Kurdish Policy Analysis

By Dr. Pshtiwan Faraj

Sulaimani, Iraqi Kurdistan — 28 May 2026 

From Kremlin-backed “Z-poetry” to antimemetic science fiction and queer multiverse narratives, the global battle for power is increasingly being fought through stories, memory, and cultural mythology.

As Russia turns literature into a tool of wartime propaganda and Western sci-fi explores memory, identity, and parallel realities, fiction is becoming one of the most important geopolitical battlegrounds of the 21st century.

By Dr. Pshtiwan Faraj

Sulaimani, Iraqi Kurdistan — 28 May 2026 

For decades, military strategists believed the future of conflict would be decided by drones, cyberwarfare, artificial intelligence, and economic sanctions. They were only partially correct.

The deeper war — the one increasingly shaping political legitimacy, national identity, and public psychology — is being fought through stories.

Across Russia, Europe, and the United States, literature and speculative fiction are rapidly transforming into instruments of ideological competition. From Kremlin-backed “Z-poetry” glorifying the Ukraine war to Western science fiction obsessed with memory collapse, parallel universes, and identity fragmentation, fiction is no longer merely entertainment. It is becoming a geopolitical weapon.

The battlefield of the 21st century is increasingly psychological, cultural, and existential.

And novels may matter more than missiles.

Russia’s Militarization of Literature

At the 2026 St. Petersburg International Book Fair, Russia showcased what may be the clearest example yet of literature’s transformation into state-directed wartime infrastructure. The fair featured nationalist author Zakhar Prilepin, pro-war correspondents, military poetry performances, and narratives explicitly supporting Moscow’s war in Ukraine. Security checks, bomb-sniffing dogs, and ideological loyalty became part of the literary experience itself.

What once was a cosmopolitan literary gathering attended by European intellectuals has become something closer to a cultural mobilization platform. The Kremlin increasingly understands something many Western governments still underestimate: stories create strategic endurance.

Wars are not sustained by ammunition alone. They are sustained by myths. Russian wartime literature now serves several critical functions:

• legitimizing sacrifice,
• normalizing militarization,
• preserving regime narratives,
• and creating a civilizational identity built around existential struggle against the West.

This mirrors Soviet cultural doctrine during World War II, where literature, cinema, and poetry were mobilized to reinforce patriotic cohesion. But modern Russia has added a postmodern twist: today’s propaganda is emotionally immersive rather than purely ideological.

The rise of “Z-poetry” — wartime verse romanticizing battle and martyrdom — demonstrates how culture is being weaponized to emotionally anesthetize society against prolonged war fatigue.

At the same time, anti-war writers have largely been exiled, censored, or erased from bookstores. Independent publishers increasingly self-censor under pressure from Russian authorities. The result is not simply censorship. It is the construction of an alternative reality.

For centuries, Russia has understood something many modern governments forget: culture is power.

From the imperial poetry of Alexander Pushkin to Soviet propaganda novels during World War II, literature has long served as a political instrument in Russian statecraft. But as the war in Ukraine drags into its fourth year, the Kremlin is accelerating the transformation of culture into a weapon of ideological mobilization.

The 2026 St. Petersburg International Book Fair offered one of the clearest examples yet of this shift. Once known as a cosmopolitan literary gathering attended by European intellectuals and international publishers, the fair has increasingly become a showcase for wartime nationalism, pro-Kremlin propaganda, and militarized patriotism.

At the center of the event stood nationalist writer Zakhar Prilepin, one of Russia’s most prominent pro-war literary figures and a vocal supporter of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Crowds gathered to hear him present his latest work while patriotic slogans and wartime symbolism dominated the atmosphere.

Security itself reflected the new reality. Visitors passed through bomb checks and police screenings before entering literary spaces that increasingly resembled political mobilization platforms rather than cultural festivals.

The symbolism was unmistakable: literature is no longer merely art in modern Russia.

It is infrastructure for war.

The Rise of “Z-Literature”

One of the most striking developments at the fair was the growing visibility of “Z-poetry” and pro-war fiction. The “Z” symbol, which emerged as a military marking on Russian armored vehicles during the invasion of Ukraine, has evolved into a broader ideological emblem representing loyalty to the Kremlin’s war effort.

