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Nicolai Lilin

Moldovan and Italian writer

Nicolai Lilin (born 12 February, 1980) is an Italian-Moldovan writer. His first novel, Siberian Education, was adapted into a 2013 film directed by Gabriele Salvatores. He has since attracted attention for spreading Russian propaganda throughout the course of the Russo-Ukrainian War.

The West is the cradle of the fucking Anglo-Saxon colonialists, profiteers, bankers and warmongers. The world now no longer believes in the bullshit of Western democracy.
See also:
Siberian Education (2009)

Quotes

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2009

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  • The Siberian community in which I grew up came from a much older one that had already developed a system of self-control and was opposed to any form of power. Not only socialism, they opposed the Tsar's regime and its slavery. [...] By the late 1980s, I already knew that the community was dying. When I started writing I realized that this tradition had helped them survive, but it couldn't save them.
    • [...] la comunità siberiana in cui sono cresciuto proveniva da una molto più antica che aveva già sviluppato un sistema di autocontrollo e che si opponeva a qualsiasi forma di potere. Non soltanto al socialismo, si opposero al regime dello Zar e alla sua schiavitù. [...] Alla fine degli anni Ottanta già sapevo che la comunità stava morendo. Quando ho iniziato a scrivere mi sono reso conto che la tradizione li ha aiutati a sopravvivere, ma non ha potuto salvarli.
    • From an interview with Giacomo Rosso (7 July 2009), "L'educazione siberiana di Nicolai Lilin", Cafebabel.com
  • There is no [Siberian] community anymore. Just me, my brother, and maybe some others. The problem is that there is nothing left in Siberia either. The core of this community was deported to Transnistria and did not survive there.
    • Non esiste più nessuna comunità. Sono io, mio fratello, e forse qualcun altro. Il problema è che anche in Siberia non è rimasto niente. Il nucleo di questa comunità è stato deportato in Transnistria e lì non è sopravvissuto.
    • From an interview with Giacomo Rosso (7 July 2009), "L'educazione siberiana di Nicolai Lilin", Cafebabel.com
  • The only thing for certain about Russia is that it will always be immersed in chaos. That's normal. It's its historical state.
    • L'unica cosa certa sulla Russia è che sarà sempre immersa nel caos. È normale. Questo è il suo stato storico.
    • From an interview with Giacomo Rosso (7 July 2009), "L'educazione siberiana di Nicolai Lilin", Cafebabel.com
  • There is not, nor will there ever be, a democratic government in Russia. Only a dictatorship can manage such a territory and all the populations that inhabit it.
    • In Russia non esiste, e non ci sarà mai, un governo democratico. Solo una dittatura può riuscire a gestire un territorio simile e tutte le popolazioni che lo abitano.
    • From an interview with Giacomo Rosso (7 July 2009), "L'educazione siberiana di Nicolai Lilin", Cafebabel.com
  • Actually, I now consider myself Italian in all respects. I have Italian citizenship, it would be wrong and incorrect to define myself as Russian, although I have recently received quite a few attacks from my former fellow Russian citizens.
    • Veramente ora mi considero italiano a tutti gli effetti. Ho la cittadinanza italiana, sarebbe sbagliato e scorretto definirmi russo. Anche se ultimamente ho ricevuto parecchi attacchi da parte dei miei ex concittadini russi.
    • From an interview with Giacomo Rosso (7 July 2009), "L'educazione siberiana di Nicolai Lilin", Cafebabel.com
  • I'm fucking telling you, my friend ... All the fucking money is in the hands of the rich fucking Jews. I'm telling you, it's a fucking conspiracy. And did you know that the rich fucking Jews started the Second World War? I'm telling you for sure, those bitches didn't spare their own tribe, just to enrich themselves further! ... You've heard of this Bilderberg Club, right? Yeah, yeah, my friend explained everything about them really well. My friend, you know, Licio fucking Gelli, P2, know what I mean? ... When I arrived, I was a complete fool about this, but he opened my eyes.
    • Я, друг, тебе точно, нах, говорю [...]. Все, бля, деньги, нах, у богатых жидов. Я тебе говорю, нах, это, бля, заговор. И Вторую мировую богатые, бля, жиды развязали, ты не знал? Точно говорю, они, суки, своего племени не пожалели, только чтоб еще богаче стать! [...] Ты вот слыхал про такой Бильдербергский клуб, а? Во-во. Мне друг мой пиздато все про них объяснил. Друг мой, знаешь, может, Личо, бля, Джелли, пи-два, ты не в курсе? [...] Я, когда приехал, был на этот счет дурак дураком, но он мне глаза-то приоткрыл.
    • As reported by Aleksandr Garros (20 October 2009), "Непереводимая игра слов", Snob.ru
  • I'm apolitical. I only write about what I've seen and experienced, but someone who still dreams of black communism would prefer me dead. And if I had stayed in the country, I already would be. That's why I, my wife, and my four-year-old daughter sleep with a Kalashnikov next to our pillow. [...] The Carabinieri are very worried, and my family even more so. On Facebook they have written terrible things to me, some absurd (a guy who claims to have paid hitmen from the Russian mafia to eliminate me) others more credible.
    • Sono apolitico, racconto solo quello che ho visto e vissuto, ma qualcuno che ancora sogna il comunismo nero mi preferirebbe morto. E se fossi rimasto al paese, già lo sarei. Ecco perché io, mia moglie e mia figlia di quattro anni dormiamo con il kalashnikov accanto al cuscino. [...] I Carabinieri sono molto preoccupati, e la mia famiglia di più. Su Facebook mi hanno scritto cose tremende, alcune assurde - un tizio che assicura di avere pagato sicari della mafia russa per eliminarmi - altre più credibili.
    • From an interview with Maurizio Crosetti (16 December 2009), "Lilin, vita blindata Faccio il tatuatore in clandestinità", Repubblica.it
  • I've never studied Italian, I learned it through contact with people, reading children's books and watching cartoons. But now I can even tackle Dante.

2010

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  • Not only have I never gone to school, but not even the Holden school, which keeps ignoring me anyway.
    • [...] non ho mai frequentato non solo la scuola, ma neanche la scuola Holden, che fra l'altro continua a snobbarmi.
    • From an interview with Katia Ippaso (4 June 2010), "Nicolai Lilin, al di là del bene e del male", Storiedikatia.blogspot.com
  • I live a fairly peaceful life compared to many others, but I have the support of the army and the police. I walk around with my gun. And I have weapons at home. But it's not true, as has been written, that I sleep with a gun. I sleep with my daughter. However, I prefer not to delve into the matter further.
    • Io vivo una vita abbastanza tranquilla rispetto a molte altre, ma ho il sostegno dell'esercito e dei carabinieri. Giro con la mia pistola. E a casa ho delle armi. Ma non è vero, come hanno scritto, che dormo con la pistola. Io dormo con mia figlia. Preferisco comunque non approfondire la questione.
    • From an interview with Katia Ippaso (4 June 2010), "Nicolai Lilin, al di là del bene e del male", Storiedikatia.blogspot.com

2011

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  • Since I have always dealt with security, a private volunteer company linked to the Vatican infiltrated me into some Satanist groups for two years. I discovered a large pedophile ring there between Russia and Europe. I have reported on several people, but the problem is that they are thoroughly protected. [...] I can say that I uncovered the existence of a pedophile network in Munich. The report was never followed up. After all, a porn film with the participation of a minor, shot in a few copies, can cost from 50 to 70 thousand euros. I discovered some really disgusting things. [...] I hoped to continue working in this environment, but, after the publication of my two novels, my face is just too well-known. Plus, I now have a five-year-old daughter. However, I will never stop telling everyone that pedophiles are rich and powerful, and not just in Italy: in Belgium there are pro-pedophile associations that help them hide.
    • Siccome mi sono sempre occupato di sicurezza, una società privata di volontariato legata al Vaticano mi ha infiltrato per due anni all'interno di alcuni gruppi satanisti. In quell'ambiente ho scoperto un grande traffico pedofilo tra la Russia e l'Europa. Ho fatto denunce contro parecchie persone, ma il problema è che sono molto coperti. [...] Posso dire che ho denunciato l'esistenza di una rete pedofila a Monaco di Baviera. La denuncia non ha mai avuto seguito. Del resto, un film porno con la partecipazione di un minore, girato in poche copie, può costare da 50 a 70 mila euro. Ho scoperto cose davvero schifose. [...] speravo di continuare a lavorare in questo ambiente. Ma dopo l'uscita dei due romanzi la mia faccia è davvero troppo riconoscibile. In più, adesso ho una figlia di cinque anni. Però non smetterò mai di raccontare a tutti che i pedofili sono ricchi e potenti. Non solo in Italia: in Belgio ci sono associazioni pro-pedofili che li aiutano a nascondersi.
    • From an interview with Alessandro Mezzena Lona, "Nicolai Lilin racconta la sua sporca guerra combattuta in Cecenia", Il Piccolo, 20 May 2011.
  • My daughter's only five years old and she's already learned how to dissassemble and reassemble a gun: I taught her that because I think it could be a useful skill for her one day.
    • Mia figlia ha solo cinque anni e ha già imparato a smontare e rimontare la pistola: gliel'ho insegnato perché penso che potrebbe sempre esserle utile, un giorno.
    • From an interview with Giorgio Cattaneo (30 September 2011), "Nicolai Lilin: Violenza utile?", Spazio filosofico, vol. I, 3, pp. 305-309

