A] take-no-prisoners satire from one of Russia's literary stars . . . Vladimir Sorokin's lurid, wildly inventive Day of the Oprichnik is a rowdy critique of Russia's drift toward authoritarianism.” —Taylor Antrim, Newsweek The oprichnina ( Russian: опри́чнина, IPA: [ɐˈprʲitɕnʲɪnə]) was a state policy implemented by Tsar Ivan the Terrible in Russia between 1565 and 1572. The policy included mass repression of the boyars (Russian aristocrats), including public executions and confiscation of their land and property. In this context it can also refer to: [1] [2] Isabel De Madariaga, Ivan the Terrible: First Tsar of Russia (London: Yale University Press, 2005), 278–79; Andrei Pavlov and Maureen Perrie, Ivan the Terrible (London: Pearson Education Limited, 2003), 162–67. The noble’s hands are immediately tied, and a gag stuffed in his mouth. He’s pushed by his elbows out into the yard. And the wife . . . We’ll handle the wife in a merrier fashion. That’s the way it’s usually done. She’s tied to the butcher table.

Andrei Pavlov and Maureen Perrie, Ivan the Terrible (London: Pearson Education Limited, 2003), 143–45; S.F. Platonov, Ivan the Terrible, trans. Joseph L. Wieczynski (Gulf Breeze, FL: Academic International Press, 1986), 130. Isabel de Madariaga, Ivan the Terrible: First Tsar of Russia (London: Yale University Press, 2005), 364–65, 368–70. Finishing my prayers, I rise, leaning on Fedka again. I go to the bath. I wash my face in the well water Fedka has prepared with floating slivers of ice. I look at myself in the mirror. My face is slightly puffy, the flare of my nostrils covered with blue veins; my hair is matted. The first touch of gray streaks my temples. A bit early for my age. But such is our job—nothing to be done about it.

A Novel

Brother1997, his most famous movie is a parly crime drama, partly action movie about gun-toting Anti-Hero living and fighting in crime-ridden City Noir of Saint-Petersburg. Empire Earth's Russian campaign is set in the 2020s, where a young Mafiya enforcer with dreams of a restored Russia seizes power and eventually turns the country into an increasingly-fascist superpower before dying, giving control of the place to his robot bodyguard. It's probably my own shortcoming, but I get the sense that some of Sorokin's targets slipped by me . . . Or, to put that more positively, that Russian readers (or readers more well versed in the contemporary Russian scene), will get even more out of this. One bit that I particularly liked (which brought to mind an essay of Dubravka Ugresic's from Thank You for Not Reading and plays to my obsessions) was this bit about literature in New Rus:

In Behind the Thistle, people have burned their internal passports to show that now free under the Tsar while in Day of the Oprichnik people have burned their foreign passports to show that are now free from foreign influence. [17] In Krasnov's book the "Jewish Question" has been solved as "they [the Jews] no longer have the power to rule over us nor can they hide under false Russian names to infiltrate the government". [17] Likewise in Sorokin's novel, the "Jewish Question" has been solved as: "All this lasted and putrefied until the Tsar's degree-accordingly to which non-baptized citizens of Russia should not have Russian names, but names in accordance with their nationality. Thus our wise Tsar finally solved the Jewish question in Russia. He took the smart Jews under his wing-and the stupid ones just scattered". [17] In both the novels of Krasnov and Sorokin, every home has a television that only broadcasts the Tsar's daily speech to his subjects. [17] In both books, people watch patriotic plays at the theater, dance to the traditional music of the balalaika, listen to singers who sing only folk songs, and read newspapers beautifully printed in the ornate Russian of the 16th century, which have no editorials about any issue. [17] Mikhail Bakhtin in 1920. Much of The Day of the Oprichnik is influenced by Bakhtin's theories of the collective grotesque body In the rearview mirror I see my homestead receding. A good house, with a heart and soul. I’ve been living in it for only seven months, yet it feels as though I was born and grew up there. The property used to belong to a comrade moneychanger at the Treasury: Gorokhov, Stepan Ignatievich. When he fell into disgrace during the Great Treasury Purge and exposed himself, we took him in hand During that hot summer a good number of Treasury heads rolled. Bobrov and five of his henchmen were paraded through Moscow in an iron cage, then flogged with the rod and beheaded on Lobnoe Mesto in Red Square. Half of the Treasury was exiled from Moscow beyond the Urals. There was a lot of work . . . Isabel De Madariaga, Ivan the Terrible: First Tsar of Russia (London: Yale University Press, 2005), 182–83; Andrei Pavlov and Maureen Perrie, Ivan the Terrible (London: Pearson Education Limited, 2003), 112–13. Over the course of one day, Andrei Komiaga will bear witness to—and participate in—brutal executions; extravagant parties; meetings with ballerinas, soothsayers, and even the czarina. He will rape and pillage, and he will be moved to tears by the sweetly sung songs of his homeland. He will consume an arsenal of drugs and denounce threats to his great nation’s morals. And he will fall in love—perhaps even with a number of his colleagues. de Madariaga, Isabel (2005). "The Setting Up of the Oprichnina". Ivan the Terrible. Yale nota bene (reprinted.). New Haven: Yale University Press (published 2006). p.183. ISBN 9780300119732 . Retrieved 10 May 2019.

