This is an extract from Three Years on Fire by Andrey Kurkov, shortlisted for the Orwell Prize for Political Writing 2026. Find out more about the book here, and get your copy here.
27.08.2024
Moths, Cockroaches and a “Nobel Prize”
During a missile attack in Kharkiv the other day, a man carried a large, rolled-up carpet out of his apartment building and hung it on a horizontal bar in the yard. He then proceeded to attack it with a carpet-beater. This simple action attracted the attention of dozens of neighbours who, instead of running to a bomb shelter or hiding in their hallways, chose to record the process on their mobile phones. The video instantly spread across social networks and raised the spirits of people who were sheltering from another ferocious attack. I saw it too and I could not help but smile. In the cleaning of a carpet during an air raid, I recognised something more than an open challenge to the Russian aggressors. There was great irony in this action.
When Putin served in the K.G.B., he earned the nickname “Moth” because he was very inconspicuous and, of course, physically small. For house-proud Soviet people carpets were a status symbol. They hung them on their walls and defended them from moths by any means possible. The most popular practice was carpet beating, but a chemical agent called naphthalene was a trusted ally in the fight. I still remember its rather unpleasant smell being omnipresent in Soviet apartments.
Another enemy that invaded the homes of Soviet people was the cockroach. This pest had to be combated even more vehemently than the moth. Against cockroaches, no weapon was entirely successful, and they remained a blight on Ukrainian homes long after independence. When my wife and I purchased an apartment for our growing family in the mid-1990s, it was filled with them. The place had to be fumigated for three days before renovation work could begin.
The cockroaches lived primarily in the kitchen and the bathroom, but you could find them in bedrooms too. They lodged under the furniture, beneath the parquet, under the wallpaper. Perhaps aptly, “Cockroach” is the nickname of the illegitimate President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko. This is how the Belarusian people depict him in their caricatures – the nasty pest of which they cannot rid themselves.
Perhaps it is not surprising that the Russian “Moth” and the Belarusian “Cockroach” have united against pro-European Ukraine. These pests are desperate to drag our country back into the miserable Soviet past, filled with censorship, fake ideology and the daily battle against moths and cockroaches.
On August 26, while a resident of Kharkiv was beating his carpet, Russia targeted Ukraine with 127 missiles and 109 drones, continuing the attack for more than ten hours. This must have been the most wide-ranging assault since the war began. Two missiles were shot down over the usually safe region of Zakarpattia. The Russian army tries to avoid this area so as not to upset Putin’s friend, Hungarian Prime Minister Orban. Thanks to Ukrainian air defence, there were no casualties in Zakarpattia, and no drones or missiles entered Hungarian airspace. However, one drone flew into Polish airspace and there were casualties in fifteen Ukrainian regions, including Kyiv.
Summer is ending dynamically and in blazing heat. We seem to be heading towards a peak in the recent escalation. Without giving any details, Putin’s press secretary Peskov announced that Putin had come up with a way to respond to Ukraine’s seizure of part of Kursk region. Reprisal attacks were expected on August 24, Ukraine’s Independence Day, but they came two days later and seem to herald the beginning of a wave of attacks that will continue into the autumn, accompanied by all kinds of manoeuvres by Russia and its ally Belarus.
On August 25, we looked tensely towards the Belarusian border where Belarusian troops and equipment as well as detachments of Russian Wagner Group mercenaries had gathered. Some form of provocation was expected and the Ukrainian government demanded that President Lukashenko withdraw all forces from the border, but the attacks came from inside Russia and the territory of annexed Crimea.
On August 24, Ukraine’s Independence Day, Russia carried out a pinpoint shelling with high-precision missiles, targeting the Sapphire Hotel in Kramatorsk frequented by foreign and Ukrainian journalists. A Reuters security consultant, British citizen Ryan Evans, was killed and the agency’s Ukrainian cameraman was seriously wounded. Five other journalists suffered minor injuries.
We have a catalogue of these precisely aimed strikes, the victims of which are civilians, primarily journalists and prominent public figures. A year ago, a similar missile destroyed a pizzeria in Kramatorsk, where Ukrainian writer Victoria Amelina was fatally wounded. A group of Latin American journalists and writers who were with Amelina miraculously escaped without serious injury. Earlier still, a Russian missile had hit the platform of Kramatorsk train station, where hundreds of city residents were waiting for an evacuation train. About 70 civilians were killed, mostly women and children.
