Internet sensation! For years, Svetlana Bogacheva’s “Russian Billy Milligan” fooled her victims by immersing them in a world of invented characters. In late 2022, Russian internet exploded over the story of stand-up comedian Tanya Shchukina: the girl confessed she had been a victim of her friend Svetlana Bogacheva. For three years, Tanya lent her huge sums for treatment, looked after her around the clock, talked with her doctor, psychotherapist, and her “adopted daughter,” and provided support after the death of her loved ones.
In reality, none of these people, illnesses, or events existed—Svetlana had invented 11 virtual personas to bind her victim to herself, create a fictional reality around her, and completely control her life. To maintain her legend, Svetlana—the doctor by profession—falsified medical documents, caused fractures to herself, and with injections induced necrosis.
Over the three years of friendship, Svetlana surrounded Tanya with a fictional reality, took control of her finances, ruined her health and psyche, isolated her from friends, and forced her to emigrate. Tanya Shchukina’s book is an incredible and frightening story about how systematically an impostor can turn your life into a living nightmare—even if before that you were sure: “Nothing like that could happen to me.”
DANILA POPECHNY (recognized in Russia as a foreign agent) stand-up comedian: “If I hadn’t been a direct participant in the events, I’d have thought the author was embellishing things! An unbelievably unbelievable story that the whole Internet was buzzing about—and that really happened to my friend.”
ALEKSANDR NEZLOBOIN, stand-up comedian: “When I first heard this story, I immediately thought it deserved to be adapted for Netflix! I’m very glad the book is out. It will shock you, but it will teach you not to end up in situations like this.”