2013

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Western-style corruption has taken over, which is why Putin and Berlusconi are such friends, and even look like each other: both of them have undergone plastic surgery to look younger, but only Satan never ages. They are demons.
  • I am appalled by how things are going with Putin, his homophobic laws, the censorship, pedophilia used as a criminal means of earning money. Western-style corruption has taken over, which is why Putin and Berlusconi are such friends, and even look like each other: both of them have undergone plastic surgery to look younger, but only Satan never ages. They are demons. [...] I no longer have the stomach to live in such a country, where the only way out left is suicide. [...] We need a new revolution, of ideas, not weapons.
    • Sono rammaricato per come stanno andando le cose con Putin, le sue leggi omofobe, la censura, la pedofilia come sistema criminale per guadagnare denaro. La corruzione di stampo occidentale ha preso il sopravvento, per questo Berlusconi e Putin sono così amici, e si somigliano pure: ambedue oggetto di plastiche facciali per sembrare sempre giovani, ma solo Satana non invecchia mai. Sono demoni. [...] Non ho più fegato per vivere in un Paese così, dove l' unica soluzione ormaiè il suicidio. [...] Ci vuole una nuova rivoluzione. Non armata, ma delle idee.
    • From an interview with Fulvio Paloscia (30 October 2013), "Lilin, passeggiando tra i maestri russi. Ora serve una rivoluzione delle idee", Repubblica.it

2014

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  • I say what I know and what I know is certain. I have been involved in five wars, on the front lines, even though I am only 34 years old. When you Western boys were still messing around with some girl in the back seat of a car, I was already killing terrorists in Chechnya.
    • Dico ciò che so e ciò che so è sicuro. Io sono stato coinvolto in cinque guerre, in prima linea, nonostante abbia appena 34 anni. Quando voi ragazzi occidentali ancora vi dilettavate con qualche ragazza sui sedili posteriori di un'auto io ero già in Cecenia a uccidere i terroristi.
    • From an interview with Giovanni Mari (28 June 2014), "Maidan, «l'ultimo golpe degli Usa in fallimento», Il Secolo XIX
  • The history of the United States has been the history of a series of military interventions and aggressions, direct or indirect, real or fake wars. All to favor the private interests of private economic groups. A typical Anglo-Saxon style, moreover. They have not invented anything. They conquer territories, intervene in other people's affairs, only to grab money, allies, business.
    • La storia degli Stati Uniti è stata la storia di una serie di interventi e di aggressioni militari, diretti o indiretti, guerre vere o fasulle. Tutto per favorire gli interessi privati di gruppi economici privati. Un tipico stile anglosassone, per altro, non hanno inventato nulla. Conquistano territori, intervengono nei fatti altrui, solo per accaparrarsi soldi, alleati, affari.
    • From an interview with Giovanni Mari (28 June 2014), "Maidan, «l'ultimo golpe degli Usa in fallimento», Il Secolo XIX
  • Imagine if this vast continent, from Europe to Russia, to Kazakhstan, to India, to China, could unite. Imagine what a boom Italy could have, we could sell our fashion, our products, our books. We can do without the Americans and they can't stand it. So they have begun brutal operations, the same ones that today, however, they are no longer able to manage. They are losing everywhere, even here.
    • Pensate se questo vasto continente dall’Europa alla Russia al Kazakistan all’India alla Cina si potesse unire. Pensate l’Italia che boom potrebbe avere, venderemmo la nostra moda, i nostri prodotti, i nostri libri. Potremmo fare a meno degli americani e gli americani non possono sopportarlo. Così hanno cominciato brutali operazioni, le stesse che oggi, però, non sono più in grado di gestire. Stanno perdendo ovunque, anche qui.
    • From an interview with Giovanni Mari (28 June 2014), "Maidan, «l'ultimo golpe degli Usa in fallimento», Il Secolo XIX
  • Development is here, Russia is growing and Europe has every interest in making a deal with them, freeing itself from the yoke of American private multinationals. I speak as an Italian citizen, as an Italian patriot. Our economy, the real one, does not need this system that is now bankrupt. It must free itself from the grip of America and Brussels.
    • Lo sviluppo è qui, la Russia sta crescendo e l’Europa ha tutto l’interesse a fare un patto con loro, liberandosi dal giogo delle multinazionali private americane. Io parlo da cittadino italiano, da patriota italiano. La nostra economia, quella vera, non ha bisogno di questo sistema ormai al fallimento. Deve liberarsi dalla morsa americana e di Bruxelles.
    • From an interview with Giovanni Mari (28 June 2014), "Maidan, «l'ultimo golpe degli Usa in fallimento», Il Secolo XIX
  • To avoid further deaths and douse the fire of this civil war, Ukraine must cease to exist as a State. The government, law enforcement and the army which have stained themselves with crimes against humanity must be arrested and tried for their responsibility. NATO should be dissolved immediately, seeing as the bloc of nations comprising the Warsaw Pact hasn't existed for more than two decades. What's needed is a military intervention by the UN to disarm both sides involved in this war. The criminal Nazis of Kiev, their Washington collaborators and advisors should be brought before the International Court of Justice in Hague and judged with all the severity that the law allows. Only this way and only from that point on will true and coherent news start arriving from that scarred nation: only then will the world be able to breathe freely.
    • Per evitare altre morti e spegnere il fuoco di questa guerra civile, l'Ucraina deve smettere di esistere come Stato. Il governo, le forze dell'ordine e l'esercito che si sono macchiati di crimini contro l'umanità devono essere arrestati e processati in quanto responsabili. La NATO dovrebbe essere sciolta immediatamente, visto che il blocco dei paesi del Patto di Varsavia non esiste da più di due decenni. Servirebbe un intervento militare dell'ONU per disarmare le due parti coinvolte in questa guerra. I criminali nazisti di Kiev, i loro collaboratori e consiglieri di Washington dovrebbero essere portati davanti al tribunale internazionale dell'Aja ed essere giudicati con tutta la severità che la legge consente. Solo così e solo allora da quel paese martoriato cominceranno ad arrivare notizie vere, coerenti: solo allora il mondo potrà respirare liberamente.
    • From "L'Impero delle Balle", Espresso.repubblica.it (18 July 2014)

2016

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  • The first person I killed was a thirty-year-old gypsy who was dealing heroin in my neighborhood. I was fourteen, I tried to fight him and make him leave, but he beat me up. So I went to my grandfather and told him everything; he loaded a revolver, gave it to me and told me to shoot him in the knees. I shot him in the knees with the first shot but the second one went wrong and I hit his liver and he died. It was a war and my father did much worse. He was one of those who carried out reprisals, he suffered three very serious attacks, in one of them I was also in the car when they shot at us. A real war. Then my father had to leave the country because the war was lost. Corruption and the power of traffickers and drugs won. In fact he joined the police, politics, corrupt power and our country was occupied by these people. My mother, finding herself in this situation, married to a man who for years had opposed this system, had to flee because too often corrupt policemen came to search and threaten us, to know where my father was hiding, where his money was. I myself was taken into the woods several times, they pointed a gun at my head to try to get information. Then I also went away and had my experiences.
    • La prima persona che ho ucciso era un trentenne zingaro che spacciava eroina nel mio quartiere. Io avevo quattordici anni, ho cercato di contrastarlo e fargli lasciare il quartiere ma lui mi ha picchiato. Allora sono andato da mio nonno e gli ho raccontato tutto; lui mi ha caricato un revolver, me lo ha dato e mi ha detto di sparargli alle ginocchia. Il primo colpo l'ho sparato alle ginocchia ma il secondo è andato male e gli ho preso il fegato e lui è morto. Era una guerra e mio padre faceva cose ben peggiori. Faceva parte di quelli che facevano rappresaglie, ha subito tre attentati pesantissimi, in uno c'ero anch'io in macchina quando ci hanno sparato addosso. Una vera e propria guerra. Poi mio padre è dovuto andar via dal paese perché la guerra è stata persa, la corruzione e il potere dei trafficanti e della droga ha vinto. Infatti si è unito alla polizia, alla politica, al potere corrotto e il nostro paese è stato occupato da questa gente. Mia madre trovandosi in questa situazione, sposata ad un uomo che per anni si è opposto a questo sistema, è dovuta fuggire perché troppo spesso venivano poliziotti corrotti per le perquisizioni, a minacciarci per sapere dove mio padre si nascondeva, dove erano i suoi soldi. Io stesso più volte sono stato portato nel bosco, mi hanno puntato una pistola alla testa per cercare di avere informazioni. Poi sono andato via anch'io e ho fatto le mie esperienze.
    • From an interview with Alessandra Farinola (2016), "Intervista a Nicolai Lilin", Mangialibri.com
  • Atheism is a religion. Declaring that you don't believe in anything is like saying you believe in something. In this way, they are a group, a cult.
  • We are all brothers in that area and I wouldn't know how to shoot a Moldovan, because I love him: he's my brother.

