Nicolai Lilin Николай Лилин | |
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 Lilin in 2011 | |
| Born | Nikolai Yurievich Verzhbitsky 12 February 1980 Bender, Moldavian SSR, Soviet Union (now Moldova) |
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| Language | Italian |
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| Genres | |
| Years active | since 2009 |
| Notable works | Siberian Education: Growing up in a Criminal Underworld (2009) Free Fall: A Sniper's Story from Chechnya (2010) |
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| nicolaililin | |
Nikolai Yurievich Verzhbitsky (born 12 February 1980), known as Nicolai Lilin, is an Italian-Moldovan writer and tattoo artist from Transnistria. His first novel, Siberian Education, was published in 2009 and was adapted into a 2013 film starring John Malkovich. The novel, which Lilin claimed was based on his experiences living among Siberian criminal gangs in his native Bender, became a bestseller in Italy, but was labeled a fake memoir by some journalists and historians. Similar criticisms would be leveled at its sequel, Free Fall, which narrates the author's alleged experiences during the Second Chechen war.
While initially a vocal critic of Russia under Vladimir Putin, since 2014 Lilin has consistently taken anti-Ukrainian and anti-Western stances throughout the course of the Russo-Ukrainian War, and has attracted attention for expressing Eurasianist views and spreading conspiracy theories, fake news and libelous comments.