Literary Prize “The Big Book” published Shortlisted for the award in 2026.
The nominees in the non-fiction category were:
- Sergei Belyakov “Two Brothers: Valentin Kataev and Evgeny Petrov on the Ship of Soviet History”;
- Lev Danilkin “Madama Palace”;
- Andrei Plakhov, “Tarkovsky and Us: A Memoir of Collective Memory”;
- Roman Senchin “Alexander Tenyakov: Man and Personality”;
- Alexander Snegirev “From the mother’s side.”
In the “Fiction” category, the shortlist included the following:
- Kolya Andreev “Vesklyan”;
- Vera Bogdanova “The Kingdom of Heaven is Mine”;
- Elena Dolgobyat “Facial Features”;
- Mikhail Ilizarov “Yudol”;
- Alexey Kolesnikov “Zakrebchik”;
- Anna Luzbina “Kruga”;
- Sergei Nosov “Dostoyevsky’s Bells: Notes of a Mad Literary Critic”;
- Zakhar Prilepin “Thoma”;
- Margarita Simonyan “In the beginning was the word – and in the end there will be a number”;
- Sergey Shargunov “Popovich”.
Among others, the shortlist included a novel by RT propaganda editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan. On April 22, when the Big Book Board of Experts published the longlist for the award, there were 29 books and names in the fiction category. This is exactly the number of works and their authors that were named by the Chairman of the Council, writer Andrey Astvatsaturov during the live broadcast of the list announcement. Simonyan’s book was not in it. But soon a list of 30 applicants was published on the Big Book’s website and Telegram channel. At the same time, the telegram publication was edited and Simonyan’s book appeared in it.
Prize director Tatiana Voskovskaya later stated that the line with Simonyan’s book was initially on the list of nominees, but disappeared from it in preparation for the press conference in which the long list was announced.
Margarita Simonyan’s book “In the beginning was the word – in the end there will be a number” was published in July 2025 by the AST Publishing House. This is a novel that talks about what will happen to humanity in 60 years and how the end of the world will be. The publisher claimed that the book was written “in full accordance with Bible prophecies.”