Vladlen Tatarsky
Владлен Татарский
Tatarsky in 2021
Born
Maxim Yuryevich Fomin[lower-alpha 1]

(1982-04-25)25 April 1982
Makiivka, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union
Died2 April 2023(2023-04-02) (aged 40)
Saint Petersburg, Russia
Cause of deathBomb explosion
Resting placeTroyekurovskoye Cemetery
Occupations
  • Blogger
  • propagandist
AwardsOrder of Courage (posthumous)

Maxim Yuryevich Fomin[lower-alpha 1] (25 April 1982 – 2 April 2023), better known as Vladlen Tatarsky,[lower-alpha 2] was a Ukrainian-born Russian military blogger, convicted bank robber, and participant in the Russo-Ukrainian War.[1]

He was active as a propagandist for Russia and the separatist forces in Ukraine until he was assassinated in a bombing in Saint Petersburg in April 2023.[2][3]

Prison and war

Fomin, who was born in 1982 in Makiivka, Donetsk Oblast, held Ukrainian and later Russian citizenship.[4] He was of Tatar descent on the side of his mother, Ravilya Ibragimova.[5][6] In 2011, he was imprisoned in Ukraine for bank robbery.[4] While the war in Donbas broke out, he broke out of prison and joined the military of the Russia-backed Donetsk People's Republic.[4] Later, he was caught and eventually imprisoned again.[4]

Fomin was pardoned by Alexander Zakharchenko, the head of the Donetsk People's Republic, and was given the opportunity to fight against the Ukrainian army alongside the Vostok Battalion during the war in Donbas.[7][4] His nom de guerre was "Professor".[8] After serving in the military, around 2017, he started blogging under the pseudonym Vladlen Tatarsky.[4] The name is an allusion to both Lenin (Vladimir Lenin)[9] and Russian satirist Victor Pelevin's 1999 novel, Generation "П", where the name of the protagonist is Vavilen Tatarsky (Babylen Tatarsky in the English translation).[8][10] This Tatarsky is an advertising copywriter who is enlisted to write copy at an ad agency, where he adapts Western advertising to the "Russian mentality".[11]

Reflecting on the war in Donbas, Fomin wrote that "thousands of Russian officers" had served in the region since October 2014, thereby contradicting the official Russian position that the Russian Federation was not involved militarily in mainland Ukraine before 2022.[12] Tatarsky lived in Moscow from 2019 until his death in 2023.[7]

Telegram channel

Tatarsky was a prominent figure among the Russian military bloggers, a group known for their uncompromising support of the Russo-Ukrainian War.[2] The popularity of his Telegram significantly increased after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, reaching over 560,000 by the time of his assassination. He was also invited to political shows on the state television.[8] Tatarsky was known for his hardline views, criticising Russian military commanders and Vladimir Putin for being too soft in their approach.[2] The Institute for the Study of War characterised him as a "prominent" military blogger, but not exceptionally so. While he maintained ties to the Wagner Group and its founder Yevgeny Prigozhin, he did not also alienate supporters of Vladimir Putin.[3]

In 2016 and 2017, Tatarsky's blogging was mostly interviews with field commanders and events on the front line, where he quite openly wrote about alcohol and drug abuse as well as looting among Russian soldiers in Donbas.[13] He may have introduced the term "orcs" to describe fighters on both sides.[13] In 2022, he was invited to write for RT and became a co-host with Mikhail Zvinchuk ("Rybar") at Vladimir Solovyov's analytical show "Rybar's Analysis". During that period his position became aligned with the official line of the Kremlin.[13] He was more optimistic than many other pro-Russian writers on Telegram—for example, he believed Russia could keep control of Kherson.[13]

As a blogger, Tatarsky called for more attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure which would result in more Ukrainian casualties.[4] He regularly referred to Ukraine as a "terrorist state" and advocated for its defeat.[14] In one infamous video, he was recorded saying, "We'll defeat everyone, we'll kill everyone, we'll rob everyone we need to. Everything will be the way we like it." The video was recorded at the Kremlin, to which Tatarsky had been invited to attend Putin's announcement of "partial mobilization" on 30 September 2022.[7] Tatarsky also produced jihadist propaganda, likely also for the pro-war cause.[3]