In these targeted attacks, Russia is still trying to assassinate people who are known for their pro-Ukrainian and pro- European positions. A Russian missile recently hit the home of the president of Kharkiv University, Tetyana Kaganovska. She was not in the house. Soon afterwards, a missile hit the home of a well-known Kharkiv businessman and volunteer, Yuriy Sopronov. He and his family were out, but the building was destroyed. Ilya Ponomarev, the former Deputy of the Russian State Duma who fled to Ukraine, was less fortunate. An Iranian drone loaded with 40 kilograms of explosives flew straight into the window of his home near Kyiv. Ponomarev suffered multiple shrapnel injuries but survived.
The regular use of missiles and drones for these pinpoint operations may seem strange, but it is part of a Soviet tradition and proof of the K.G.B.’s hand in the planning of this war. The K.G.B.’s operating principle can be summed up in four words: “No person – no problem!” It would, however, be a mistake to assume that nobody in Russia’s political elite thinks of anything except the eradication of Ukrainians who motivate their country to fight for independence and a European future. Russia continues to enjoy a Kafkaesque cultural and social life based on the “fundamental values” of Russian Orthodoxy which gives Russia the praise for all positive developments and shuns interference from foreign influences. At the same time, Russia craves the prestige of some aspects of Western culture, always manipulating them to highlight Russia’s glory. For example, even before the war, the Russian State Duma forbade the use of the term “Champagne” for any beverage except Russian sparkling wine. France did not protest and began to sell its beverage as sparkling wine. A less well-known example of this phenomenon involves a “Nobel Prize”. In mid-August, a “Nobel Prize” delegation arrived in the capital of Chechnya to award the honour to the Head of the Chechen Republic, Hero of Russia Ramzan Kadyrov. No, it was not a group from the Swedish Academy. It was a delegation from the committee that hands out the Ludvig Nobel Prize which was invented in Russia in 2005 so that Russian V.I.P.s could feel good about themselves.
Ludvig Nobel was the older brother of Alfred. When he was eleven years old Ludvig moved to St Petersburg with his father, who built several factories there and was involved in the oil industry and the development of the railways. His father returned to Sweden, but Ludvig remained with his brother Robert, and became a prominent figure in the world of engineering and business.
In the small mountain village of Sterc-Ketch, Chechnya, the only monument to the Nobel brothers in Russia was unveiled in 2020. The location boasts a “Nobel Trail” – a 3.5-kilometre trail to the oil field discovered by Ludwig Nobel and his business team. Perhaps this is why Ramzan Kadyrov became a laureate of the fake “Nobel Prize”. By the way, President Putin received this prize in 2008, but it is not known exactly what he received it for. While Ramzan Kadyrov is happy to call himself a Nobel laureate, his forces continue to participate in military operations within Ukraine and in Kursk region of the Russian Federation.
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Evacuation trains are once more travelling from Donbas to western Ukraine, particularly from Pokrovsk, a city that is only ten kilometres from the front line – and that distance is getting shorter. The trains are overcrowded, and the refugees evacuate with heavy hearts and very few belongings. Almost everything is left behind, including furniture and carpets. At the same time, carpets are travelling in the opposite direction. In Zakarpattia, volunteers are calling on local residents to bring their old carpets to collection points where they are checked for moths, cleaned and sent east, to Donbas, Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia regions. It may be hot now, but the cold weather is approaching. The dugouts and fortifications along the front line must be made more comfortable for soldiers. More than 300 carpets were recently dispatched from the town of Mukachevo. They will cover the beaten-earth floors of fortifications and dugouts. This will be the carpets’ last heroic role, the final use for this former cult object of Soviet life.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian farmers and smallholders are digging up potatoes, harvesting grain and seeking the best storage opportunities to keep their produce fresh until the spring. Life in Ukraine continues as Russia’s full-scale aggression ploughs past its first 900 days.
(c) Andrey Kurkov
Explore the full list of 2026 Orwell Prize finalists, and read further extracts from the books, here.