Militia Romance

Zakhar Prilepin is a prose writer, publicist, musician, and holder of the "Big Book", "National Bestseller", and "Yasnaya Polyana" awards. Author of novels "The Abode", "Sankya", "Pathologies", "Black Monkey", cycles of short stories "Eights", "Sin", "Boots Full of Hot Vodka", and "Seven Lives", collections of publicistic works "Peresvet Is Coming", "Flying Burlaks", "Not a Foreign Unrest", "Platoon", "Some Will Not Make It to Hell".
"Militia Romance" is his first attempt at a non-publicistic, but artistic understanding of the war years lived in Donbas.

"Three steps from the border post, the land stretched, where no laws operated. The people living here obeyed no one from outside. Moreover, from the inside, they weren’t really governed by anyone either".

"He decided to go to Donbas quickly and unexpectedly for himself. He asked for leave from work; no one even inquired about Vostritsky's plans for the coming month.
Vostritsky went to Donbas to escape the ease of life, and also because the universe seemed to have squinted, twisted, and leaned to the side - and he didn’t like that".

"Field commander Razumny - unlike Lesentsov, local, from Donbas - perfectly reproduced the historical archetype that had existed before: he resembled a very good geography teacher who suddenly, when the seasonal apocalypse began, discovered within himself the ability to kill. Razumny tried to kill for a reason".

"Skrip was Kazakh by nationality, but a local. He was called Skrip because, in childhood, he not only engaged in boxing but also attended a music school".

"The mother came for the dead Piston. She took him to bury him in the village where he grew up, - not far, about thirty kilometers from their positions. Lyutik was surprised: how could such an unusual person, who read books and listened to strange music, grow up in a village. Lyutik thought Piston was urban".

"The Donbas war shaped him. Wrinkles appeared, lines of the hands, imprints of footsteps. He weathered, became tattered. He now knew the sound of his own voice for sure. In the middle of his face, eyes touched by steppe dust bloomed.
When Vostritsky, after 4 Donetsk years, accidentally saw his previous photographs - he almost felt nauseous: as if he was naked, white, and caught off guard everywhere there".

"Lesentsov knew the Commander for two weeks and one day. And it was an amazing two weeks. For them, it was worth living the previous forty years".

"Lesnik was Estonian on his grandmother's side, Khudoy had Tatar roots, and only Abrek turned out to be Russian. Twenty years ago, having served in the army, Abrek fell in love with military affairs, traveled to far hot spots under contract; and when the war began - he returned to the places where he grew up".

"The squad was commanded by an amazing guy, call sign - Artist. He could have served as a priest or lived in a hermitage: he radiated almost visible warmth, was exceedingly gentle, and always carried candies with him. The Artist was born somewhere here, in the Donbas steppes, then moved to Russia, - and when the war began, sharpened himself back".

"Out from Slavyansk came Dak, call sign. From Russian contract soldiers. He was resting at his aunt's village near Slavyansk - and when it started, he immediately went to the militia".

"They considered themselves carriers of a truth so substantial and important that their specific life became almost weightless against this background".