About the Enlightener Prize

The Enlightener Prize is awarded to the best non-fiction book written in Russian. The Prize was established in 2008 by Dmitry Zimin, the founder and honorary president of VimpelCom, and by the Dynasty Foundation, a non-profit organization. Since 2016, the Prize has been supported by the Zimin Foundation.

The purpose of the Prize is to support Russian-speaking scientists and science journalists, who are able to talk simply and enthrallingly about the newest discoveries and research.

Annually, there are more than 150 books submitted into the competition. The Organizing Committee selects a long-list of 25 works in two categories: Humanities and Natural and Exact Sciences. After that, an independent jury selects eight short-listed books.

In 2017, the Enlightener Prize have celebrated its 10th birthday!

The Enlightener in numbers
11 years
20 laureates
> 1400 received books
> 400 lectures and discussions, attended by 40 000 people
10 000 books received by 100 libraries in Russia
6 festivals of the Enlightener Prize