The New Russia in fiction

Walter Leitsch. "Russo-Polish Confrontation" in Taras Hunczak, ed. "Russian Imperialism". Rutgers University Press. 1974, p. 140 In 1564, Prince Andrey Kurbsky defected to the Lithuanians and commanded the Lithuanian army against Russia, devastating the Russian region of Velikiye Luki. You may also opt to downgrade to Standard Digital, a robust journalistic offering that fulfils many user’s needs. Compare Standard and Premium Digital here.

Spewing spittle and hoarse with passion, he screamed: Гойда , братья и сёстры , гойда ! Бойся, старый мир, лишённый истинной красоты, истинной веры, истинной мудрости, управляемый безумцами, извращенцами, сатанистами. Бойся , мы идём ! Гойда ! Гойда ! (Goida, brothers and sisters, goida! Be afraid, Old World, devoid of true beauty, true faith, true wisdom, ruled by maniacs, perverts, Satanists. Be afraid, we are coming! Goida! Goida!) Getting that reputation out of the way allows for his work to be appreciated for other reasons though, which will benefit his reputation (in this country at least) in the future. Day of the Oprichnik isn’t a bad book, in fact, it’s enjoyable to read—something that sounds odd to say when it’s a book featuring a sizable helping of destruction and violence. But Komiaga’s voice is compelling, and he serves the reader well in leading us through this new, perplexing world. The novel Day of the Oprichnik by Vladimir Sorokin imagines the return of the Oprichniki in a futuristic-theocratic Russia. [10] The Telegraph named this book one of the best for 2011 and the New York Review called Sorokin “[the] only real prose writer, and resident genius” of late-Soviet fiction”, just to give you an idea of what to expect. Day of the Oprichnik is deliciously complex, full of garish science fiction and hallucinogenic fish. Komiaga’s day might not be a typical one but it’s full of executions, parties, meetings, oracles, and even the Czarina. In fact, it's the first time I've read anything by a Russian writer who isn't pushing up daisies. It made me realise this: all the best Russian writers are in the land of the dead, and I'd much rather read a poorly translated Bulgakov or Nabokov when it comes to satire than a superbly translated Sorokin.The Oprichniki in The Grishaverse book series - and recent Netflix adaptation, Shadow and Bone - by Leigh Bardugo are based on, and named after the original Oprichniki, and make up the personal guard of the series' main antagonist, The Darkling. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/aleksandr-dugin-russia-ukraine-vladimir-putin-60-minutes-2022-04-12/ ↩ Aptekman, Marina (Summer 2009). "Forward to the Past Or Two Radical Views on the Russian Nationalist Future: Pyotr Krasnov's Behind the Thistle and Vladimir Sorokin's Day of the Oprichnik". The Slavic and East European Journal. 53 (2): 241–260.

Ivan IV agreed to return on condition that he might prosecute people for treason outside legal limitations. He demanded the right to execute and confiscate the land of traitors without interference from the boyar council or from the church. To pursue his investigations, Ivan decreed the establishment of the oprichnina (originally a term for land left to a noble widow, separate from her children's land). He also raised a levy of 100,000 rubles to pay for the oprichnina. [12] Organization [ edit ] Dead Man's Bluff, a very gory splatter-comedy about an incredibly dumb Bumbling Henchmen Duo hunting a MacGuffin for their mob boss (played by no one other than Nikita Mikhalkov), killing loads of people in process, often for very dumb reasons.

Rusija je opasana Velikim Zidom koji je deli od ostatka sveta u kome, između ostalih, žive arapski sajberpankeri, melanholici, prokleti budisti, pluralisti, megaonanisti i ko još sve ne.