From the author of the novel "The Monastery". The first book in the Russian Lessons series. Zakhar Prilepin is a public and political figure, a famous Russian writer, awarded the National Bestseller, Big Book and Yasnaya Polyana awards for topical journalism. "I had the opportunity to predict and describe this war several years before it began in 2014. Admittedly, this did not require either a developed intuition or the gift of a fortune teller. It was enough to look at what was happening with open eyes. Since 2014, I certainly knew that Russia would not be able to avoid participating in the Ukrainian civil war, and I tirelessly talked about it all those notorious eight years. That the conflict will not resolve, will not disappear, that it is necessary to prepare for it. I knew many of the people involved in this war, its heroes and its villains even before it all started. And when it started, I learned so much that I sometimes get scared of this knowledge myself. I have a lot to tell you." Zakhar Prilepin.