From Satirist to Best-Seller: The Kremlin’s Favorite Author?

Our editors have selected the 20 best in-depth articles, essays, and profiles of the year. One story examines a famous Russian writer’s puzzling success. Victor Pelevin first became popular in the 1990s. His early work used sharp satire to criticize authoritarian rule. Many of his fellow writers now face government censorship or have left Russia. Yet Pelevin still sells millions of books inside the country. This raises a difficult question: has the once-critical author become a supporter of the Kremlin? Read this and all our top long-form journalism of 2025 here.