2017

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  • This snake [tattoo] on my arm is the demon I have to tame every day. My mentor forcibly tattooed it on me when I was 14. I had stabbed a boy in the back. He was paralyzed for life, but I was left with the demon tattooed with the needle, almost in relief, to hurt me more. A stain that reminds me of the biggest mistake of my life.
    • Questo serpente al braccio è il demonio che devo domare ogni giorno. Me l'ha tatuato a forza il mio maestro quando avevo 14 anni. Avevo accoltellato un ragazzo alle spalle. Lui è rimasto paralizzato tutta la vita, a me è restato il demone tatuato con la bacchetta, quasi in rilievo, per farmi più male. Una macchia che mi ricorda il più grosso errore della mia vita.
    • From an interview with Giulia Santerini (27 July 2017), "Nicolai Lilin: "Ora vi educo con i tatuaggi siberiani"", Repubblica.it
  • What is a criminal? One who goes against justice? But what justice? Weren't the partisans and those who fought against communist regimes outlaws? For the Urkas, even Jesus was an honest criminal, they like it when the gospel says he came to bring the sword. He was a revolutionary.
    • Cos'è un criminale? Uno che va contro la giustizia? Ma quale giustizia? I partigiani e chi ha lottato contro i regimi comunisti non erano dei fuorilegge? Per gli Urca anche Gesù era un criminale onesto, a loro piace quando il vangelo dice che era venuto per portare la spada. Era un rivoluzionario.
    • From an interview with Giulia Santerini (27 July 2017), "Nicolai Lilin: "Ora vi educo con i tatuaggi siberiani"", Repubblica.it
  • Russia encompasses one sixth of the Earth's surface. An act of castration has been put in place against the Olympics, because the Olympic Games without Russia will be a joke. What's more, they will be a slap in the face to democracy, pluralism and the unity of all the peoples who find themselves in the Olympic spirit. [...] This is a pretext to make Russia appear as a rogue state in front of the entire civilized world, reawakening the ghosts of the Cold War. It is a way to humiliate Russia and its citizens. Among other things, I still do not understand on what tangible evidence this nonsense is based. To me it seems like an agenda, the arguments seem weak and we have not yet seen incontrovertible proof.
    • La Russia corrisponde a un sesto delle terre emerse, è stata messa in atto un’azione castrante nei confronti delle Olimpiadi perché i giochi olimpici senza la Russia saranno una barzelletta. Ma ancora di più saranno uno schiaffo alla democrazia, al pluralismo e all’unità di tutti i popoli che si ritrovano nello spirito olimpico. [...] Questo è un pretesto per far apparire la Russia, davanti a tutto il mondo civile, come un Paese canaglia, risvegliando i fantasmi della Guerra fredda. È un modo per umiliare la Russia e i suoi cittadini. Tra l’altro non capisco ancora su quali prove reali di basi questa fandonia. A me sembra una presa di posizione, le argomentazioni mi sembrano deboli e non abbiamo ancora visto prove incontrovertibili.
    • On Russia's exclusion from the 2018 Winter Olympics. From an interview with Gioco Pulito (11 December 2017), Russia esclusa dalle Olimpiadi, Nicolai Lilin: 'Uno schiaffo alla Democrazia, una vendetta dei potenti', Giocopulito.it
  • The champion of this club of oligarchs is Soros, who organizes revolutions and pushes global projects. In Italy we welcomed him with all honors, but perhaps it would have been better to treat him like the criminal he is. Here, people like him certainly have connections with the IOC and have all the tools to manipulate these people.
    • Il campione di questo club di oligarchi è Soros che organizza rivoluzioni e spinge progetti globali. In Italia l'abbiamo accolto con tutti gli onori ma forse sarebbe stato meglio trattarlo come un criminale quale è. Ecco persone come lui sicuramente hanno agganci con il CIO e hanno tutti gli strumenti per manipolare queste persone.
    • On Russia's exclusion from the 2018 Winter Olympics. From an interview with Gioco Pulito (11 December 2017), Russia esclusa dalle Olimpiadi, Nicolai Lilin: 'Uno schiaffo alla Democrazia, una vendetta dei potenti', Giocopulito.it
  • There is no independent government in Italy. It is a country politically and militarily occupied by "terrorists" of the single currency, of single thought and of globalism.

2020

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  • When I did military service in the sabotage squad and captured Islamic terrorists, we'd adopt a practice of preparation for interrogations which has always bothered me. [...] First of all we'd remove their trousers and underpants. Then we'd make a sort of gag with their socks which we'd stuff into their mouths. [...] I didn't get it at first. Then I asked our captain about it. [...] He explained that this practice had been studied by some psychologists, and that it served to deprive the prisoners of their own dignity, and therefore break them. So when we brought them before the interrogator, the terrorists would start talking immediately. It wasn't so hard to extract information from them at that point.
    • Quando ho fatto il servizio militare nelle squadre di sabotaggio e catturavo i terroristi islamici, adottavamo una pratica di preparazione agli interrogatori che mi ha sempre turbato. [...] Prima di tutto gli toglievamo i pantaloni e le mutande. Poi con le sue calze faceva una sorta di tappo che gli infilavamo in bocca. [...] All'inizio non riuscivo a capirne il senso. Poi lo ho chiesto al nostro capitano. [...] Mi ha spiegato che questa pratica era stato studiata da alcuni psicologi e che serviva a privare il prigioniero della propria dignità e, quindi, azzerarlo. Così, quando lo portavamo davanti a chi lo avrebbe interrogato, il terrorista si metteva subito a parlare. Non bisognava più far tanta fatica a cavargli fuori le informazioni.
    • From an interview with Andrea Indini (19 October 2020), "Coronavirus, Nicolai Lilin: 'Così hanno generato il terrore nel popolo'", Ilgiornale.it

