Experience: ‘I Was a Teenage Wagner PMC Fan’
· Vice
This interview is from the spring 2026 issue of VICE magazine, THE NOT THE PHOTO ISSUE. Get four issues each year, sent straight to your door, by subscribing here.
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I came across an account on Telegram a couple of years ago. The admin, Pif, had breathtaking knowledge of niche aspects of Slavic mercenary activity, a subject close to my heart. Who was this man? A top CIA analyst? A history PhD? Nope, just a shitposting American teenager with a normal 9-5 and more than one pair of battlefield-standard night-vision goggles.
I caught up with Pif about his main passion in life: the Russian private military corporation, Wagner Group.
VICE: You have a fine collection of Wagner memorabilia. What do you find so beguiling about Wagner PMC?
Pif: To me, and to many others, Wagner PMC created modern mercenary culture. Although it portrayed a certain Slavic “soldier of fortune” image, I’ve always just felt like there was something more there.
I mean, in terms of personnel at least, it’s a real melting pot.
Yes. Originally, it contracted many former operatives from [Russian state intelligence agency] GRU and [Russia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs] the MVD, as well as police officers, ex-military, and still-capable military rejects who were no longer able or willing to sustain proper military function because they’d served their time or aged out. This was later extended to the contracts for [prisoner military units] Storm Z, where reprehensible individuals were able to “win their freedom” by fighting with the PMC.
All that aside, my absorption into the PMC stems from a grotesque interest in the Russian ways of war. The government seems to trust entirely in its abilities regarding attritional warfare, and the PMCS are trained to kill their enemies or die trying. Many think we’ve “lost our fangs” in the West. Wagner exemplified the idea of individuals who do not fight for allegiance to something, but for the fighting itself and the pay that may come with it. Its image to me is more like the old nomadic warrior societies than anything in modern life.
“All that aside, my absorption into the PMC stems from a grotesque interest in the Russian ways of war.”
So how did you get into this stuff?
My father and I would often scroll through the news together over breakfast. One morning, we read that hundreds of Russians had died while storming a base in Syria defended by Green Berets, massacred by U.S. air power while trying to close the distance. I found this both incredibly ballsy and ill-witted, and that is where the desire to collect started.
What do you have in your collection?
A Wagner Group AliExpress vest—it was slightly obese, so it was probably for a logistical guy… A PMC flag… Three movies produced by Wagner that follow dramatized versions of combat groups in Africa and the Donbas… A Wagner Group captured vest from Soledar or Bakhmut with the name “Феникс” on it… A captured groin armor panel… Some Russian multicam pants that were found in a vehicle… A VSR-98 j6b23-1 [camo suit]… A VSR-98 Gorka suit from Armenia… An ANA blue Kamysh OMON combat vest… the B-1 version, I think… Two different kinds of Cyclops gen-1 night-vision goggles… Some bullets from Ukraine that my seller was kind enough to sneak in with another purchase… A Sparta Battalion 2014 patch… A Wagner patch with blood on it, another with the word “Volk” on it, and two repro Wagner patches… A Czech landmine… A genuine “ISIS Hunters” patch… Two post-2017 Azov patches… An Italian SEPT2 helmet used by Ukrainians… An SSh-68 helmet… The old Purgatory propaganda movie on disc… A U.S. Navy pilot helmet… An Eiserne Division medal from the Baltic conflicts… and Collier’s Photographic Collections of the Russo-Japanese War and WWI, to name a few items.
And you wear all this stuff in the woods? Do you enjoy dressing as a Russian merc?
I personally don’t enjoy the culture of LARPing, but I must admit it’s very relaxing hiking through the woods while fully kitted out and carrying a rifle.
You also have some neat Freikorps stuff. What’s the attraction to them?
That’s probably what sparked my interest in Wagner PMC. The Freikorps, specifically the Baltic Freikorps groups, were initially Imperial German soldiers. By 1918 they’d lost the war, the Kaiser had abdicated, and their entire society was destroyed, while they had orders from the British to keep the Bolsheviks at bay in Eastern Europe. Later, many units that were ordered to withdraw disobeyed and attempted a coup in Riga with the hopes of forming a new German state. This failed and they eventually returned to Germany proper, some starting their own political groups, others maintaining their Freikorps and joining the war against the German Bolsheviks.
There was a period of societal unrest until [the short-lived socialist republic] Räterepublic was declared by German Bolsheviks in Wilhelmshaven, which was stormed by a corvette captain named Hermann Ehrhardt along with the volunteers he’d assembled. The Weimar Government was impressed enough to authorize the formation of a volunteer unit, and this led to the creation of the first Freikorps: Marinebrigade Ehrhardt, led by Hermann, who was a staunch monarchist.
Those attitudes of unconditional sovereignty and barbaric disdain for the modern world are ones that I find immensely valiant or “based,” for lack of better words.
“I must admit it’s very relaxing hiking through the woods while fully kitted out and carrying a rifle”
What other PMCs do you find interesting?
Wagner Group is the only private military-contracting company I’ve ever had any interest in.
Would you ever join one?
The recent ideas concerning sending privateers to Mexico or volunteers to Africa do sound interesting, but no.
Do you miss Prigozhin?
Every day.
Me too, man.
This interview is from the spring 2026 issue of VICE magazine, THE NOT THE PHOTO ISSUE. Get four issues each year, sent straight to your door, by subscribing here.
The post Experience: ‘I Was a Teenage Wagner PMC Fan’ appeared first on VICE.