The great-grandfather of the famous Russian writer Prilepin was called Zakhar Petrovich, a rare name for Soviet times. The young man took the call sign "Zakhar" during his business trips to the Caucasus as part of an OMON detachment. With this name, he signed under articles in the opposition newspaper "Limonka", performed with him on the music stage. It so "stuck" that many have already forgotten that at birth the popular writer was named Evgeny Nikolaevich.
Childhood and youth
Zakhar Prilepin was born in 1975 in the Ryazan region into a simple family. The father taught the children in history school, the mother worked as a nurse. A few years later, the family received an apartment in Dzerzhinsk, Nizhny Novgorod Region. The teenager started working early, as his father died. Mother alone had a hard time, she spent most of her time at the chemical plant, so her son's help was very helpful.
Service
After graduating from school, the young man moved to the regional center, from here he was drafted into the army. This was followed by a police school and service in the OMON. The rookie was distinguished by good physical fitness and high growth. In 1996 Prilepin ended up in Chechnya. Three years later, he happened to use weapons again in the armed conflict in Dagestan. The salary of the riot police was small, so they had to earn extra money as a security guard in nightclubs or as a handyman. All this time, the future philologist combined service with training at the University of Nizhny Novgorod.
Literature
In 1999, the graduate left the OMON and began his literary career. Collaboration with the newspaper "Delo" made him a popular journalist. He was published under various pseudonyms, the most popular was "Evgeny Lavlinsky". A year later, the novice writer headed the editorial board of the publication.
The first works of the writer were published by the newspaper "Literature Day" in 2003. Readers of the Literaturnaya Gazeta, the Roman-Gazeta, Novy Mir, and Aurora magazines got acquainted with his work. During this period, he created his debut novel "Pathology", which raised the theme of the Chechen war. The work was printed in fragments and was published in full only in 2005. This was followed by works: "Sankya", "Sin", collections "Shoes full of hot vodka", "I came from Russia", "Terra Tartarara". Many consider Zakhar to be the ancestor of modern military prose.
The fame of the writer grew every year. New works "Black Monkey", books "Eight", "Flying Barge Haulers" and "Not someone else's troubles" aroused great interest of the readers. The novel "Abode" was recognized as the leader in sales and the most popular book in Moscow libraries in 2015, and its author took second place in the rating "Writer of the Year in Russia". Soon he still managed to rise to the top step of the literary pedestal. The works of the popular author have been published in large editions in our country and translated into many languages of the world.
Politics
In 2004, Prilepin joined the Nizhny Novgorod National Bolsheviks and even became the head of their newspaper Narodny Observer. Soon Zakhar graduated from the School of Public Policy and became a co-founder of the People movement. He continued his opposition activities for all subsequent years. He took an active part in mass protest events with slogans about "the need to change the system" and "taking the country out of the political freeze." After the events in Crimea, the opposition leader announced a "personal truce" to the authorities. He explained this decision by the changes taking place in the country, he dreamed of them for two decades. In 2014, as a military commander, the writer personally visited the war zone in southeastern Ukraine, his notes were published in Komsomolskaya Pravda.
Journalism and TV
In the second half of the 2000s, there was an active period of Prilepin's journalistic activities. In Nizhny Novgorod, he headed the editorial staff of Novaya Gazeta and the Svobodnaya Pressa website. At various times he was published in Ogonyok, Novaya Gazeta, Izvestia. In 2013, the Prilepin program was aired on the Dozhd radio station. The author's programs of the writer were brought to the judgment of the viewers by the TV channels "NTV", "Ren-TV" and "Tsargrad".
Music and cinema
The writer tried himself in the role of a rap artist, starred in the video of the group "25/17". In 2011, Prilepin created the Elefank group, the guys recorded three albums. In the musical biography of Zakhar, there are several joint works with popular Russian rock performers.
He made his film debut in 2012 in Inspector Cooper. The following year, director Alexei Uchitel offered the writer a small role in the film adaptation of his novel "The Eight". According to the creator of the picture, the aspiring actor has demonstrated exceptional comedic talent.
How does he live today
The personal life of a celebrity remains in the shadows. It is known that he is married and is the father of three sons and a daughter. He met his wife Natalya while studying at NSU, they got married in their third year.
Not trusting the media too much, he refuses interviews and invitations to television. Having devoted most of his time to literary creation, Zakhar delighted his fans with the new collection “Platoon. Officers and militias of Russian literature. The book is dedicated to the biographies of Russian writers who distinguished themselves on the battlefield.
Zakhar lives on the means earned by his labor. Following Christian principles, he is generous in donating to charity for affected families. The writer dreams of holding a rock festival in Donbass and seeing this region flourishing again.