2021

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  • The Soviet Union was unified through sacrifice and blood, millions of people died. My grandfather, even though he was anti-communist, always said that the greatest feat accomplished by the communists was to have united the Soviet Union and that we had to keep it united because it was our country. It was nice to be all together, to have one currency, one constitution, to be able to move freely...
    • L'Unione Sovietica fu unificata attraverso il sacrificio ed il sangue, sono morti milioni di persone. Mio nonno, anche se era anticomunista, diceva sempre che la più grande impresa compiuta dai comunisti fu quella di aver unito l’Unione Sovietica e che bisognava tenerla unita perché era il nostro Paese. Era bello stare tutti insieme, avere una valuta, una costituzione, potersi muovere liberamente...
    • From an interview with Fabrizio Rostelli (13 April 2021), "Educazione siberiana e socialista", Ilmanifesto.it
  • If you read Wikipedia it seems that the Moldovans tried to re-annex Transnistria which in the meantime had proclaimed itself independent. It is half true. First of all, the Moldovans did not want to leave the Soviet Union. They left because some corrupt politicians, paid by Western oligarchs, destroyed the USSR. An army of mercenaries from all over the world arrived here: Hungarians, Germans, people from the Baltic countries. If the war lasted only two months it is precisely because the majority of the Moldovan people were against it and did not want to invade us. The greatest number of victims occurred during the first few days, when people were simply massacred while they tried to return home in fear. The first resistance, the most consistent, was popular. We kids rode the streets on bicycles and collected ammunition, we took weapons and other useful things from the dead. We followed the movements of military vehicles and reported them to the adults. It also happened that we fired Kalashnikovs in firefights. At that time the people in my building lived in my house because we had water from the well and several supplies of canned food. In the apartments there was no electricity, nor gas, they also cut off the water in the whole city because the mercenaries had tried to poison it. There were also several elderly people who needed medicine; in our courtyard we had a small refugee camp.
    • Se leggi Wikipedia sembra che i moldavi tentarono di riannettere la Transnistria che nel frattempo si era proclamata indipendente. È una mezza verità. I moldavi prima di tutto non volevano uscire dall'Unione Sovietica, uscirono perché alcuni politici corrotti, pagati dagli oligarchi occidentali, sfasciarono l'URSS. Da noi arrivò un esercito di mercenari a pagamento provenienti da tutto il mondo: ungheresi, tedeschi, gente dei Paesi baltici. Se la guerra durò solo due mesi è proprio perché la gran parte del popolo moldavo era contraria e non voleva invaderci. Il numero più grande di vittime ci fu durante i primi giorni, quando la gente fu semplicemente massacrata mentre, spaventata, cercava di tornare a casa. La prima resistenza, quella più consistente, fu popolare. Noi ragazzini percorrevamo le strade con le biciclette e raccoglievamo munizioni, toglievamo ai morti le armi e altre cose utili. Seguivamo i movimenti dei mezzi militari e li comunicavamo ai grandi. Capitava anche di sparare con il kalashnikov in conflitti a fuoco. In quel periodo la gente del mio palazzo abitava a casa mia perché avevamo l'acqua del pozzo e diverse scorte di cibi in scatola. Negli appartamenti non c'era luce, né gas, staccarono anche l'acqua in tutta la città perché i mercenari avevano cercato di avvelenarla. C'erano poi diversi anziani che avevano bisogno di medicine; nel nostro cortile avevamo un piccolo lagher di rifugiati.
    • On the Transnistria War, from an interview with Fabrizio Rostelli (13 April 2021), "Educazione siberiana e socialista", Ilmanifesto.it
  • I've killed quite a few people in Chechnya who had American passports.
    • In Cecenia ho fatto fuori un po' di persone che avevano passaporti americani.
    • From an interview with Fabrizio Rostelli (13 April 2021), "Educazione siberiana e socialista", Ilmanifesto.it
  • Mine was a criminal family. My grandfather robbed banks and my father armored vans. During the war my grandfather was a sniper, like almost all Siberian hunters; he was in the same convoy that took the great Vasily Zaytsev to Stalingrad. I'm often told that I had a bad childhood. Perhaps it's true, but I liked it that way. That element got me closer to the adults and I felt responsible.
    • La mia era una famiglia criminale, mio nonno rapinava le banche e mio padre i furgoni blindati ed entrambi hanno avuto una discreta esperienza carceraria. In guerra mio nonno era stato un cecchino, come quasi tutti i cacciatori siberiani; era nello stesso convoglio che aveva portato il grande Vasilij Zajcev a Stalingrado. Spesso mi dicono che ho avuto una brutta infanzia, forse è vero ma a me piaceva così. Quell'elemento mi avvicinava ai grandi, mi sentivo responsabile.
    • From an interview with Fabrizio Rostelli (13 April 2021), "Educazione siberiana e socialista", Ilmanifesto.it
  • I am an internationalist and I want to break down borders. I do not understand why the Eurasian continent should not be united. This wall is wanted by those who consider Europe as a subject and consumer of their products, that is, the United States. If the League acts as a battering ram to break down this barrier, I am willing to vote for it. Once the wall is gone, I can stop and look at all the ethical issues. What else can I do?
    • Sono un internazionalista e voglio abbattere i confini, non capisco per quale motivo il continente euroasiatico non debba essere unito. Questo muro lo vuole chi considera l'Europa come suddita e consumatrice dei propri prodotti, cioè gli Stati Uniti. Se la Lega agisce da ariete per abbattere questa barriera sono disposto a votarla. Una volta che non c'è più il muro, posso soffermarmi a guardare tutte le questioni etiche. Che altro posso fare?
    • From an interview with Fabrizio Rostelli (13 April 2021), "Educazione siberiana e socialista", Ilmanifesto.it

2022

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  • It was like a concentration camp and I have bad memories because it was the first time I saw human beings lose everything, even dignity [...]. Thank God no one tried to hit me or put me down, there was no sexual violence towards me because our group stayed together, we made business with nobody and just tried to survive. I knew I never wanted to go back.
  • In war, I had no time for understanding. It’s really fast and you think only of your mission. If you start to think about morality, you will die, because you lose control. You can’t think about life, you must think only of war so you will survive.
  • One time, I found a kidnapped boy of 10 or 12, really dirty, really scared [...]. I preferred to see dead people. Alive was more terrible, because their condition was like dead. All those people who stayed a year or more in the terrorist camps had psychological troubles for the rest of their lives. He slept on my arm and our doctor told me to keep holding him, because he was nervous, he needed to feel my body to sleep. When I saw Salvatores' film, with the kidnapped boy, it was like reality for me. I told my manager, "he can make the film because he doesn’t care about money or public opinion [or even recreating] things in a perfect historical way, he cares about the true story inside the person".
  • The West is the cradle of the fucking Anglo-Saxon colonialists, profiteers, bankers and warmongers. The world now no longer believes in the bullshit of Western democracy. The whole world is now against the West.
  • Boris Nemtsov was shot to death because he was a womanizer. He was obsessed with pussy and was unlucky enough to have slept with the young and beautiful wife of a Georgian businessman strongly linked to Moscow's organized crime. Do the math and you'll see that blaming the secret services is just strange.

2024

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When you read something in the Italian press, it cannot be credible, period.
  • Italian journalism and reporting [...] are all whores of the regime. I'm sorry but that's how it is. [...] when we talk about Italian newspapers, we are talking about scrap paper. Intellectual work in Italy no longer exists, coherence no longer exists. When you read something in the Italian press, it cannot be credible, period.
    • Il giornalismo e la stampa italiana [...] sono tutti delle puttane del regime, mi spiace ma è così. [...] quando parliamo dei giornali italiani, parliamo di carta straccia. Un lavoro intellettuale in Italia non esiste più, non esiste più coerenza. Quando leggi qualcosa sulla stampa italiana, questa non può essere credibile, punto e basta.
    • From an interview with Diana Mihaylova (16 February 2024), "Lilin: 'Navalny? Nazista xenofobo. L'intervista a Putin di Carlson? Ha cambiato il mondo', Mowmag.it
  • I work with news, on my private Telegram channel; therefore, I have people who pay me to be informed. If people pay to have coherent news, it means that many citizens do not agree with what the Italian media reports and it is not surprising, because the Italian press keeps telling a lot of bullshit. The Russian press is always based on a propaganda line. We must not think that in Italy they are propagandists and in Russia they tell the whole truth. There is propaganda there too, but there is a difference: Russian journalists do not distance themselves from the objective truth, which is what Westerners have started to do quite some time ago.
    • Io lavoro con le notizie, sul mio canale Telegram privato; quindi, ho della gente che mi paga per essere informata. Se la gente paga per avere delle notizie coerenti, vuol dire che molti cittadini non sono d'accordo con quello che i media italiani raccontano e non c'è da sorprendersi, perché la stampa italiana racconta un sacco di balle; continua a farlo. La stampa russa è sempre basata su una linea propagandistica. Non dobbiamo pensare che in Italia sono propagandisti e in Russia raccontino tutta la verità. Anche lì c'è propaganda, ma c'è una differenza: i giornalisti russi non si allontanano dalla verità oggettiva, quello che invece gli occidentali hanno iniziato a fare un bel po' di tempo fa.
    • From an interview with Diana Mihaylova (16 February 2024), "Lilin: 'Navalny? Nazista xenofobo. L'intervista a Putin di Carlson? Ha cambiato il mondo', Mowmag.it
  • The majority of Russians are happy and actually want to support this policy more. When we talk about protests by Russians who do not want to go to war, it is all bullshit. Russians want to go to war and they want to defeat Nazism.
  • Have you ever seen Russia waging colonial wars or wars to expand its territory? [...] The Russians do not want to invade anyone. The only reason they wage war is to ensure the security of their borders. That is why Putin has moved his army into Ukraine, because since 1998 NATO military activities have been taking place there that threaten Russia's borders. It is idiotic to say that Putin wants to invade Poland and the Baltics. Putin wants to take it easy, he does not want to have a gun pointed at his face by NATO.
    • [...] si è mai visto la Russia fare guerre coloniali o per allargare il proprio territorio? [...] I russi non vogliono invadere nessuno. L’unica cosa per cui sono capaci di fare la guerra è per assicurare la sicurezza sui propri confini. Per questo motivo Putin ha mosso l’esercito in Ucraina, perché dal 1998 in Ucraina si svolgono attività militari della NATO che minacciano i confini della Russia. È un’idiozia dire che Putin vuole invadere Polonia e Paesi Baltici. Putin vuole stare tranquillo, non vuole avere la pistola puntata in faccia dalla NATO.
    • From an interview with Diana Mihaylova (16 February 2024), "Lilin: 'Navalny? Nazista xenofobo. L'intervista a Putin di Carlson? Ha cambiato il mondo', Mowmag.it
  • The war will not be short, it will be long, but Russia will be victorious for a simple reason: we are in the midst of a change in the world order. The West will no longer be able to extend its dominion and supremacy over a part of the world.
  • My values ​​are left-wing, but not as the left is defined in Italy. I am not someone who fits into an ideology within the Italian system. I know well that in Italy some say that I am a fascist, because they quote some out-of-context phrase, or some old position of mine. But the truth is that I am the product of the Soviet system, for better or for worse.
 
