At least 259 books about the “special military operation” have been published in Russia during the war years. AST released the most

At least 259 books about the “special military operation” have been published in Russia during the war years. AST released the most

Since 2022, Russian publishers have released at least 259 books by Z-authors, with the highest number coming out in 2025 — 108, Verstka calculated.

In 2022, only four such works were published; in 2023 there were 21; in 2024, 62; and nearly as many have already been released this year — 59.

The largest number of books about the war in Ukraine was published by AST — according to Verstka’s calculations, at least 69. The publisher also owns two series devoted exclusively to the “special military operation” — “Time Z” and “Russian Reconquista.” Inside AST, there is also the KPD imprint, which focuses on “patriotic literature.”

The largest print run was for Sergei Lobanov’s poetry collection “Voice of the Front” — 20,000 copies, published by Veche. In second place was Daniil Tulenkov’s book “You Have No Other Us. Storm Z” — 18,000 copies.

“We carry out the tasks that others refuse. That’s our arrangement. In return, we receive pardons and early release,” says the annotation to Tulenkov’s book.

Most books about the “special military operation” are published in small print runs — from one thousand to three thousand copies. Of the 259 books found by Verstka, only 25 have a print run exceeding five thousand copies.

Read on Verstka’s website about how interesting Z-books are to publishers, who reads this kind of literature, and whether it is possible to speak of Z-authors taking over the book market (with VPN):

Link not working? Read here.

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Verstka

“It’s hard to fool the reader.” Who in Russia writes and reads books about the war in Ukraine

Since the beginning of the war, Russian publishers have released hundreds of books about the “special military operation”