Anatoly Kucherena

Anatoly Kucherena is a Russian lawyer and writer whose fiction draws on questions of surveillance, state power, and personal conscience. Time of the Octopus presents a political thriller shaped by his conversations with Edward Snowden after Snowden arrived in Moscow. The novel centers on Joshua Kold, who is held in an underground facility and questioned by an interrogator known as the Professor. Their exchanges gradually disclose a life connected to secret information and the consequences of challenging powerful institutions. Glagoslav Publications issued the English edition, translated by John Farndon with Akbota Sultanbekova and Olga Nakston, in 2017. Time of the Octopus uses fiction rather than a documentary structure, allowing Kucherena to explore secrecy, isolation, and moral pressure through invented characters. The title’s octopus image suggests systems whose reach is difficult to see from inside them. Kucherena’s legal background gives the story a particular interest in custody, testimony, responsibility, and the uncertain boundary between public duty and private judgment.