The longlists for Dmitry Zimin’s prizes, Enlightener and Enlightener.Translation, have been published. This year, the Organizing Committee selected 51 the best popular science books, both written in Russian and translated into Russian from other languages. The longlist for the PolitProsvet, a special category of the Enlightener Prize, was also revealed this week. This year’s longlist includes 15 books that delve into social and political trends pertinent to contemporary Russia. The list comprises books that provide insight into almost every aspect of daily news––from Russian-American relations and the paradoxes of Iranian autocracy to scandals within the Russian Orthodox Church.

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The longlist for the 18th season of the Enlightener Prize includes: 

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1. Haim Ben Yakov. “Suitcase, Train Station, Israel: On the History of Anti-Semitism in the USSR” –– London: Freedom Letters, 2024.
2. Denis Boyarinov, Lyalya Kandaurova. “The Firm. The 100 Records of Melodia Sound Studio” –– Moscow: COMPOSER Publishing House, 2024.
3. Maxim Vinarsky. “The Dead Lion: Posthumous Biography of Darwin and His Ideas” –– Moscow: Alpina Non-Fiction, 2024.
4. Nina Voronina. “Think Like a Japanese: How Japanese Culture Teaches Us to Hear Ourselves” –– Moscow: Bombora, 2025.
5. Alexander Gorbachev*. “He Saw the Sun: Yegor Letov and His Era” –– Moscow: Vyrgorod, 2025.
6. Nikolay Gorkavy. “The Pulsing Universe” –– St. Petersburg: Piter, 2024.
7. Vyacheslav Dubynin. “The Brain: Food and Novelty. Why We Are Drawn to the New and Tasty” –– Moscow: Bombora, 2024.
8. Konstantin Yerusalimsky. “The Emperor of Holy Russia” –– Moscow: New Literary Observer, 2025.
9. Vladimir Ivashkov. “Everything About Breasts. A Guide to the Body’s Outstanding Part” –– Moscow: Alpina Publisher, 2024.
10. Yevgeny Koblik. “The Fishing Birds” –– Moscow: Fiton XXI, 2023.
11. Maria Kovshova, Maxim Krongauz. “Laugh With a Reason: The Language and Mechanisms of the Comical in the New Genres of Internet Poetry – A Monograph” –– Moscow: Discourse, 2024.
12. A group of authors (compiled by Lev Oborin). “A Shelf: The History of Russian Poetry” –– Moscow: Alpina Non-Fiction, 2025.
13. Valeriya Kosyakova, Dmitry Pozdnyakov. “Contemporary Art: Modernism” –– Moscow: AST Publishing House, 2024.
14. Ivan Krivushin. “100 Days to the Rule of Frenzy: The Rwandan Genocide of 1994” –– Moscow: Publishing House of the Higher School of Economics, 2024.
15. Sergey Kudryavtsev, Sergey Mamet, Yuri Zhuravlev. “Terrarium: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow” –– Moscow: Fiton XXI, 2025.
16. Alexey Levin. “Sketches About Particles: From X-Ray Photons to the Higgs Boson” –– Moscow: KMK Fellowship of Science Publications, 2024.
17. Mikhail Pavlovets. “New Avant-garde in Russian-Language Poetry: Second Half of the 20th – Beginning of the 21st Century” –– Moscow: Publishing House of the Higher School of Economics, 2025. 
18. Nadezhda Pankova. “On Boars, Beavers, and Muskrats” –– Moscow: Albus Corvus, 2025.
19. Anton Pervushin. “The Science of Aliens. How Scientists Explain the Possibility of Life on Other Planets” –– Moscow: Bombora, 2024.
20. Alexander Raevsky. “I Understood Japan: From Dragons to Pokemon” and “The Roots of Japan: From Tanuki to Kabuki” (two books) –– Moscow: AST Publishing House, 2023, 2025.
21. Danil Ryabchikov. “Seeking Refuge in Medieval Music: A Guide for a Modern Listener” –– Moscow: Lyod publishing house, 2025.
22. Alexey Safronov. “The Big Soviet Economy: 1917–1991” — Moscow: Individuum, 2025.
23. Tim Skorenko. “Mars Rover, Harmonica, Magnetic Resonance Tomography: The History of Armenian Inventive Thought” –– Moscow: Slovo, 2024.
24. Maxim Tkachenko. “Roman Popes: Men in White, from Pius IX to the Present Day” –– Moscow: AST Publishing House, 2025.
25. Yaroslav Shimov, Andrey Shary. “For Nation and Order! Central Europe and the Balkans Between the World Wars” –– Chișinău: The Historical Expertise, 2025.