When I was 12, Andriy Parubiy entered my town of Bender in Transnistria, leading some Nazi gangs who killed, among others, my uncle and my little cousin Tatiana.
  • I don't wish any harm to anyone. I hope that these people [Stefania Battistini and Simone Traini] will live to a ripe old age. I hope that these people will also be able to reflect on the mistakes that have been made, but I know very well how it works in Russia, I know very well who the Russians are and how they act when they get angry. When they are hit, let's say, in their heart, they react quite harshly. And so, my sincere wish to these Italian journalists who have done this pro-Nazi propaganda work is to be very careful, be very careful. Don't accept tea from strangers. Be careful at the café. Be careful where you eat. Be careful with new friends, because it may be that the GRU operatives, who are the military secret services, are already working against you, and if they have really taken on a task, you can be sure that in a year, two years, three years, five years, in any case they will find you and tear you to pieces.
    • Io non voglio augurare assolutamente nessun male, io spero che queste persone vivranno per la vita fino alla vecchiaia. Spero che questa gente potrà anche riflettere sugli errori che sono stati fatti, però io so benissimo come funziona in Russia, so benissimo chi sono i russi e come loro agiscono quando si arrabbiano, quando vengono colpiti, diciamo, nel cuore loro, reagiscono abbastanza duramente. E quindi, il mio sincero augurio a questi giornalisti italiani che hanno fatto questo lavoro di propaganda filo nazista è di stare molto attenti, stare molto attenti. Non accettate il tè dalla gente sconosciuta. Fate attenzione al bar. Fate attenzione dove mangiate. Fate attenzione alle nuove amicizie, perché può darsi che contro di voi stanno già lavorando gli agenti operativi del GRU, che sono i servizi segreti militari, e se loro veramente hanno preso un incarico, state certi che in un anno, due anni, tre anni, cinque anni, comunque vi troveranno e vi faranno a pezzi.
    • As quoted in "L'avvertimento di Nicolai Lilin ai giornalisti Rai Battistini e Traini: «Vi siete scavati la fossa da soli». E cita il polonio nel tè", Open.online (18 Agosto 2024)
  • Obviously [the Russo-Ukrainian war was] a gift to the Jewish lobbies and BlackRock. When they arrive, they lick their fingers when they see such a situation: Here you go! A new race and ethnicity has been invented. We can destroy Russian power, massacre Slavs and force them to kill each other thanks to an idea cooked up by the Poles and Hungarians even before the First World War and which was then spread widely by the communists. This is, in summary, the pain of Ukraine. They are Russians who reject the idea of being Russian, they've invented this thing about being Ukrainians, and obviously through this crazy, stupid idea they destroy themselves and their roots. It's obviously easier to control people this way. They've installed their Jewish boy to run this degraded land and he rightly doesn't want to end the war. How come? Because this is the essence of their plan: to massacre as many Ukrainians as possible in order to replace them with Jewish colonists from Israel and other parts of the world in order to create a new state there in Ukraine.
    • [...] ovviamente è stato un regalo [...] alle lobby ebraiche e alla BlackRock. Questi quando arrivano si leccano le mani quando vedono una situazione del genere: Ecco! È stata creata una nuova razza, una nuova etnia, si può distruggere il potere russo, si può massacrare gli slavi e farli uccidere tra di loro grazie a un'idea che è stata impostata dai polacchi e dagli ungheresi prima ancora della Prima guerra mondiale che poi è stata ampiamente diffusa dai comunisti. Questo, in grande linea, oggi è il dolore dell'Ucraina. Sono i russi che rifiutano la loro idea di essere russi, hanno inventato questa cosa di essere ucraini, e ovviamente in base a questa folle idiota idea, distruggono se stessi e distruggono le loro radici. E ovviamente è molto più facile gestire le persone così. Hanno messo il loro ragazzetto ebreo lì a governare questo paese degradato e lui giustamente non vuole finire la guerra. Per quale motivo? Perché il senso vero del loro piano è massacrare il più possibile ucraini per poter sostituire questi ucraini con i coloni ebrei che proverranno poi da Israele, da altre parti del mondo, e creerano là in Ucraina un nuovo loro stato.
    • "Deliri antisemiti e razzisti di Nicolai Lilin", YouTube (18 December 2024)

