talking about one of the security companies that are in Israel, where every school, every kindergarten, a great many are guarded? How did Lilin even get to Israel? And how to fit all of his prison terms, both Chechnya and Israel, into a time frame, given that at the age of 23 he was already in Italy?

Little boy with a gun

Where, by the way, he also came in some incredible way, supposedly to his mother. Then he married an Italian. They have a three-year-old daughter whom her father really wants to teach how to shoot as soon as possible - just in case. He himself took a combat pistol for the first time already at the age of three. Now he is not separated from him. "You could choose between police bodyguards and personal weapons. I chose weapons," says Lilin.

Meanwhile, in one of his speeches, it was said that Lilin was guarded by carabinieri and he slept with in the same room with his wife, daughter and a Kalashnikov assault rifle under his pillow. He, they say, was "ordered" by urks for revelations in Siberian Education, and an explosive device was even planted in Lilin's car. Despite such terrible dangers, it is known that Lilin lives in the Piedmontese city of Cuneo, where he has a tattoo studio. True, he takes orders only from those clients who have solid recommendations from trusted persons.

Be that as it may, the novel made a splash not only in Germany and Italy and is now being translated into several more languages. But not in Russian. The author allegedly forbade the sale of the rights to sell his book to Russia and the countries of the former USSR. If this is indeed the case, then it is understandable why.

Nicola Lilin.
Sibirische Erziehung.
Suhrkamp, ​​Berlin 2010