What do you think?
Rate this book
The Wagner Group: Inside Russia’s Mercenary Army
This book exposes the history and the future of the Wagner Group, Russia’s notorious and secretive mercenary army, revealing details of their operations never documented before.
Using extensive leaks, first-hand accounts, and the byzantine paper trail left in its wake, Jack Margolin traces the Wagner Group from its roots as a battlefield rumour to a private military enterprise tens of thousands-strong that eventually comes to threaten Putin himself. He follows individual commanders and foot soldiers within the group as they fight in Ukraine, Syria, and Africa, sometimes alongside fellow military contractors from the United Kingdom and the US. He shows Wagner mercenaries committing atrocities, plundering oil, diamonds, and gold, and changing the course of conflicts from Europe to Africa in the name of the Kremlin’s strategic aims.
In documenting the Wagner Group’s story up to the dramatic demise of its chief director, Evgeniy Prigozhin, Margolin demonstrates that Wagner was not an aberration, but a manifestation of the new geopolitical order of global capital, global crime and of the entrepreneurs that thrive in it.
Using extensive leaks, first-hand accounts, and the byzantine paper trail left in its wake, Jack Margolin traces the Wagner Group from its roots as a battlefield rumour to a private military enterprise tens of thousands-strong that eventually comes to threaten Putin himself. He follows individual commanders and foot soldiers within the group as they fight in Ukraine, Syria, and Africa, sometimes alongside fellow military contractors from the United Kingdom and the US. He shows Wagner mercenaries committing atrocities, plundering oil, diamonds, and gold, and changing the course of conflicts from Europe to Africa in the name of the Kremlin’s strategic aims.
In documenting the Wagner Group’s story up to the dramatic demise of its chief director, Evgeniy Prigozhin, Margolin demonstrates that Wagner was not an aberration, but a manifestation of the new geopolitical order of global capital, global crime and of the entrepreneurs that thrive in it.
336 pages, Hardcover
Published October 28, 2024
43 people are currently reading
365 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
September 24, 2024
Great read for anyone interested in the proliferation of violence entrepreneurs and the warlordization of the Russian military. The first third reads like a novel, the second third is a great background of Russia, the final third struggles to find footing and then ends just as it finds it.
June 2, 2025
DNF, about 2/3s through. Just didn't click. Extremely informative but pretty dull.
August 2, 2025
El colonialismo no desapareció, solo se privatizó.
June 27, 2025
Interesting subject matter but poorly written and from a suspect source.
The author has the advantage for being a Russian speaker as such he used his language skills to extract information from Russian sources. However, those who had followed the conflicts in Africa /Sub Sahara and Ukraine would be disappointed by the quality of material. Wagner group is a shadowy organization but became better known since the wars in Sub-Sahara and Ukraine.
Their exploits can be found in Telegram channels especially but for some reasons the author decided to focus more on rather unreliable sources such as the Western media and the Russian opposition bloggers.
Some of the assertion by the author seems unprofessional, based on zero facts but rather opinions. For example, he casually says that Putin assassinated the Wagner founder Prigozhin. Putin might as well done it but such claims need to be grounded on facts or logic. Most knowledgeable people think that the Wagner boss was killed by his many enemies within the Russian Ministry of Defence or the military.
Wagner is not an organization known for its respect for human rights or democratic principles however from a military perspective they are among the best military units in the world - perhaps as good as the top tier Western Special Forces units and their record in Ukraine is unmatched. A more balanced writer would have covered both sides of this unit.
The author's background is interesting - he used to work for C4ADS (NGO with connections to the intelligence community) and in Ukraine. That perhaps point out to his lack of objectivity.
My recomendation is to skip this book - poorly written and researched and sounds very much like a propaganda piece.
The author has the advantage for being a Russian speaker as such he used his language skills to extract information from Russian sources. However, those who had followed the conflicts in Africa /Sub Sahara and Ukraine would be disappointed by the quality of material. Wagner group is a shadowy organization but became better known since the wars in Sub-Sahara and Ukraine.
Their exploits can be found in Telegram channels especially but for some reasons the author decided to focus more on rather unreliable sources such as the Western media and the Russian opposition bloggers.