Quotes about Nicolai Lilin

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Alphabetized by author
  • He doesn't belong to a family of criminals, much less a Siberian one. His surname, for what it's worth, also sounds Polish. [...] When all's said and done, Lilin is just some guy who emigrated to a country where he had little chance of making an honest living, and he screwed it up big time by exploiting his exotic origins, inventing a larger-than-life character and passing it off as real. He is a literary impostor who plays on the thin line between imagination and reality. Life is never as romantic as we would like it to be, and this compels some to play a role they never had in the real world. Posing as a descendant of a criminal tribe and a Chechen War veteran is less risky than fighting in Chechnya and carrying out illegal activities. At most, people will think you're a liar.
    • Non appartiene a una famiglia di criminali, tanto meno siberiani. Il cognome del resto suona come polacco. [...] In fondo Lilin è solo un ragazzo emigrato in un paese dove non aveva molte possibilità di combinare qualcosa di decente, e l'ha sfangata alla grande sfruttando le origini esotiche, inventandosi un personaggio avventuroso e spacciandolo per vero. È un impostore letterario che gioca sul sottile confine tra immaginazione e realtà. La vita non è mai così romantica come vorremmo che fosse, e questo spinge qualcuno a recitare un ruolo che non ha mai avuto nel mondo reale. Atteggiarsi da discendente di una tribù criminale e reduce dalla Cecenia è meno rischioso che combattere in Cecenia e svolgere attività illegali. Al massimo la gente pensa che tu possa mentire.
    • Antonio Armano (27 June 2017), "E se il romanzo autobiografico "Educazione Siberiana" di Nicolai Lilin così autobiografico non fosse?", Ilfattoquotidiano.it
  • Un tappeto di boschi selvaggi [Lilin's autobiography] includes the reabilitatsiya, the rehabilitation certificate, of his great-grandfather (Nikolay Verzhbitsky). While writing the text of this photographic and autobiographical book, Lilin included the document and passed it off as a death sentence, as if there was nobody in Italy who knows a bit of Russian. It turns out his great-grandfather was born in Tiraspol, not in Siberia. [...] He was not a Siberian criminal deported to Moldova but, on the contrary, one of the many victims of Stalin's repressions, killed because he had a foreign surname and came from Moldova.
    • Un tappeto di boschi selvaggi riporta la rjabilitacija, il certificato di riabilitazione del bisnonno (Nikolaj Veržbickij). Lilin, scrivendo i testi di questo libro fotografico e autobiografico, ha inserito il documento, spacciandolo per una condanna a morte. Come se in Italia non ci fosse nessuno che mastica un po' di russo. Intanto il bisnonno risulta nato a Tiraspol', non in Siberia. [...] Non era un criminale siberiano deportato in Moldavia, ma al contrario una delle tante vittime delle repressioni staliniane, ucciso perché aveva un cognome straniero e veniva dalla Moldavia.
    • Antonio Armano (27 June 2017), "E se il romanzo autobiografico "Educazione Siberiana" di Nicolai Lilin così autobiografico non fosse?", Ilfattoquotidiano.it
  • He brings his fictional biography to life from beginning to end. And the more far-fetched it is, the more shocking moments it contains, the more fans he has. [...] All the facts of his biography have nothing to do with Siberia, Moldova or reality in general.
    • Fa vivere la storia immaginaria della sua vita dall'inizio alla fine. E più la sua biografia è inverosimile, più momenti scioccanti contiene, più fan ha. [...] Tutti i fatti della sua biografia non hanno nulla a che fare con la Siberia, la Moldova o la realtà in generale.
    • Alexander Bayanov (10 July 2024), "Le finzioni di Nicolai Lilin, falso-siberiano, e i missili veri su Kyiv", Vita.it
  • He has never lived in Siberia and this whole criminal story about the Urka people in Siberian Education (Einaudi), who never existed, is fiction from beginning to end. Nicolai easily and even skillfully collects artistic facts that can actually be found in Russian and Soviet writers, for example, Dostoevsky, and which, over time, turn into stereotypes and prejudices about Russia and Siberia in the minds of readers. And on this basis it transforms them into presumed facts of modern, current reality. This is called an artistic hoax.
    • Non ha mai vissuto in Siberia, tutta questa storia criminale sul popolo Urka in Educazione siberiana (Einaudi) che non è mai esistito è una finzione dall’inizio alla fine. Nicolai raccoglie facilmente e persino con talento fatti artistici che possono effettivamente essere trovati negli scrittori russi e sovietici, ad esempio Dostoevskij, e che nel tempo si trasformano nella mente dei lettori in stereotipi e pregiudizi sulla Russia e la Siberia. E su questa base li trasforma in presunti fatti della realtà moderna, attuale. Questa si chiama bufala artistica.
    • Alexander Bayanov (10 July 2024), "Le finzioni di Nicolai Lilin, falso-siberiano, e i missili veri su Kyiv", Vita.it
  • Siberian Education feels like a compendium of the dark fantasies that Westerners have about Transdniester as a place where people are left to fend for themselves or establish their own law. The reader is led to believe that the laws of the Siberian urkas are but one set of these surrogate forms of authority that exist in the black hole of Europe. It is a laughable portrayal.
  • Lilin [has] forsaken his criminal upbringing in favor of a successful literary career in which he peddles Westerners their own deepest, darkest fears about Transdniester and Russia. Astutely aware of the region's outsized reputation, Lilin has found a literary niche, a captive audience uninterested in the facts.
  • While framed as a memoir, Siberian Education deliberately embellishes the criminal elements of the PMR. As a storyteller, Lilin is the quintessential insider who confirms our darkest fears and fantasies. Born and raised in the PMR, he himself embodies its outlaw reputation and handsomely profits from it.
    • Michael Bobick (November 2011), "Profits of disorder: images of the Transnistrian Moldovan Republic", Global Crime, Vol. 12, No. 4, 239–265
  • As an author, Lilin places himself in the unimpeachable position of a trusted insider. Yet, upon closer inspection his biography and criminal history are more fictive than real. In online forums addressing the book's content and local reactions to it, locals and former acquaintances of Lilin intimate that, far from being a criminal, he actually served in the local militia before he emigrated. Locals' reactions to translated parts of his book range from disbelief and laughter to anger and outrage at the author's hollow attempts to besmirch his native city. Perhaps tellingly, some express astonishment that he was capable of pulling such a fast one on westerners.
    • Michael Bobick (November 2011), "Profits of disorder: images of the Transnistrian Moldovan Republic", Global Crime, Vol. 12, No. 4, 239–265
  • Although Lilin's book [Siberian Education] is about a Russian-speaking region and his native language is Russian, he writes in the language of his adopted native land, following in the tradition of Nabokov, Serge, and Triolet (nee Kagan). His choice to write in a non-native idiom firmly places his audience outside of the Russian-speaking world, yet the subjects of his two books – criminality in Transnistria and his experiences as a saboteur in Chechnya – emerge from distinctly Russian contexts. Perhaps most tellingly, both issues touch upon a perceived incommensurability between Russia and the West. It is somewhat ironic that Lilin's audience consists of the very same westerners who previously were the objects of his scorn. The enemy that he once hated, the West, now provides his bread and butter; the fact that there will soon be a film based on the book only adds to the absurdity.
    • Michael Bobick (November 2011), "Profits of disorder: images of the Transnistrian Moldovan Republic", Global Crime, Vol. 12, No. 4, 239–265
  • Somehow as a reader I find myself genuinely interested in the details of how someone with such a lengthy criminal record could serve multiple tours in Chechnya, immigrate to Ireland, move to Italy, learn Italian, and write a bestseller for a prominent Italian publishing house. Yet, his choice of subjects, his presentation of them, and his inability to acknowledge his critics leave the reader with even rudimentary knowledge of Transnistria wondering how one can so thoroughly drain the rich social fabric of the region of its content while simultaneously seeing criminal in anything and everything.
    • Michael Bobick (November 2011), "Profits of disorder: images of the Transnistrian Moldovan Republic", Global Crime, Vol. 12, No. 4, 239–265
  • Publishing has been plagued by fabricated memoirs in recent years. [...] But Nicolai Lilin's Free Fall: a Sniper's Story from Chechnya may be unique. Lilin, who wrote a brutal first-person account of fighting in the Russian army in the Chechen war, praised by its publisher as "a unique and remarkable memoir", has admitted that he did not experience much of what he described and deliberately embellished it to help sales.
  • [...] it contains tales so unlikely that most editors would surely have spotted them as false, such as when Lilin finds a Chechen with a rifle loaded with hyper-accurate bullets filled with liquid mercury. Such an idea is nonsense since the liquid would shift in flight and render them useless.
  • The foreword states that names, dates and places have been changed "to protect those involved" but gives no clue that the book is not a truthful account of someone's experiences. Almost a quarter of the book, pages 99-188, is an ultra-violent account of fighting in a built-up area – presumably Grozny – in which Lilin and his group rescued a cut off Russian unit, but not before it had lost 13 lieutenant-colonels.
  • Judging by the many laudatory reviews of Nicolai Lilin's book in the European and American media, Western readers have no doubts about the veracity of the facts he presents. [...] The reviewers were not even bothered by the fact that Bender was called Tighina before 1940 and was part of Romania, and Stalin simply could not exile anyone there, especially since people back then were exiled to Siberia, not from it.
    • Судя по множеству хвалебных рецензий на книгу Николая Лилина в европейских и американских СМИ, никаких сомнений в достоверности изложенных им фактов у западных читателей не возникло. [...] Рецензентов не смутил даже тот факт, что до 1940 года Бендеры назывались Тигиной и были частью Румынии, и Сталин просто не мог никого туда сослать, тем более что тогда людей ссылали в Сибирь, а не из нее.
    • Elena Chernenko (3 October 2011), "Татуированная клюква", Kommersant.ru
