Zakhar Prilepin

Yevgeny Nikolayevich Prilepin (; born 7 July 1975), writing as Zakhar Prilepin (), and sometimes using another pseudonym, Yevgeny Lavlinsky (), this one mostly for journalistic publications, is a Russian writer. Leader of the political party "For Truth" from February 1, 2020.
Previously he was a member of Russia's unregistered National Bolshevik Party since 1996 to 2019.
Biography.
Yevgeny Prilepin was born 7 July 1975 in the village of Ilyinka, Ryazan Oblast, in the family of a teacher and a nurse. He began his career at age 16. He graduated from the Faculty of Philology of the Nizhny Novgorod State University and the School of Public Policy. He worked as a laborer, a security guard, served as a squad leader in the riot police, took part in the fighting in Chechnya in 1996 and 1999.
In 1999, due to financial difficulties, Prilepin leaves the service in the OMON and gets a job as a journalist in the Nizhny Novgorod newspaper "Delo". He published under many pseudonyms, the most famous of which is "Eugene Lavlinskiy". In 2000 he became editor of the newspaper. At the same time, Prilepin begins to work on his first novel, "The Pathologies".
"The newspaper, however, was horrible yellow and sometimes even reactionary, although it was part of the holding of Sergei Kiriyenko. And I realized that I spent a life for nothing – and began to write a novel. At first, it was a novel about love, but eventually (I worked three or four years), it has turned into a novel about Chechnya as about the most powerful experience of my life – as the saying goes, what we are doing always turns out to a Kalashnikov rifle."
Works by Prilepin were published in various newspapers, including in the "Limonka", "Literary Gazette", "The Edge", "General Line" as well as in the magazines "North", "Friendship of Peoples", "Roman-gazeta", " New World "," snob "," Russian pioneer "," Russian life. " He was the chief editor of the NBP Nizhny Novgorod "People's Observer". He participated in a seminar of young writers Moscow – Peredelkino (February 2004) and in IV, V, VI Forum of Young Writers in Moscow, Russia. He is a member of the ideological think tank the Izborsk Club.
Prilepin is a member of the banned Russian National Bolshevik Party a supporter of the coalition The Other Russia, took part in the organization of the Nizhny Novgorod March Dissenters 24 March 2007. In July 2012, he published a short essay titled "A Letter to comrade Stalin", a Stalinist critique aimed against modern Russian "liberal society", which was widely regarded as antisemitic.
The media repeatedly mentioned Prilepin's friendship with Vladislav Surkov. It was reported that Surkov and Prilepin grew up in the same city.
In February 2017, Prilepin announced the formation of a volunteer battalion in the self-proclaimed People's Republic of Donetsk; and claimed it would "ride on a white horse into any town we've abandoned." Prilepin said he was second in command with the rank of major in the illegal armed formation, and soon became an influential figure in this self-declared state. In July 2018 he returned "demobilized" to Moscow. Prilepin boasted that the subunit he commanded killed more Ukrainians than any other. He is wanted on terrorism charges in Ukraine, and was denied entry by Bosnia-Herzegovina for security reasons.
On 29 November 2018, he joined to the All-Russian People's Front. Because of this, he was excluded from The Other Russia political party by its founder Eduard Limonov, who earlier, together with party members, offered Prilepin to make his own choice in favor of one of the two political structures.
On 29 October 2019, he created the public movement "For Truth". He also admitted that the movement could be transformed into a political party that will participate in the 2021 legislative election.
Influences.
Prilepin admires Soviet novelist Leonid Leonov. Prilepin is the author of Leonov's biography.
Prilepin expressed that his favorite authors are Gaito Gazdanov, Romain Gary, Boris Zaytsev, Thomas Mann, Henry Miller, Anatoly Marienhof, Vladimir Nabokov, Eduard Limonov, Alexander Prokhanov, Jonathan Franzen, Mikhail Sholokhov. He lists among his favorite poetry the Silver Age of Russian Poetry, Latin American poetry and modern Greek poetry. Prilepin expressed that his favorite poet is Sergei Yesenin 
Personal life.
Prilepin is married and has two sons and two daughters. He lives in Nizhny Novgorod.