Some of the assertion by the author seems unprofessional, based on zero facts but rather opinions. For example, he casually says that Putin assassinated the Wagner founder Prigozhin. Putin might as well done it but such claims need to be grounded on facts or logic. Most knowledgeable people think that the Wagner boss was killed by his many enemies within the Russian Ministry of Defence or the military.
Wagner is not an organization known for its respect for human rights or democratic principles however from a military perspective they are among the best military units in the world - perhaps as good as the top tier Western Special Forces units and their record in Ukraine is unmatched. A more balanced writer would have covered both sides of this unit.
The author's background is interesting - he used to work for C4ADS (NGO with connections to the intelligence community) and in Ukraine. That perhaps point out to his lack of objectivity.
My recomendation is to skip this book - poorly written and researched and sounds very much like a propaganda piece.
July 4, 2025
I picked up this book in the hope of learning more about Wagner's role in the Russian-Ukrainian war. However, I was disappointed to find only the information which was widely available on Telegram channels and Russian media at the time of the events. So, it was a boring read.
This book may be valuable and enjoyable for someone who knows very little about Wagner and would like to read a detailed account of their existence. It offers a structured, detailed account of Wagner's formation, operations, and public presence—ideal for those seeking a foundational understanding of the group. For anyone already familiar with Wagner's activities, however, it may feel more like a summary than an investigation.
This book may be valuable and enjoyable for someone who knows very little about Wagner and would like to read a detailed account of their existence. It offers a structured, detailed account of Wagner's formation, operations, and public presence—ideal for those seeking a foundational understanding of the group. For anyone already familiar with Wagner's activities, however, it may feel more like a summary than an investigation.
Read
December 26, 2025Pretty interesting, argues Wagner’s success leaned heavily on its corporate infrastructure, which took advantage of the global maneuverability of capital in the 2010s. Identifies Wagner as key part of a wider explosion of PMCs, a leader in the third phase of their growth (the first coming in Russia’s wild 90s, second during War on Terror marked by American and South African groups that Wagner and the Russian state drew their inspiration from, and the fourth following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine with proliferation of PMCs in their war effort).
July 11, 2025
Extremely informative and interesting (if you are interested in private military contractors and their influence internationally). I would definitely recommend being familiar with the Wagner group and some geopolitics of developing states they operate in before you read (I’d recommend DW or Le Monde documentaires) since the reading is quite technical and I personally had some difficulty following along at certain points with the gigantic web of influence the author demonstrates.
August 2, 2025
A great read with so much to offer. The Wagner mercenary group was “THE” mercenary group that covered so many different mercenary movements and activities with resounding success. The read sucks you in and never lets you come up from air. But, as alliances begin to sour, the perfect relationship gradually fall apart for one reason or another. Power, wealth and weapons give a powerful and strong bond as well as a perfect reason for undermining partners.
February 13, 2026
Thorough analysis of Wagner group dealings. A lot of research has been done by the Author. I was most interested of how the Wagner group was disbanded. Sadly this part was written in a detail that made the mysterious story only a little bit clearer. I was a bit struggling to finish the book due to a bit dry storytelling. Overall it is worth reading.
October 10, 2025
Well researched and informative. The content jumped around a bit in terms of locations/time but very interesting to understand Wagner’s role better especially in Africa. Bit of a soft ending given we no one knows what is happening with Wagner now
January 5, 2025
The best version of Wagner group's history as a military brand.
April 22, 2025
A broad account of mercenary war and warriors. Shocking accounts of a clandestine war. I wish more biographical details were available.
dropped-not-finished
August 20, 2025Quick impressions: while the topic is timely, the book is a seriously slow and dry read, and I am not making headway on it. Dropping, may or not try again later.
Read
March 3, 2025The world is a very, very messy place, even more than I had extrapolated from what I thought I knew.
Fairly heavy, dense reading; I had to keep putting it down and going back to it. I was originally interested in the very recent activities of the Wagner Group. I had no idea of the long history nor the breadth of it and related groups. Since the book's structure is basically chronological, I didn't get to recent events before my library load/renews ran out. I would like to get this book again and finish it.
[ad in The Atlantic]
Fairly heavy, dense reading; I had to keep putting it down and going back to it. I was originally interested in the very recent activities of the Wagner Group. I had no idea of the long history nor the breadth of it and related groups. Since the book's structure is basically chronological, I didn't get to recent events before my library load/renews ran out. I would like to get this book again and finish it.
[ad in The Atlantic]
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews