by Nicolai Lilin · Canongate Books Ltd · tapa blanda · ISBN 9781847677778
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«Siberian Education» is the memoir by Nicolai Lilin, published by Canongate Books Ltd in paperback (304 pages, in English).
The author recounts his childhood in a community of "honest criminals" in a remote region of the former Soviet Union. The Siberian Urkas had their own rituals and codes of honour, distrusted the state, and raised their children for violence. Lilin received his first knife at age six and was convicted of attempted homicide at twelve.
The original Italian title, «Educazione siberiana», was translated into English by Jonathan Hunt.
For readers of memoirs and true crime, with an interest in the former Soviet Union and organised crime.
Nikolai Yurievich Verzhbitsky, known as Nicolai Lilin, is an Italian‑Moldovan writer and tattoo artist from Transnistria. He moved to Italy in the early 2000s and published his first novel, Siberian Education, in 2009; it was later adapted into a 2013 film. The novel, which Lilin claimed was based on his own experiences as a member of a Siberian criminal gang in his native Bender, became a bestseller in Italy, though a number of journalists and historians have labelled it a fake memoir. Similar criticisms were directed at its sequel, Free Fall, which recounts the author's alleged experiences during the Second Chechen War.