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The following books were chosen for the longlist of the 6th season of the Enlightener.Translation Prize:

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1. Giorgio Agamben. “Pinocchio: A Philosophical Analysis” / Translated from Italian by Marina Kozlova; academic editor Stanislav Mukhamedzhanov –– Moscow: Lyod publishing house, 2024.
2. Anthony Bale. “A Travel Guide to the Middle Ages: The World Through Medieval Eyes” / Translated from English by Ilya Kriger; academic editor Stanislav Mereminsky; editor Lev Danilkin –– Moscow: Alpina Non-Fiction, 2025.
3. John Guy, Julia Fox. “Hunting the Falcon: Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn” / Translated from English by Irina Nikitina; editors Svetlana Levenzon, N. Galaktionova –– Moscow: CoLibri, Azbuka-Attikus, 2024.
4. David Graeber, David Wengrow. “The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity” / Translated from English by Konstantin Mitroshenkov; academic editor Grigory Vinokurov; editors Sergey Steblev, Alexander Basov –– Moscow: Ad Marginem Press, 2025.
5. Ferris Jabr. “Becoming Earth: How Our Planet Came to Life” / Translated from English by Vlada Asadulaeva; academic editor Margarita Remizova; editors Maryana Terekhova, Elizaveta Solodovnikova, Galina Nazarova –– Moscow: CoLibri, Azbuka-Attikus, 2025.
6. Peter Zeihan. “The End of the World Is Just the Beginning: Mapping the Collapse of Globalization” / Translated from English by Mikhail Belogolovsky; editor Valeriya Bashkirova –– Moscow: Alpina Publisher, 2025.
7. Jakob von Uexküll. “A Foray into the Worlds of Animals and Humans: With A Theory of Meaning” / Translated from German by Polina Zapadalova; editor Philipp Fomichev –– Moscow: Ad Marginem Press, 2025.
8. Jamie Kreiner. “The Wandering Mind: What Medieval Monks Tell Us About Distraction” / Translated from English by Valentina Ionova; editors Ilona Yakimova, Maryana Terekhova, Elizaveta Solodovnikova –– Moscow: CoLibri, Azbuka-Attikus, 2024.
9. Dominic Lieven. “In the Shadow of the Gods: The Emperor in World History” / Translated from English by Yevgeniya Fomenko; editor Alexandra Lavrenova –– Moscow: CORPUS, 2024.
10. Thomas Mann. “Listen, Germany! Collection of Radio Broadcasts, 1940-1945” / Translated from German by Igor Ebanoidze; editor A. Sukhobok –– St. Petersburg: Ivan Limbach Publishing House, 2024.
11. Friedrich Meineke. “Die deutsche Katastrophe. Betrachtungen und Erinnerungen” / Translated from German by Nikolai Vlasov; editor Irina Kravtsova –– St. Petersburg: Ivan Limbach Publishing House, 2024.
12. Michel Pastoureau. “Le Corbeau. Une histoire culturelle” / Translated from French by Denis Golovanenko; academic editor Mikhail Maizuls; editor Pavel Zdeshnev –– Moscow: Lyod Publishing House, 2025.
13. Donald Prothero. “The Story of the Earth in 25 Rocks: Tales of Important Geological Puzzles and the People Who Solved Them” / Translated from English by Yevgeny Ponikarov; academic editor Mikhail Girfanov; science advisor Olga Smirnova; editor Victoria Sagalova –– Moscow: Alpina Non-Fiction, 2025.
14. Mary Roach. “Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law” / Translated from English by Galina Borodina; editor Oleg Bocharnikov –– Moscow: Alpina Non-Fiction, 2025. 
15. Mark Solms. “The Hidden Spring: A Journey to the Source of Consciousness” / Translated from English by Maria Yelifyorova; academic editors Daniil Markov, Anton Kuznetsov; editor Valentina Bologova –– Moscow: Alpina Non-Fiction, 2025. 
16. Ian Stewart. “What's the use? How mathematics shapes everyday life?” / Translated from English by Natalia Lisova; academic editor Konstantin Knop, editor Vyacheslav Ionov –– Moscow: Alpina Non-Fiction, 2024.
17. David Toomey. “Kingdom of Play: What Ball-bouncing Octopuses, Belly-flopping Monkeys, and Mud-sliding Elephants Reveal about Life Itself” / Translated from English by Maria Yelifyorova; editor Olga Volkova –– Moscow: CORPUS, 2025. 
18. Peter Turchin. “End Times: Elites, Counter-Elites and the Path of Political Disintegration” / Translated from English by V. Zhelninov. — Moscow: AST Publishing House, 2024.
19. Stephen Westaby. “Surgeons, Saints and Psychopaths: The Epic Story of Heart Surgery” / Translated from English by Olga Lyashenko; academic editor Mikhail Nikitin; editor Daria Abanina –– Moscow: CORPUS, 2024.
20. Paul Halpern. “The Allure of the Multiverse: Extra Dimensions, Other Worlds, and Parallel Universes” / Translated from English by Alexander Sergeev; academic editor Anton Sheikin; editor Oleg Bocharnikov –– Moscow: Individuum, 2025.
21.  Guo Hao, Li Jianming. “The Color Aesthetics in the Forbidden City. Chinese Traditional Colors” / Translated from Chinese by Kirill Batygin; editors Irina Muzyka, A. Niktovenko, Anna Chernyakhovskaya –– Moscow: CoLibri, Azbuka-Attikus, 2025.
22. Dina Khapaeva. “Putin’s Dark Ages: Political Neomedievalism and Re-Stalinization in Russia” / Translated from English by Dmitry Prokofiev; editors Lyuba Yurgenson, Stephanie Cirac –– Paris: Eur’Orbem, 2025.
23. Jeff Chang. “Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation” / Translated from English by Alexey Aleev; academic editor Alexey Tsarev; editors Valeriya Trushchenko, Daria Baltrushaitis –– Moscow: Ad Marginem Press, 2025.
24. Judith Shchalansky. “Atlas of Remote Islands: Fifty Islands I Have Never Set Foot On and Never Will” / Translated from German by Marina Kedrova; editors Maryana Terekhova, Elizaveta Solodovnikova, Margarita Bushueva –– Moscow: CoLibri, Azbuka-Attikus, 2024.
25. Govert Shilling. “The Elephant in the Universe: Our Hundred-Year Search for Dark Matter” / Translated from English by Andrey Dambix; editor Pavel Zdeshnev –– Moscow: Lyod Publishing House, 2025.

