Nicolai Lilin

Nicolai Lilin (2011)

Nicolai Lilin (born February 12, 1980 in Bender , also called Tighina , then the Moldovan Soviet Socialist Republic ) is a Russian writer born in the Soviet Union .

Life

Lilin has lived in the Italian province of Cuneo since 2003 and writes in Italian .

Works

In his first book, Educazione Siberiana ( Siberian Education ) from 2009, he describes how he grew up and was “trained” in a criminal organization with a Siberian background. This group, called Urki, dedicated itself to robbery and theft for decades, mainly on the trans-Siberian railway lines . Under Stalin , their relatives were deported from Siberia to the west, to Transnistria , and continued their criminal activities there. One of the unwritten laws of the Urki, which has meanwhile become a legend, is the ban on having any contact with state institutions. Based on the book, the film Siberian Education was released in 2013 .

Lilins second novel Caduta Libera ( Free Fall ) is a highly autobiographical colored narrative of the experiences of the author in the Second Chechen War (1999-2009). Due to his criminal past and his stubbornness in the drafting , he comes as a conscript to the "saboteurs", a special unit of the Russian army , which acts in civilian clothes and is deployed at the hot spots of the action. Under the command of Captain Nossow, this unit fights alongside regular army units , Cossacks and OMON troops. The author describes in detail the cruel behavior of both his unit and the Chechen insurgents, their support by Islamist volunteers from abroad and their equipping with American weapons, the corruption within the Russian army and his difficulties in re-entering civil life. In this respect, the story is a first-class source on the Second Chechen War.

Publications

• 2010: Siberian education , from the Italian by Peter Klöss. Suhrkamp Verlag, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-518-46162-4 .
• 2011: Free Fall , translated from the Italian by Peter Klöss. Suhrkamp Verlag, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-518-46260-7 .
• 2011: Il respiro del buio (de .: The Breath of Darkness). Einaudi, Turin, ISBN 978-88-06-20889-9 .
• 2012: Storie sulla pelle . Einaudi, Turin, ISBN 978-88-06-21414-2 .
• 2014: Il serpente di Dio . Einaudi, Turin, ISBN 978-88-06-21889-8 .

filming

• 2011: Educazione Siberiana , director: Gabriele Salvatores

Showroom

In 2011 Lilin opened an exhibition room in which readings, lectures, exhibitions etc. are to take place. The author's first exhibition there was entitled Il Tatuaggio Siberiano / Ritorno alle origini deutsch: The Siberian Tattoo / Return to the Originals.

Web links

Commons : Nicolai Lilin  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Nicolai Lilin in the catalog of the German National Library
• Internet Movie database
• Biography (it.)