Nicolai Lilin: Violenza utile?

Abstract

Raised in the criminal ghetto of Bender in Transnistria at the periphery of the former Soviet empire and then a sniper in the special units of the Russian army in Chechnya, the writer Nicolai Lilin narrates his own story and reflects on his tragic experience that is entirely immersed in violence: from the archaic ritualism of his originary community, of Siberian legacy and sustained by the respect toward a strict code of honor, up to the terrible slaughtering of the Caucasian war and the wild environment of the first years of the new Russia during the break-down of the USSR. “Had I not been raised among the outlaws, I would probably not have been able to survive the horrors of Chechnya,” writes Lilin, who does not deny his love of weapons and the quasi-cult of “criminal” tattoos. “Violence is part of life and the worst violence, that is, war, ultimately unmasks the hypocrisy of the world.”