It is unlikely that the work of Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, whose works were in the 60s - the end of the 80s, can be called Soviet fiction. They reveal too deep layers of human relationships both with the real world and with other worlds and the people who inhabit them. For several generations of readers, the Strugatsky books have become a guide in the world of science fiction.
Arkady Strugatsky
In the Strugatsky writers' tandem, the main literary word belonged to Arkady Natanovich, the elder brother.
He was born on 08/28/1925 in Batumi. He survived the evacuation from besieged Leningrad and, upon conscription, entered the Aktobe Artillery School, from which he was transferred to the Moscow Military Institute of Foreign Languages ​​in 1943 as a translator from English and Japanese. After graduation, he taught at a special school for military translators, and served in the Far East until demobilization in 1955.
The first fantastic works, co-written with his brother, were published in 1958. The fame was brought to the brothers by the story "The Country of the Crimson Clouds" (1959).
Back in Soviet times, the books of the Strugatsky, a list of which includes more than 60 novels, short stories, short stories and film scripts, became classics of the fantasy genre. They have been translated into more than 40 languages ​​and published in 33 countries.
Arkady Naumovich Strugatsky died October 12, 1991 in Moscow.
Boris Strugatsky
Boris Natanovich was born on 04/15/1933 in Leningrad, was evacuated during the blockade, and after returning he became a student at the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics at Leningrad State University. Having received an astronomer diploma, he worked at the observatory (Pulkovo) until 1960.
A member of the Writers' Union, Boris Natanovich wrote not only in collaboration with his brother, but also separately under the pseudonym S. Vititsky. The writer passed away on 11/19/2012.
The books of the Strugatsky became the best works of the Soviet period, in which their own model of the future was created, far from "bright" communism. The utopian “tomorrow” is the backdrop for the main theme of their work - the place of a person in general and a scientist in particular in the universe and society.
The best works of the 60s
Writing in such a way as to provoke the reader to think out, argue, and try to understand the work is what the Strugatsky brothers put in each of their novels. The best books of authors have some understatement, which especially attracts people searching and thinking to their works.
One of the first controversial works of the Strugatsky brothers was the novel "It Is Hard to Be a God" (1964). It was conceived as a light adventure reading, but turned into an excursion on ethical issues about attempts to change human nature in order to turn history on a different path of development.
The main issues considered by the Strugatsky books are the legality of interference in the lives of other people, in past events or in scientific progress. This is exactly how the Soviet intelligentsia perceived the plot of the novel “It Is Hard to Be a God”. They saw in him the reality surrounding them - interference in the development of other countries, “fraternal” assistance of the Soviet Union in building socialism, attempts to keep the state within the framework of the socialist camp even at the cost of blood.
In 1965, two sensational novels were published, which were written by the Strugatsky - books "Monday begins on Saturday" and "Predatory things of the century."
A funny tale about enthusiastic scientists who are passionate about their job - the search for absolute happiness, has become a reference book for the creative intelligentsia of that time. According to this novel, in 1982, the New Year's funny comedy “Sorcerers” was shot.
The novel "The Predatory Things of the Century" became somewhat prophetic, as the authors drew a future similar to the present. The world is filled with things that enslaved people, they depend on them. The main theme of the novel is that a person without a goal, without interest in finding a new, unknown, is just an animal that uses things like drugs.
Early 70s
The books of the Strugatsky, written from the late 60s to the early 80s, have a new direction in the authors' worldview. Now the main theme of their works is the search for the answer to the question: who are we, why are we here?
If we take the entire work of the authors as a whole, it is clear that the Strugatsky best books were written precisely in this time period.
- Inhabited Island (1969) was the first novel to expose a system of injustice and inequality. A very bold and strong book for its time. The use of idealistic principles of life “right” from the point of view of the protagonist for all can become the same cause of the catastrophe as the totalitarian regime.
- “The Hotel“ At the Dead Climber ”(1970) is a detective fantasy novel that, with the inherent Strugatsky sense of humor, tells about events in a high-mountain hotel with the participation of aliens.
These works entered the category of novels, which brought writers worldwide fame.
"Roadside Picnic"
There are not many works of the Soviet era that would change people's minds and worldviews. The Strugatsky books, Picnic on the Sidelines, Doomed City, One Billion Years Before the End of the World, and The Beetle in the Anthill fell on the authors' most fruitful creative period and were able to evoke a response in the minds and souls of the Soviet reader.
"Picnic on the Sidelines" (1972) - one of the most significant novels of writers. The realization that the Earth is not the only planet in the Universe, inhabited by highly developed creatures, but just a curb in the Universe, where you can stop for a picnic, leave trash and fly away, turned many people's minds not only of that time. A stunning novel about a person’s search for an answer to the question: what am I like?
Creativity of the Strugatsky today
Books of writers are written so that their relevance today is even higher than in Soviet times. The future that the authors painted has already come, which means that the problems described 40 years ago have become a reality for a person in the world of high technology.
Nothing has changed, a person without a goal at any time was a lost hero of his time.