Due to his views and involvement in the conflict, Tatarsky was sanctioned by Ukraine.[14] He was banned from entering the country for ten years, and any assets belonging to him that were found in Ukraine were confiscated.[14] Despite these sanctions, Tatarsky continued to promote his views and beliefs through his blog and social media channels.[14]

Death

On 2 April 2023, Tatarsky was killed in an explosion while attending an event hosted at a café in Saint Petersburg as a guest speaker.[15] His death was caught on video.[16] Twenty-four others were injured, six of them critically, according to Russian authorities.[15] The café was reportedly owned by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Russian businessman with close ties to the Kremlin and head of the paramilitary Wagner Group.[17][18] A Saint Petersburg resident, Darya Trepova, was considered a suspect by the Investigative Committee of Russia.[19][20] According to investigators, she had brought to the café a box with a bust of Tatarsky, in which an explosive device was hidden.[20] On 3 April, she was arrested.[21][22]

Following the incident, Margarita Simonyan, Tina Kandelaki, and Anton Krasovsky blamed Ukraine for the attack and called for retaliation.[7][23] Prigozhin suggested that Ukrainian state actors are not responsible, and Ukrainian Mykhailo Podolyak attributed the bombing to Russia.[3] The Institute for the Study of War assessed that the bombing may act as a warning to other Russian commentators to temper their criticism of the conduct of the war, or to intimidate Wagner-aligned actors who could pose threats to Putin, and may serve the Kremlin's goal of controlling the information space.[3]

Legacy

The day after his assassination, Putin posthumously awarded Tatarsky the Russian state Order of Courage.[24]

The burial took place on 8 April 2023 at Moscow's Troyekurovskoye Cemetery.[25]

In July 2023, it was reported that a new militia bearing Tatarsky's name saw combat around the town of New York, Ukraine.[26]

See also

  • Darya Dugina – Russian pro-war activist killed in an explosion (d. August 2022)
  • Igor Mangushev – assassinated Russian mercenary and propagandist (d. February 2023)
  • Andrey Kurshin - Milblogger doxxed for making a joke about Tatarsky's death

Notes

  1. 1 2 Ukrainian: Максим Юрійович Фомін; Russian: Максим Юрьевич Фомин; in this name that follows Eastern Slavic naming conventions, the patronymic is Yuryevich and the family name is Fomin.
  2. ↑ Russian: Владлен Татарский; Ukrainian: Владлен Татарський.

References

  1. ↑ Drummond, Michael (2 April 2023). "Pro-war Russian military blogger killed in blast at St Petersburg cafe". Sky News. Archived from the original on 2 April 2023. Retrieved 2 April 2023.
  2. 1 2 3 Trevelyan, Mark; Light, Felix (2 April 2023). "Russian military blogger killed in explosion in St Petersburg, media report". Reuters. Archived from the original on 2 April 2023. Retrieved 2 April 2023.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Stepanenko, Kateryna; Kagan, Frederick W. (2 April 2023). "Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, April 2, 2023". Institute for the Study of War. Archived from the original on 3 April 2023. Retrieved 3 April 2023.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Huliychuk, Dmytro (2 April 2023). "Beglyy zek, stavshiy 'voyenkorom': chto izvestno o pogibshem propagandiste Vladlene Tatarskom" Беглый зек, ставший "военкором": что известно о погибшем пропагандисте Владлене Татарском ["A fugitive convict who became a 'military correspondent': what is known about the deceased propagandist Vladlen Tatarsky"]. TSN (in Russian). Archived from the original on 2 April 2023. Retrieved 2 April 2023.
  5. ↑ Beresnev, Valery; Fatkhullina, Nuria (3 April 2023). "В Киеве именно этих людей считают носителями идеологии СВО": как взрывали Владлена Татарского ["In Kyiv, namely these people are considered the bearers of the ideology of the special military operation": how Vladlen Tatarsky was blown up]. Business Online (in Russian). Archived from the original on 3 April 2023. Retrieved 5 April 2023.
  6. ↑ Drannikova, Alina (3 April 2023). "'Deystvitel'no lyubil Rossiyu': mat' Vladlena Tatarskogo rasskazala o syne" "Действительно любил Россию": мать Владлена Татарского рассказала о сыне ["Really loved Russia": Vladlen Tatarsky's mother spoke about her son]. Moika78 (in Russian). Archived from the original on 4 April 2023. Retrieved 5 April 2023.
  7. 1 2 3 4 "'War blogger' Vladlen Tatarsky killed in explosion in a Petersburg cafe". Meduza. 2 April 2023. Archived from the original on 2 April 2023. Retrieved 2 April 2023.
  8. 1 2 3 "Rabotal na shakhte. Zanimalsya biznesom. Kriminalom. Sidel" Работал на шахте. Занимался бизнесом. Криминалом. Сидел [Worked in a mine. Engaged in business. In crime. Imprisoned]. Meduza (in Russian). 3 April 2023. Archived from the original on 3 April 2023. Retrieved 3 April 2023.
  9. ↑ Mokiyenko, Valeri; Nikitina, Tatyana [in Russian] (1998). Tolkovyy slovar' yazyka Sovdepii Толковый словарь языка Совдепии [Explanatory Dictionary of the Language of Sovdepiya] (in Russian). Saint Petersburg: Folio-Press. ISBN 5-7627-0103-4. Archived from the original on 4 April 2023. Retrieved 4 April 2023.
  10. ↑ Günther, Hans (January 2013). "Post-Soviet emptiness (Vladimir Makanin and Viktor Pelevin)". Journal of Eurasian Studies. 4 (1): 100–106. doi:10.1016/j.euras.2012.10.001. S2CID 146352942. The hero of Viktor Pelevin's novel Generation 'P' (first edition 1999), former litterateur Vavilen Tatarskii, studied in the Literary Institute. As distinct from Petrovich in Underground, however, after the fall of Soviet power he becomes—in accordance with the carnivalesque relativism of postmodern poetics—an unbridled cynic. He changes literature into an advertising business and sees the task of the 'copywriter' and 'creator' as that of 'adapting Western advertising concepts to the mentality of the Russian consumer' (p. 33).5 His first name, Vavilen, is a composite of elements from 'Vasilii (Aksenov)' and 'Vladimir Il'ich Lenin.' However, he retroactively explains it by citing his father's enthusiasm for the myth of ancient Babylon; subsequently, he completely transitions to being called Vova or Vladimir. Thus the changes of the hero's name in this novel obviously reflect the transition from the Soviet era to the post-Soviet one.
  11. ↑ Clover, Charles (2022). Black Wind, White Snow: Russia's New Nationalism. Yale University Press. pp. 242–243. ISBN 978-0-300-26925-3. Archived from the original on 2 April 2023. Retrieved 2 April 2023. The corruption and commercialization of the intelligentsia and their New Russian clients became a target for one of Russia's funniest satirists, Viktor Pelevin, whose 1999 breakout novel Generation P – which told the story of an advertising copywriter named Vladlen Tatarsky, who is recruited to work at an ad agency, adapting Western advertising to the 'Russian mentality' – best expressed this bewilderment at the transformation of the country into a consumer paradise. Indeed, in reality, for the average Muscovite the landscape of the capital had changed little in the half-decade since the end of communism – aside from the replacement of the dominating symbols of Soviet power (the statues of Lenin, Marx and Dzerzhinsky) with large billboards and neon-lit signs.