  • If we summarize the information from Nicolai Lilin's book, his interviews in the Western press and speeches at book fairs, then by the age of 23 the author had managed to: serve two terms in a Transnistrian prison, be under investigation in Russia, serve three years as a sniper in Chechnya and a couple more years as a mercenary in Israel, Iraq and Afghanistan. At 24, he got a job as a fisherman on a ship in Ireland, then moved to Italy, where he got married, opened a tattoo parlor, wrote a bestseller and almost became a victim of a politically motivated assassination attempt. Now Nikolai Lilin is 30 years old, he has his own fan club and he seriously discusses why Anthony Hopkins is not suitable for the lead role in the Hollywood film adaptation of his book.
    • Если обобщить данные из книги Николая Лилина, его интервью в западной прессе и выступления на книжных ярмарках, то к 23 годам автор успел: дважды отсидеть в приднестровской тюрьме, побывать под следствием в России, три года отслужить снайпером в Чечне и еще пару лет наемником в Израиле, Ираке и Афганистане. В 24 он устроился рыбаком на судно в Ирландии, потом переехал в Италию, где женился, открыл тату-салон, написал бестселлер и едва не стал жертвой политически мотивированного покушения. Сейчас Николаю Лилину 30 лет, у него есть собственный фан-клуб и он всерьез рассуждает о том, почему Энтони Хопкинс не подходит на главную роль в голливудской экранизации его книги.
    • Elena Chernenko (3 October 2011), "Татуированная клюква", Kommersant.ru
  • I asked Nicolai Lilin-Verzhbitsky what he thought about the comments of his former friends. He thinks that they envy him: "They feel offended and inferior. I managed to leave there and achieve something, but they did not". At the same time, in a conversation with me, unlike in interviews with Western journalists, he repeatedly emphasized that his book is not an autobiography and that his Western publishers are marketing it as such. And he, they say, has nothing to do with it.
    • Я спросила Николая Лилина-Вержбицкого, что он думает о комментариях своих бывших друзей. Он считает, что они ему завидуют: "Они себя чувствуют обиженными и ущербными. У меня получилось уехать оттуда и добиться чего-то, а у них нет". При этом он в беседе со мной — в отличие от интервью западным журналистам — неоднократно подчеркивал, что его книга не является автобиографией и что как таковую ее позиционируют его западные издатели. А он тут, дескать, ни при чем.
    • Elena Chernenko (3 October 2011), "Татуированная клюква", Kommersant.ru
  • The author insists that the book [Free Fall] is based on his own combat experience in Chechnya. In an interview with Ogonyok, he said that he took part in the second Chechen campaign, but refused to give details. I learned from the Italian media that he allegedly served in the 56th Guards Airborne Assault Regiment. However, sources in the Ministry of Defense claim that there was no soldier named Lilin or Verzhbitsky in Chechnya.
    • Автор настаивает, что книга основана на его собственном боевом опыте в Чечне. В интервью "Огоньку" он сказал, что был участником второй чеченской кампании, но отказался привести подробности. Из итальянских СМИ я узнала, что он якобы служил в 56-м гвардейском десантно-штурмовом полку. Однако источники в Минобороны утверждают, что солдата по фамилии Лилин или Вержбицкий в Чечне не было.
    • Elena Chernenko (3 October 2011), "Татуированная клюква", Kommersant.ru
  • Nicolai Lilin has fled Italy because, he says, he was accused of being a spy for Putin. Considering all the bullshit he has spouted since arriving in Italy, probably none of this is true, except that he fled. If you are a spy, they don't take your passport away, they take you away. Who knows?
    • Nicolai Lilin è scappato dall'Italia perché, dice lui, accusato di essere una spia di Putin. Considerando le balle che ha raccontato da quando è arrivato in Italia, probabilmente non è vero niente, a parte la fuga. Se sei una spia, non ti ritirano il passaporto, ti portano via. Ma chissà.
    • Sandrone Dazieri (19 August 2024), "Siberia e dintorni", X.com
  • I met Lilin years ago after the publication of Siberian Education. He told me he was a friend of Licio Gelli and that he went around armed because he had many enemies. The book was very interesting, but it contained a series of obvious lies, both about the history of Russia and about his life. Half of my family is Russian and therefore I have direct sources, but I was amazed that everyone believed him. Shortly afterward, he wrote an article for L'Espresso, where he explained that he was a former sniper and that he had received offers from high-level mercenary groups to go and fight somewhere. It was such bullshit that I expected people to throw eggs at him. But no. The world of culture began to acclaim him as a hero, a thinker, a philosopher. Just look at those with whom he debated, who introduced him, who praised him. It was like living in a parallel world where those who loved him most were left-leaning. He took part in debates on democracy, on war, on the whole world, he had exhibitions of "Siberian" tattoos with institutional sponsorships. Every time I spoke about him I was accused of spreading shit about "someone more famous than you" or of having been fooled by Russian friends and relatives, who evidently had it in for someone who told the truth about the Putin regime.
    • Lilin lo conobbi anni fa dopo la pubblicazione di Educazione Siberiana, mi raccontò di essere amico di Licio Gelli e di andare in giro armato perché aveva tanti nemici. Il libro era molto interessante, ma conteneva una serie di balle evidenti sia sulla storia della Russia, sia sulla sua vita. Metà della mia famiglia è russa e quindi ho fonti dirette, ma ero stupefatto che tutti gli credessero. Poco dopo scrisse un pezzo per l'Espresso, dove spiegava di essere un ex cecchino e di aver ricevuto offerte da gruppi mercenari di alto livello per andare a combattere da qualche parte. Era talmente una vaccata che mi aspettavo gli tirassero le uova. No. Il mondo della cultura cominciò ad acclamarlo con un eroe, un pensatore, un filosofo. Guardate con chi faceva dibattiti, chi lo presentava, chi lo incensava. Era come vivere in un mondo parallelo dove, soprattutto, chi lo amava di più era la sinistra. Partecipava a dibattiti sulla democrazia, sulla guerra, sul mondo intero, faceva mostre di tatuaggi "siberiani" con le sponsorizzazioni istituzionali. Ogni volta che parlavo di lui venivo accusato di spargere merda su "uno più famoso di te" oppure di essermi fatto abbindolare da amici e parenti russi, che evidentemente ce l'avevano con uno che diceva la verità sul regime putiniano.
    • Sandrone Dazieri (19 August 2024), "Siberia e dintorni", X.com
  • Over time his books began to sell less and he became a propagandist of the worst pro-Putin bullshit. I thought that everyone who had given him prestige and visibility would have done some self-criticism. Fat chance. People on the left who I knew very well decided to side with him because he was a "pacifist" and once again it seemed absurd to me, like an episode of Black Mirror. Just how was it possible for them to ally themselves with someone who published photomontages of the Ukrainian president snorting cocaine, in which he wrote that Navalny's wife was having fun with her lovers while he was dying, who insulted homosexuals hidden in the Ukrainian army? I don't know, I still can't wrap my head around it. Okay, the story is not over, given that today he made veiled threats to use polonium on journalists who speak badly of the Tsar. I just hope that, now that he is a fugitive, he doesn't become a martyr for free thought. And I also hope that those who previously praised him don't insult him now. Certain things have to be done when it's hard, not when it's convenient. But we're in Italy. Whoever talks the loudest always wins.
    • [...] con il tempo i suoi libri cominciarono a vendere meno e divenne un propagandista delle peggio balle pro Putin. Pensavo che qualcuno che gli aveva dato lustro e visibilità avrebbe fatto autocritica. Invece no. Persone di sinistra che conoscevo molto bene decisero di candidarsi con lui perché "pacifista" e ancora una volta mi sembrò assurdo. Come una puntata di Black Mirror. Ma come era possibile che si alleassero con uno che pubblicava fotomontaggi con il presidente ucraino che tirava cocaina, in cui scriveva che la moglie di Navalny si divertiva con gli amanti mentre lui moriva? Che insultava gli omosessuali nascosti nell'esercito ucraino? Non lo so, non riesco a capirlo nemmeno ora. Va bè, la storia non è finita, visto che sono di oggi le sue velate minacce al polonio per i giornalisti che parlano male dello Zar. Spero solo che, adesso che è latitante, non se ne faccia un martire del libero pensiero. E spero anche chi lo incensava adesso non lo insulti. Eh no, certe cose vanno fatte quando è difficile, non quando conviene. Ma siamo in Italia. Chi la spara più grossa vince sempre.
    • Sandrone Dazieri (19 August 2024), "Siberia e dintorni", X.com
  • Nicolai Lilin's words, in which he finds himself threatening our journalists with mafia-like methods and tones, are, to say the least, shameful. [...] But it is also shameful that this character has for years been invited to important television studios to talk about the Russian war in Ukraine, and that he has had ample space to pollute public discourse in our country.
    • Le parole di Nicolai Lilin in cui nella pratica si trova a minacciare di nostri i nostri giornalisti, tra l’altro con modi e toni mafiosi, sono a dir poco vergognose. [...] Ma vergognoso è anche il fatto che questo personaggio sia stato invitato per anni in importanti salotti televisivi a parlare della guerra russa in Ucraina, e che abbia avuto così tanto spazio per inquinare il dibattito pubblico nel nostro Paese.
    • Federica Onori (27 August 2024), "Ubriachi di propaganda. La grande disinformazione italiana che fa il gioco di Putin", Linkiesta.it
  • His works ("Free Fall: A Sniper’s Story" and "Siberian Education") are truly impressive for their triteness and the sheer quantity of outright lies, nevertheless, this man is a favorite among some Western readers in Europe and the United Kingdom.
  • Needless to say, Lilin has never set foot in Chechnya or a Siberian prison, but, following in the footsteps of Baron Munchhausen, this does not stop him spouting a load of exorbitant cock-and-bull stories – and everyone, at least nearly everyone, laps them up!
  • Inside Russia people watch Nikolai Lilin’s ascent with surprise and admiration. [...] Wild and uncivilized as Russia may be, it is still highly unlikely that a book by a contemporary German writer about a squadron of former SS officers hiding in the forests outside Berlin, listening to Wagner with their children and grandchildren, reading aloud from the works of Junge and banging on tin drums as they rob passing trains, would ever be published here. [...] Everyone here would immediately see this drivel for what it is. But back in Europe, strange things can happen. Plenty of second-rate books make it to print, and the most popular still seem to be this load of nonsense that no one in his right mind would ever bother reading in Russia.