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The longlist for the PolitProsvet-2025 prize includes:

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1. Sergey Aleksashenko*. “Chance: America –– Russia, a Window of Opportunity” –– Almaty: Book Echo publishing house, 2025.
2. Sergey Bondarenko. “Lost in Memory: Memorial Society and the Fight for the Past in Russia” –– Almaty: Ricochet, 2025.
3. Olesya Gerasimenko*. “Don’t Shut Your Eyes: Journalist at War and in Emigration” –– Berlin: Freedom Letters, 2025.
4. Grigory Golosov. “Power in Uniform: Military Regimes in the Contemporary World” –– Moscow: Alpina Publisher, 2025.
5. Ivan Zuenko. “China in the Era of Xi Jinping” –– Moscow: AST Publishing House, 2024.
6. Heinrich Kirschbaum. “Revolution of Patience: Belarusian Bricolage” –– Tel Aviv: Publishing House of the Babel Bookstore, 2025.
7. Andrey Kolesnikov*. “The New World (Dis)Order: Waiting for the End of History” — Kust Press, 2024.
8. Team Against Torture*. “Anatomy of Decay: Why and How Human Rights Stopped Being Valued in Modern-day Russia” — Nizhny Novgorod: Team Against Torture, 2024.
9. Kseniya Luchenko*. “Good Intentions: Russian Orthodox Church and Authority from Gorbachev to Putin” –– Almaty: Book Echo publishing house, 2025.
10. Mikhail Nemtsev. “Me Too: Works on Moral and Political Philosophy” — St. Petersburg: Ivan Limbach Publishing House, 2025.
11. Vladimir Pastukhov*. “Telegram-Style War: 500 Days of Catastrophe. March 1, 2022––July 23, 2023: Philosophical Diary” — Kust Press, 2024.
12. Konstantin Pakhalyuk*. “Notes of a Foreign Agent: Articles on History, Culture, and Z-militarism (2023-2024)” — Chișinău: The Historical Expertise, 2025.
13. Nikita Smagin*. “Iran to All: Paradoxes of Life in a Sanctioned Autocracy” — Moscow: Individuum, 2025.
14. Yefim Sorkin. “After the Exodus: Russia Without Europe” — Kust Press, 2024
15. Sergey Shelin*. “Intriguing Russia: 228 Answers” — London: Freedom Letters, 2024.

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* Listed in the register of foreign agents by the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation

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The shortlists for the Enlightener prizes will be made public before October 1.  The Enlightener Award was established in 2008 by Dmitry Zimin and operates with support from the Zimin Foundation.

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Photo: Ana Paula Feriani Pixabay

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