Enlightener Prize

The Enlightener Prize (Prosvetitel Prize in Russian) was established in 2008 by Dr Zimin and is awarded annually to the best non-fiction popular science book written in Russian.

The Enlightener means the person who brings knowledge to everyone. So the purpose of the Prize is to support Russian-speaking scientists and science journalists who are able to discuss the latest discoveries and research in a clear and interesting way.

More than 150 books are submitted to the competition every year. The organizing committee selects a long list of 25 works in two categories: humanities and natural and exact sciences. Then, an independent jury selects a short list of eight books. In 2017 The Enlightener Prize  celebrated its 10th anniversary.

Enlightener Prize – is not only about public recognition and material rewards for the winners and finalists. Some of the submitted books are purchased and sent to libraries: every year, 100 libraries receive books written by the prize winners and finalists. And the authors themselves give public lectures.

The books entered in the competition must meet the following requirements:

they must be non-fiction works on any topic

they must have been written originally in Russian

they must be currently on sale (not second-hand), regardless of the publication date

manuscripts that are in the process of publishing at the markup stage are accepted as well

manuscripts that are in the process of being published (at the markup stage) may be accepted as well

Each book may be submitted to the competition only once, regardless of whether it competed in the form of a marked-up manuscript or as a published book.