Jovan Savović, founder of Runet's Dirty blogging platform and invite-only Lepra community, dies at 43

Jovan Savović, a notable figure from the early Russian-language internet, has died at the age of 43. He was the creator of two influential online projects: the Dirty.ru blogging platform and the invite-only community known as Leprosorium, or Lepra.

News of his death was shared by friends and colleagues in a post on Dirty.ru itself. An acquaintance separately confirmed the death to the outlet Varlamov News. The post on Dirty.ru stated that Savović's "young heart could not bear the weight of existence." The Telegram channel Mash reported that a heart attack was the preliminary cause of death.

From Yugoslavia to Russia

Savović was born in Yugoslavia and relocated to Russia in 1991. A decade later, in 2001, he founded Dirty.ru, a group blogging platform that went on to shape a segment of Russian-language internet culture. In 2004, he launched a second project, Leprosorium (Lepra), a community that could only be joined through an invitation from an existing member.

Both platforms became notable fixtures of Runet culture, built around shared group content and, in Lepra's case, an exclusive, invitation-based membership model.