Today, the symbol appears not only on tanks and propaganda posters, but inside novels, poetry collections, children’s books, and patriotic performances.

This new wave of “Z-literature” serves several strategic purposes.

First, it normalizes war as a permanent condition of Russian national life. Rather than portraying conflict as tragic or temporary, many pro-war writers frame the Ukraine conflict as a civilizational struggle between Russia and a hostile West determined to destroy Russian identity.

Second, it glorifies sacrifice and militarism. Heroic soldiers, martyrdom, and patriotic endurance dominate these narratives, echoing Soviet-era wartime literature that helped sustain public morale during World War II.

Third, it creates emotional legitimacy for the Kremlin’s geopolitical agenda. Governments cannot rely on censorship and repression alone to sustain long wars. They also require myths, symbols, and stories capable of emotionally binding society together.

The Kremlin increasingly understands that narrative control is as important as battlefield control.

A Return to Soviet Cultural Doctrine

Russia’s cultural militarization is not entirely new.

The Soviet Union heavily relied on literature, poetry, cinema, and theater to reinforce state ideology. During Stalin’s era, Socialist Realism became the official artistic doctrine, demanding that writers glorify workers, sacrifice, and loyalty to the Soviet state.

Authors who deviated from official narratives faced censorship, exile, imprisonment, or death.

Modern Russia has not fully recreated Soviet-style totalitarian cultural control, but the parallels are becoming increasingly visible.

Independent voices face growing pressure, while anti-war writers and journalists are marginalized, censored, or forced into exile. Since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, many prominent Russian intellectuals have fled the country amid tightening restrictions on dissent.

At the same time, state-approved nationalism is rewarded with visibility, publishing opportunities, and political protection.

This reflects a broader strategic doctrine emerging inside Russia: the belief that culture must serve state survival during geopolitical confrontation.

Information Warfare Beyond the Battlefield

Russia’s weaponization of literature also reflects the changing nature of modern warfare itself.

In the 21st century, conflicts are no longer fought solely through tanks, missiles, or economic sanctions. They are increasingly fought through narratives, emotions, memory, and identity.

The Kremlin’s cultural strategy aims to shape how Russians interpret the war, the West, and Russia’s role in history.

Within this framework:

• Ukraine is portrayed as a Western puppet state,
• NATO becomes an existential threat,
• and Russia becomes a besieged civilization defending traditional values against moral collapse.

Literature plays a critical role in reinforcing this worldview because stories shape collective psychology more effectively than political speeches alone.

A novel can humanize sacrifice.
A poem can romanticize suffering.
A myth can justify war.

This is why authoritarian governments often prioritize cultural control during periods of instability.

Why Literature Still Matters

Many Western observers underestimate the geopolitical significance of literature in the digital age. In an era dominated by TikTok, AI, and short-form content, books may appear politically irrelevant.

Russia disagrees.

The Kremlin recognizes that culture creates long-term psychological endurance. Military victories may win battles, but narratives sustain societies through prolonged crises.

This explains why Russian authorities continue investing heavily in patriotic education, historical revisionism, and wartime symbolism.

The literary sphere has become part of a broader ideological ecosystem that includes:

• television propaganda,
• social media campaigns,
• school curricula,
• religious nationalism,
• and state-directed historical memory.

Together, these systems reinforce a single political message: Russia is engaged in a historic civilizational struggle requiring unity, sacrifice, and obedience.

The Future of Cognitive Geopolitics

The militarization of Russian literature also signals a broader global trend: the rise of cognitive geopolitics.

States increasingly compete not just for territory or economic power, but for control over perception itself.

China promotes nationalist technological optimism.
Iran weaponizes martyrdom culture and resistance narratives.
Western societies export identity politics and liberal values through entertainment media.

Russia’s contribution to this emerging global landscape is wartime cultural nationalism.

The danger is that prolonged ideological mobilization can reshape societies permanently. Once culture becomes fully subordinated to political conflict, dissent becomes betrayal and art becomes propaganda.

History shows that such transformations rarely end quickly.

The St. Petersburg Book Fair therefore represented more than a literary event.

It revealed how modern authoritarian states are adapting culture for an age of permanent geopolitical confrontation.

And in today’s world, stories may be as strategically important as weapons themselves.