  12. ↑ "'Yazyk do truny dovede': zhurnalist nazvav ymovirnu prychynu smerti Tatars'koho" "Язик до труни доведе": журналіст назвав ймовірну причину смерті Татарського ["The tongue will lead to the coffin": the journalist named the probable cause of Tatarsky's death]. apostrophe.ua (in Ukrainian). 2 April 2023. Archived from the original on 2 April 2023. Retrieved 2 April 2023.
  13. 1 2 3 4 "'The Russian idea is war' What we know about the war blogger Vladlen Tatarsky and the Kremlin's likeliest response to his murder". Meduza. Translated by Razumnaya, Anna. 3 April 2023. Archived from the original on 4 April 2023. Retrieved 4 April 2023.
  14. 1 2 3 4 Matsievskaya, Olga; Minkin, Anatoly (18 January 2023). "Resheniya Ukrainy ravny ogranicheniyam ot IGIL. Vladlen Tatarskiy — o vvedennykh protiv nego sanktsiyakh" Решения Украины равны ограничениям от ИГИЛ. Владлен Татарский — о введенных против него санкциях [Ukraine's decisions are equal to the restrictions from ISIS. Vladlen Tatarsky – about the sanctions imposed against him]. 360° (in Russian). Archived from the original on 2 April 2023. Retrieved 2 April 2023.
  15. 1 2 Peter, Laurence; Ivshina, Olga (2 April 2023). "Vladlen Tatarsky: Killing of pro-Kremlin blogger investigated as murder". BBC News. Archived from the original on 2 April 2023. Retrieved 3 April 2023.
  16. ↑ Brown, Lee; Farberov, Snejana (4 April 2023). "Video shows pro-Putin blogger being blown up with suspected assassin nearby". New York Post. Retrieved 6 April 2023.
  17. ↑ "V kafe na Universitetskoy naberezhnoy progremel vzryv, soobshchayut ochevidtsy. Ofitsial'noy informatsii poka net. Nashi korrespondenty uzhe na meste. Izvestno, chto ran'she kafe prinadlezhalo Yevgeniyu Prigozhinu. Zdes' v vykhodnyye sobirayetsya diskussionnyy klub 'Kiber Z front'" В кафе на Университетской набережной прогремел взрыв, сообщают очевидцы. Официальной информации пока нет. Наши корреспонденты уже на месте. Известно, что раньше кафе принадлежало Евгению Пригожину. Здесь в выходные собирается дискуссионный клуб "Кибер Z фронт" [An explosion occurred in a cafe on Universitetskaya Embankment, eyewitnesses report. There is no official information yet. Our correspondents are already there. It is known that earlier the cafe belonged to Yevgeny Prigozhin. The discussion club "Cyber Z Front" gathers here at the weekend.]. Fontanka SPB Online (in Russian). 2 April 2023. Archived from the original on 2 April 2023. Retrieved 2 April 2023 – via Telegram.
  18. ↑ "Pri vzryve v Peterburge pogib bloger Vladlen Tatarskiy, soobshchil istochnik" При взрыве в Петербурге погиб блогер Владлен Татарский, сообщил источник [Blogger Vladlen Tatarsky died in an explosion in St. Petersburg, a source said]. RIA Novosti (in Russian). 2 April 2023. Archived from the original on 2 April 2023. Retrieved 2 April 2023.
  19. ↑ "Podozrevayemaya v ubiystve voyenkora Tatarskogo zaderzhana" Подозреваемая в убийстве военкора Татарского задержана [Suspected in the murder of the military commander Tatarsky detained]. Interfax (in Russian). 2 April 2023. Archived from the original on 2 April 2023. Retrieved 2 April 2023.
  20. 1 2 Tyshchenko, Kateryna (2 April 2023). "Russian media: St Petersburg woman detained on suspicion of murdering propagandist". Ukrainska Pravda. Archived from the original on 3 April 2023. Retrieved 3 April 2023.
  21. ↑ "SKR soobshchil o zaderzhanii Dar'i Trepovoy po podozreniyu v prichastnosti k vzryvu v peterburgskom kafe" СКР сообщил о задержании Дарьи Треповой по подозрению в причастности к взрыву в петербургском кафе [ICR announced the arrest of Daria Trepova on suspicion of involvement in the explosion in a St. Petersburg cafe]. Interfax Russia (in Russian). 3 April 2023. Archived from the original on 3 April 2023. Retrieved 3 April 2023.
  22. ↑ Serkov, Dmitry; Demchenko, Natalia (3 April 2023). "Ob"yavlennuyu v rozysk po delu Tatarskogo devushku zaderzhali" Объявленную в розыск по делу Татарского девушку задержали [A girl put on the wanted list in the case of Tatarsky was detained]. RBK (in Russian). Archived from the original on 3 April 2023. Retrieved 3 April 2023.
  23. ↑ "Explosion in Russian cafe kills long-time Russian military blogger, injures 15". NBC News. Associated Press. 2 April 2023. Archived from the original on 2 April 2023. Retrieved 2 April 2023.
  24. ↑ "Putin awards Vladlen Tatarsky Order of Gallantry posthumously". Meduza. 3 April 2023. Archived from the original on 3 April 2023. Retrieved 3 April 2023.
  25. ↑ "Hundreds Turn Out for Funeral of Assassinated Russian Military Blogger". The Moscow Times. Agence France-Presse. 8 April 2023. Retrieved 12 April 2023.
  26. ↑ Stepanenko, Kateryna; Bailey, Riley; Mappes, Grace; Wolkov, Nicole; Barros, George; Kagan, Frederick W. "Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, July 2, 2023". Institute for the Study of War. Retrieved 6 July 2023.
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