  • If you would prefer Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs without their ingenious wit and structure, this may be a book for you.
    • On Siberian Education. Donald Rayfield (1 August 2010), "Bloodbath. Siberian Education by Nicolai Lilin (Translated by Jonathan Hunt)", Literary Review, 378
  • The narrative mode of the book is strange: sometimes, an anthropologist seems to be describing the traditions of a hitherto unknown Siberian ethnos who combine utterly ruthless criminality with the religious punctiliousness of the Exclusive Brethren, their traditions embodied in a Grandfather Kuzya who guides the juvenile hero and his friends on when, whom, how and with what weapon to maim and kill. At other times, author and reader wallow in a pornography of violence.
    • On Siberian Education. Donald Rayfield (1 August 2010), "Bloodbath. Siberian Education by Nicolai Lilin (Translated by Jonathan Hunt)", Literary Review, 378
  • If this "memoir" were believable, it might have some value (and serve as a pretext for invading Transnistria as a festering sore of criminality). But credulity collapses in the first pages, and not just because the chronology is a complete mess. The background to the "memoir" (in interviews on Italian television Lilin has begun to call Siberian Education an "autobiographical fairy-tale") is the deportation by Stalin in the 1930s of a group of intolerably active and anti-communist Siberian robbers westwards to Bendery on the Dnestr river, where they flourished in the 1990s. Usually, Stalin either shot such people, or sent them 1,000 miles closer to the North Pole: this would be Stalin's only recorded deportation from Siberia to Europe, all the more incredible because Bendery was from 1918 to 1940 in Romania.
    • On Siberian Education. Donald Rayfield (1 August 2010), "Bloodbath. Siberian Education by Nicolai Lilin (Translated by Jonathan Hunt)", Literary Review, 378
  • Translation rights to this book have been sold all over the world, but not in Russian, Romanian, Ukrainian, or any language which the inhabitants of Bendery and Tiraspol might read. Lilin explains this as a precaution against revenge for revealing the secrets of the Siberian urka's language, tattoos and code. Doctoral theses and Internet archives, however, tell everything about the symbolism of Russian criminal tattoos, while the beliefs of Orthodox dissenters and of "thieves-in-the-law" have been described for over a century (but never before confounded as they are in this book, where revolvers used for killing are kept under icons).
    • On Siberian Education. Donald Rayfield (1 August 2010), "Bloodbath. Siberian Education by Nicolai Lilin (Translated by Jonathan Hunt)", Literary Review, 378
  • Nicolai Lilin (if that is his real name) has obviously encountered the criminal world, but he makes gross errors – claiming that fenia, the criminal jargon originated by the ofenia, Russian travelling pedlars, is an aboriginal Siberian language.
    • On Siberian Education. Donald Rayfield (1 August 2010), "Bloodbath. Siberian Education by Nicolai Lilin (Translated by Jonathan Hunt)", Literary Review, 378
  • This book reads like a fantasist's ravings [...]. The success of Educazione siberiana implies that Italian publishing is floundering in the same cesspit as Italian television. One can only hope that British readers are not so gullible.
    • On Siberian Education. Donald Rayfield (1 August 2010), "Bloodbath. Siberian Education by Nicolai Lilin (Translated by Jonathan Hunt)", Literary Review, 378
  • Hailed as an insider's account of a cruel yet unknown world, Siberian Education was a literary sensation when first published in Italy in 2009. Lilin's raw and ungrammatical Italian has now been smoothed into readable English by Jonathan Hunt. The veracity of the story's basic elements has been fiercely defended by Lilin and accepted by many critics; yet many readers may feel they have landed in the Hayborian age invented by Robert Ervin Howard, among the likes of Conan the Barbarian and the Vanir warlords.
  • The book [Siberian Education] is presented as a "shocking exposé of an extraordinary criminal underworld", although a strategically placed note (absent from the Italian edition) warns the reader that "certain episodes are imaginative recreation, and those [unspecified] episodes are not intended to portray actual events". During an interview on Italian television, Lilin repeatedly threatened a journalist who cast doubt on his story. At the risk of exposing myself to the wrath of the last descendant of the Siberian criminals, I venture to say that the urkas have never existed — at least not as described by the author.
  • When confronted with glaring innaccuracies and contradictions, Lilin retorted that these charges are the equivalent of accusing Anne Frank of miscounting the number of electricity poles in Bergen-Belsen. I leave it to the reader to pass judgement on the aptness and sensitivity of the comparison.
  • Lilin draws on the vast literature about the prison life and criminal underworld of Russia to create a sect whose putative "Siberian" origin is fantastical and whose traditions, practices and language are lifted from well-known Soviet and post-Soviet prison-based criminal fraternities [...]. Lilin's furious reactions to those who cast doubt on his criminal credentials can best be explained by the fact that some elements of the book do reflect his own experience while most of the rest is widely known in Russia to readers of quasi-fictional crime tales by Valery Karyshev and to viewers of the prison-based TV series Zona.
  • Let's just say that the childhood he describes, in a context of poverty and marginalization, is credible. Just as it is likely that it led to the natural outcome of prison. Even a brief stint with youth gangs is possible. It's the part about the mafia that's unconvincing. [...] I have met members of the Russian mafia. Those who are killers certainly don't go around telling people about it.
    • Diciamo che l'infanzia che lui racconta, in un contesto di povertà ed emarginazione, è anche credibile. Così come è probabile che conducesse allo sbocco naturale della prigione. Anche una certa realtà di bande giovanili è possibile. È la parte sulla mafia che non convince. [...] Rappresentanti della mafia russa ne ho conosciuti. Chi è un killer non va certo a raccontarlo in giro.
    • Anna Zafesova (12 May 2009), «Quanti errori e stranezze in quelle pagine», Ilgiornale.it
  • According to Lilin, the Urkas were an ethnic minority, "descendants of the ancient Efey", who lived by hunting and robbery and who were deported from Siberia to Transnistria in the 1930s, when it was part of Romania (it would be annexed to the USSR in 1940, in the partition of Europe between Stalin and Hitler). Thus the communists would have populated the "Romanian empire", as the writer calls it, with Russian criminals, defeating the local gangs. "Absurd", laughs Pavel Polian, a Russian historian who has been studying the deportations of communism and Nazism for 25 years: "They were deported to Siberia, but not from Siberia, much less to Moldova. And the Efey never existed".
    • Secondo Lilin, gli Urca sarebbero una minoranza etnica «discendente degli antichi Efei» che viveva di caccia e rapina e che dalla Siberia venne deportata in Transnistria negli anni '30, quando era parte della Romania (sarebbe stata annessa all'Urss nel 1940, nella spartizione dell'Europa tra Stalin e Hitler). Così i comunisti avrebbero popolato «l'impero romeno», come lo chiama lo scrittore, di criminali russi sconfiggendo le cosche locali. «Assurdo», ride Pavel Polian, storico russo che da 25 anni studia le deportazioni di comunismo e nazismo: «Si deportava in Siberia, ma non dalla Siberia, meno che mai in Moldova. E gli Efei non sono mai esistiti».
    • Anna Zafesova (23 June 2009), "Fantasie siberiane. Quando Lilin si è inventato tutto", La Stampa
  • According to Lilin, the very existence of the Urkas was a state secret. An almost extinct community, which had left a deep mark, single-handedly winning the war of 1992, when Moldova, in the grip of hot post-Soviet spirits, invaded the breakaway province. In Siberian Education, it is narrated how the "Siberians" triumphed by blowing up one of the two cinemas in Bender full of soldiers. Marian Bozhesku, Ukrainian researcher and author of Transnistria 1989-1992, the most exhaustive study on the conflict, says he has never heard of this. "For us the memory of the war is still very much alive, we fought desperately. To say that criminals won it is ridiculous", says indignant Denis Poronok, who is the same age as Lilin, 31, and disputes "Nicolai's version": "The blown up cinema is a fairy tale, and there were four theaters, not two in Bender in 1992".
    • Secondo Lilin l'esistenza stessa degli Urca era un segreto del regime. Una comunità quasi estinta, che aveva lasciato un segno profondo, vincendo da sola la guerra del 1992, quando la Moldova in preda a bollenti spiriti postsovietici ha invaso la provincia separatista. In Educazione siberiana si narra del trionfo dei «siberiani», riusciti a far esplodere uno dei due cinema di Bendery pieno di militari. Marian Bozhesku, ricercatore ucraino autore di Transnistria 1989-1992, lo studio più esaustivo sul conflitto, dice di non averne mai sentito parlare. «Per noi il ricordo della guerra è ancora vivissimo, abbiamo combattuto disperatamente, dire che sono stati i criminali a vincerla è ridicolo», s'indigna Denis Poronok, che ha la stessa età di Lilin, 31 anni, e contesta la «versione di Nicolai»: «Il cinema esploso è una fiaba, e nel '92 a Bendery c'erano quattro sale, non due».
    • Anna Zafesova (23 June 2009), "Fantasie siberiane. Quando Lilin si è inventato tutto", La Stampa
  • Bender is a small town of 80 thousand inhabitants where everyone knows each other. They also know Nicolai (even though he had a different surname at the time), they remember his parents and his grandfather Boris, "a great person, he worked until the end", says a contemporary of the writer. They met when they were in their twenties and he even went to his house: "There were no icons, no weapons, no 'Siberian' objects. He was curious, he read a lot". Anything criminal? "Never heard of him being in prison. In fact, it was said that at some point he had joined the police".
    • Bendery è una città piccola, 80 mila abitanti dove tutti si conoscono. Conoscono anche Nicolai (anche se all'epoca portava un altro cognome), si ricordano i suoi genitori e il nonno Boris, «grande persona, ha lavorato fino all'ultimo», dice un coetaneo dello scrittore. Si frequentavano quando erano ventenni, è stato anche a casa sua: «Non c'erano icone, né armi, nessun oggetto "siberiano". Lui era uno curioso, leggeva molto». Nulla di criminale? «Mai sentito che fosse stato in galera, anzi si diceva che a un certo punto si fosse arruolato nella polizia».
    • Anna Zafesova (23 June 2009), "Fantasie siberiane. Quando Lilin si è inventato tutto", La Stampa
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