“Russia is on the brink of a social revolution!” shouted the writer, prompting his critic to reach for a gun.

Passions are running high in a society groaning along its socioeconomic faultlines from the financial crisis. Yet, predictably for a country as proudly bookish as Russia, last week's altercation occurred not on Red Square but on the magazine pages.

The incident, reported by Gleb Bryanski for Reuters on Friday but largely ignored in the West, involved the panning of Zakhar Prilepin's book, San’ka, by the pro-Putin financier Pyotor Aven, and vindicated something all writers already knew: that critics and reviewers are elitist, authoritarian scum.

Every author wishes that a single negative review of his book could trigger a revolution. But how empty a fantasy is it when the novelist is a member of the banned radical National Bolshevik Party and the critic, the head of Alpha Bank, is one of the richest men in Russia?

According to the article, Prilepin's book “tells how Sasha Tishin, a disillusioned young Russian from a provincial town, joins a radical party hoping to change the political system by force, and leads an attack on a local administration headquarters”.

Aven disapproved of the hero's revolutionary antics, writing in the upscale Russian Pioneer magazine:  “Most of what one needs to hate in life, from my point of view, can be found in writer Prilepin's book”. He confessed that the book made him want to reach for a pistol.

The war of words escalated as  Prilepin responded to the charge in Russian Life, a popular magazine. He condemned the deep systemic inequality that sees people like Aven commute between Moscow and his mansion in Surrey while up to 15% live on less than $200 per month.

As Russia continues to spiral into recession, simmering popular resentment of the ruling elites, high at the best of times, is threatening to boil over. This is particularly dangerous for Putin and Medvedev, whose populism was always underwritten by the support of big business and oligarchs such as Aven and Abramovich.

Prilepin has already been compared to Gorky, whose works accompanied the Russian Revolution, and believes a revolution is imminent: “A revolution is badly needed…Russia is now in a turbulent state, now it is all going to start.”

Sure, Bryanski's article quotes political analyst Stanislav Belkovsky as saying, “As long as Aven sits in his office, the regime will not change”.

But in Russia, where people like Aven may have got away with making billions from shady business and using them to prop up an authoritarian state, bad-mouthing a writer is a step too far.