The Rise of Narrative Sovereignty

Modern geopolitical competition is increasingly about controlling “narrative sovereignty” — the power to define reality itself.

Russia is not alone in understanding this.

China frames technological competition as a civilizational struggle against Western decline. Iran constructs resistance mythology around martyrdom and anti-imperialism. Western democracies increasingly frame politics through identity narratives centered on inclusion, trauma, and historical reckoning.

Every major power now competes not only for territory or resources, but for control over meaning.

This explains why science fiction has become politically important again.

Historically, science fiction flourished during periods of systemic anxiety:

• the Cold War,
• the nuclear age,
• the post-9/11 security era.

Now it is resurging amid fears of AI dominance, social fragmentation, surveillance capitalism, and civilizational instability.

And today’s speculative fiction reveals something profound about Western psychology.

Unlike Soviet-era sci-fi focused on technological triumph or imperial expansion, contemporary Western speculative fiction is increasingly obsessed with:

• fractured identity,
• unstable memory,
• collapsing truth,
• and parallel realities.

That is not accidental.

It reflects the psychological condition of late-stage liberal societies.

The Politics of Forgetting

One of the most striking recent examples comes from the novel There Is No Antimemetics Division by qntm, explored recently by Scientific American. The novel imagines entities and ideas that erase themselves from human memory — threats people literally cannot remember long enough to fight.

On the surface, it is cerebral science fiction horror.

Underneath, it is a metaphor for modern information warfare.

The novel’s central premise — that dangerous ideas become powerful precisely because societies cannot coherently perceive them — mirrors real geopolitical dynamics:

• algorithmic propaganda,
• disinformation saturation,
• attention fragmentation,
• and ideological exhaustion.

In many ways, modern societies already suffer from “antimemetic” collapse.

Citizens are overwhelmed with information yet increasingly incapable of constructing stable collective truths.

Reality itself becomes unstable.

The geopolitical implications are enormous.

A fragmented society loses strategic cohesion. It struggles to sustain long-term policy, national sacrifice, or institutional trust. Under such conditions, authoritarian systems often gain comparative advantage because they can impose narrative discipline more effectively than decentralized democracies.

This is one reason Russia and China increasingly portray liberal societies as weak, decadent, and psychologically disoriented. Not militarily weak. Cognitively weak.

Modern science fiction is no longer obsessed only with aliens, robots, or space travel. Increasingly, the genre is turning inward — toward the fragility of the human mind itself.

In There Is No Antimemetics Division, the latest novel by writer qntm, reviewed recently by Scientific American, the central threat is not a monster humanity can see or even fully understand. Instead, the danger comes from “antimemes” — ideas or entities that erase themselves from memory and become impossible to remember, describe, or even perceive properly.

The novel imagines a secret government agency fighting invisible existential threats that vanish from human awareness moments after being encountered. Characters struggle against enemies they cannot retain in memory, forcing them to rely on systems, notes, and rituals simply to survive.

The result is both science fiction and psychological horror.

But beneath the novel’s bizarre premise lies something much deeper: a reflection of modern society’s growing fear that reality itself is becoming unstable.

According to qntm, an “antimeme” is the opposite of a viral idea. While memes spread rapidly through culture and social media, antimemes resist transmission. They are forgotten, ignored, suppressed, or impossible to communicate effectively.

This concept resonates strongly in the modern digital era.

Today’s societies are overwhelmed with information, yet people increasingly struggle to maintain coherent understanding. Social media algorithms fragment attention spans, misinformation spreads faster than institutions can respond, and political polarization creates parallel realities where different groups no longer agree on basic facts.

The novel transforms these anxieties into literal monsters.

Scientific American noted that the book explores how memory and meaning can become “malleable,” raising existential questions about how societies survive when perception itself cannot be trusted.

The story also carries geopolitical implications.

Modern information warfare increasingly focuses not simply on convincing populations, but on confusing them. States and political movements often flood digital spaces with contradictory narratives, emotional manipulation, and psychological exhaustion. The goal is less about creating belief than destroying consensus altogether.

In this environment, truth becomes difficult to hold onto.

That idea sits at the center of qntm’s novel.

The book’s terrifying creatures symbolize problems humanity struggles to confront in real life:

• ignored political extremism,
• hidden technological risks,
• cognitive decline,
• and dangerous ideas festering unnoticed until they become catastrophic.

