in modern warfare, so he censors the footage before it is sent to the network and makes himself a television celebrity. Ian Smith - US news reporter sent by the network to film Xavras' actions. Because of his Polish descent and linguistic abilities, he is the network's natural choice after the previous reporter attached to Wyżryn was killed in action. Raised in a democratic country, he has moral doubts about Xavras and considers his brutal methods no better than the Soviet ones. The story is told from his point of view. Jewriej (English: Yevrey) - Xavras' mysterious aide and advisor, with his face hidden behind a Balaclava, because of his alleged disfigurement, the result of mutation. It is said that radiation gave him precognition abilities and that Xavras is using them to escape Russian ambushes and to plan his actions. Sienkiewicz's Triple - Three trusted companions of Xavras, who took their names (Michał, Andrzej and Jan) after the characters from the books of Henryk Sienkiewicz. Their missions are mostly undercover and they can almost literally disappear. It is they who lead Smith to Xavras' hideout. Two Bodyguards - Xavras' guards, which are named by Ian after the biblical quotes printed on their T-shirts, because he does not know their real names and they look like twin brothers: "Another Horse Came Out, a Fiery Red One" (Revelation 6:4) and "The Sea Gave Up the Dead" (Revelation 20:13). Their fighting skills are exceptional and they are Xavras' most trusted soldiers. Analysis One of the author's inspirations was the First Chechen War; Xavras's guerrillas fighting against Soviet forces resemble Chechens battling with the Russian Army. The novel was analyzed in the context of the nuclear weapon motif in literature. Other threads of the work that received literary commentaries concern, among others, national and religious symbolism, the morality of terrorism and the role of the media in shaping public opinion. The novel has also been described as historiosophic, concerned with the great man theory. Piotr Przytuła wrote that Xavras Wyżryn is a story about how pop culture appropriates and transforms historical figures. The main character of the novel, Xavras Wyżryn, is a character referring to Polish 19th-century romantic national liberation traditions, but at the same time, a terrorist using nuclear weapons, described as "the ayatollah of [...] Catholic jihad". Critics debate whether the story is patriotic or antipatriotic. As in the Chechen conflict, neither