prosperous. In order to do it, he adopts Islam as the new state religion instead of Russian Orthodoxy. Such a theme was considered unacceptable at that time. No Russian publisher dared to release this novel, despite the unprecedented commercial success of The Three from the Forest several years before, so the first edition of Rage and its two sequels was printed and distributed by Nikitin at his own cost. Neologisms Several words invented by Nikitin are now used in Russian language, especially on the web. Baim (Russian: байма) – a computer game, especially a MMOG. First used in The Baimer, this term subsequently appears in many other “strange novels” and also in The Reply (Baimer), a collection of short stories by Sergey Sadov. Nikitin explained his reasons to invent this word as the necessity to give the robustly developing industry of computer games its own name, like the term “cinematography” was introduced to replace the old-fashioned “motion picture photography.” Einastia (Russian: эйнастия) – a philosophical (or maybe religious) doctrine developed by Oleg, the protagonist in The Three from the Forest cycle. Einastia is mentioned in several books of the series but its essence is never described and hence remains an issue of debate among Nikitin's fans. The author prefers not to answer direct questions about the meaning of this word. Usians (Russian: юсовцы, derived from the USA) – a pejorative term used by some characters in the Strange Novels cycle to denote a sort of people, particularly (but not necessarily) in the present-day USA, who have a range of distinctive negative features, including: Adherence to “universal values”, often understood primitively; Devil-may-care attitudes towards other people; Following a set of principles like “self comes first,” “don't be a hero” etc. Personal life Nikitin has two children of his first marriage, which ended with his wife's death. In 1990, he met Lilia Shishikina, an experienced bookseller, and she became his business companion and common-law wife. For several years she was in charge of "Ravlik". On May 22, 2010, Nikitin married Lilia during a small ceremony at their home in Red Eagles (Russian: Красные Орлы), a cottage settlement near Moscow. Only their closest friends were invited. Nikitin is fascinated with new technologies: he monitors the hi-tech news thrice a day, has six computers at home and many electronic devices, which he upgrades and changes for newer models regularly. He also loves to play