The novel also touches on themes connected to mental illness and memory disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease. qntm explains that losing one’s “critical faculties” is one of the deepest fears explored in the story.

What makes the novel particularly unique is its blend of scientific reasoning with horror storytelling. qntm, who also works as a software developer, approaches fiction like a systems engineer, asking how societies would realistically adapt to impossible phenomena.

This reflects a broader trend in modern science fiction.

Unlike older sci-fi centered on technological optimism, contemporary speculative fiction increasingly explores cognitive collapse, fractured realities, and the instability of identity itself. In many ways, these stories reveal more about present-day fears than future technologies.

Because the greatest modern fear may no longer be invasion from outer space.

It may be humanity losing its ability to understand reality at all.

Parallel Universes and Identity Fragmentation

Another emerging trend in speculative fiction is the explosion of “parallel universe” narratives. The queer speculative work No God But Us explores multiversal identities, fractured belonging, and competing versions of selfhood. The story reflects a growing cultural fascination with alternate realities, overlapping identities, and nonlinear existence.

This trend is not politically neutral. Parallel-universe fiction reflects a civilization increasingly unable to agree on a single .

The modern obsession with parallel universes is no longer just a science-fiction trend. It is becoming a cultural diagnosis.

From Hollywood films to speculative novels, the idea of multiple realities, fractured identities, and alternate versions of ourselves has exploded in popularity during a period marked by political polarization, digital fragmentation, and existential uncertainty. The queer speculative narrative No God But Us, recently highlighted by Xtra Magazine, captures this transformation with striking precision, using parallel universes as a lens to explore identity, belonging, and emotional survival in a rapidly destabilizing world.

At first glance, multiverse fiction appears escapist. In reality, it reflects the psychological condition of the modern era.

The rise of “parallel reality” storytelling comes at a time when societies increasingly struggle to maintain a shared understanding of truth. Social media algorithms divide populations into ideological bubbles. Political camps consume entirely different versions of reality. Artificial intelligence accelerates information overload while weakening consensus about what is real, authentic, or trustworthy.

In many ways, modern life already feels like a multiverse.

Science itself has contributed to this cultural fascination. Theories surrounding quantum mechanics, cosmic inflation, and the possibility of a multiverse have moved from academic physics into mainstream culture. Some physicists argue that parallel universes could theoretically exist through concepts like eternal inflation or quantum branching, though definitive evidence remains absent.

But fiction has transformed these scientific ideas into something emotional and political.

In No God But Us, parallel universes become metaphors for identity itself: different selves, different histories, different emotional realities existing simultaneously. This resonates particularly strongly with younger generations navigating digital identities, social fragmentation, and rapidly changing norms around gender, community, and belonging.

The title itself carries symbolic weight.

“No God But Us” suggests a world where traditional structures of meaning — religion, nationalism, institutions, even objective truth — are weakening. In their place emerges something more unstable: self-created realities shaped by personal experience and emotional perception.

This mirrors broader geopolitical and cultural trends across the West.

The post-Cold War era was built on assumptions of liberal consensus and universal narratives. That consensus is now collapsing under the pressure of culture wars, algorithmic polarization, and declining institutional trust. Citizens increasingly inhabit parallel political realities where facts themselves become contested territory.

As a result, speculative fiction is evolving into the literature of fragmentation.

Unlike older science fiction focused on technological progress or space exploration, modern speculative narratives often revolve around:

• fractured memory,
• unstable identity,
• emotional isolation,
• and overlapping realities.

These themes reflect a civilization struggling to define itself amid rapid technological and social transformation.

The geopolitical implications are significant.

Authoritarian states such as Russia and China increasingly emphasize centralized national narratives, cultural discipline, and ideological cohesion. Meanwhile, many Western societies are moving toward hyper-individualized identity structures where collective narratives weaken over time.

This creates a growing global competition not just over military or economic power, but over narrative stability itself.

Stories matter because they shape how societies understand reality.

That is why multiverse fiction has become so influential. It captures the anxiety of an era where people increasingly feel disconnected from a single coherent world. The question is no longer whether alternate realities exist in physics.

It is whether modern societies can still survive politically and psychologically without a shared reality at all.

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