“Tra cinque anni, questi lettori saranno soldati”: la letteratura russa che incoraggia gli adolescenti ad arruolarsi

From the article

> ‘Z literature”, a subgenre of Russian fantasy fiction characterised by nationalistic, pro-war storylines, has been on the rise since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began three years ago and may be pushing young readers towards enlisting in combat.

> Z literature – named after the “Z” symbol of support for the invasion – often features popadantsy, or “accidental travel” narratives, involving a protagonist being transported to pivotal moments in Russia’s past and using modern knowledge to intervene and alter history in Russia’s favour.

> “Providing a powerful strain of jingoistic nostalgia, these narratives satisfy readers’ yearning for the lost superpower status by rewriting the past,” according to Mediazona, the independent Russian news outlet which reported on the boom in Z literature in May.

> “They offer a binary world of hateful foreigners and wonderful Russians – or at least, Russians who become great after learning the lessons of experience,” he said.

> Books falling in the Z literature subgenre, according to Mediazona, include Crimean Cauldron by Nikolai Marchuk, in which Ukrainians are portrayed as Nazis and the whole world has turned against Russia, and White Z on the Front Armour by Mikhail Mikheev, about a Russian agent who enters Ukraine after the full-scale invasion begins and apprehends a western spy.

> “The market is clearly young and male, but what is stunning is the coarseness. It would be funny if it were not really real. [The books] are tapping into a terrible appetite for destruction, deep yearnings for revenge and a strange view of the Russians as a kind of herrenvolk, a unique people. One source of this mythology is the belief that second world war victory was almost entirely of Russian authorship,” said O’Shaughnessy.

Good thing young men who read and make good soldiers are not going to fill up an army roster any time soon

Imagine trying to bolster enlistment through *reading* in Russia. What, are they using coloring books?

And many of them will be brainwashed Ukrainian children that were kidnapped from occupied territories.