Soviet Science Fiction

by Alexander Belyaev, Isaac Asimov (introduction), Violet L. Dutt (translator)

Science Fiction a la Russe:

Hoity-Toity by Alexander Belayev...Spontaneous Reflex by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky. A Visitor from Outer Space by Alexander Kazantsev. The Martian by Alexander Kazantsev. Infra Draconis by Georgy Gurevich Professor. Bern's Awakening by Vladimir Savchenko.

Soviet Science Fiction offers a rare opportunity to read first-rate science fiction from a country that until only recently condemned most writings of this genre. Although the scope of these inventive and suspenseful stories is universal, the flavor is distinctly Russian. The unpredictable protagonists range from a temperamental professor who deep-freezes himself and comes back to life 18,000 years later, to a moody Martian who wants to go home to Mars, to a dancing, vodka-drinking, human-brained elephant named Hoity-Toity. The stories they set in motion, in the finest tradition of good science fiction, make the fantastic seem astonishingly possible and the possible utterly fantastic. And they offer a unique glimpse of the Russian view of life in the future - a life not far off, but very far out.

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories, Fiction, Russia, Science Fiction Fantasy, Anthologies

189 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1962

About the author

Alexander Belyaev (Russian: Александр Беляев) was a Soviet Russian writer of science fiction. His works from the 1920s and 1930s made him a highly regarded figure in Russian science fiction, often referred to as "Russia's Jules Verne". Belyaev's best known novels include Professor Dowell's Head, Amphibian Man, Ariel, and The Air Seller.

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is an anthology of six stories originally written and published in Russian. Asimov's is the only name to appear on the spine and front cover, and no editor is credited though the copyright page lists Violet L. Dutt as the translator. Of the authors, Arkady and Boris Strugatsky are the only ones likely to be familiar to readers of this English edition. The book originally appeared in 1962, but it would be interesting to see when the stories themselves were first published. Most are them are big idea, sense of wonder tales like the American pulps were printing prior to the John W. Campbell "Golden Age" era. It's an interesting curiosity, but I don't think any of them were especially memorable. They were okay; perhaps they lost something in translation and context. I believe my favorite was Professor Bern's Awakening.

[Darnoc Leadburger · Rating 2 out of 5]

One of my many reading goals is to read as much foreign (more specifically, translated) science fiction as I can. This has introduced me to some great names - like Andreas Eschbach - and some poor ones. Today's subject, this anthology of Soviet stories from the 50s that proclaims "striking tales of outer space" (even though only one of these stories takes place in space), is closer to the poorer side of things. There's no marked anthologist whom we can blame (Asimov only wrote an introduction), although there is a translator credit: Violet Duff takes all the credit (or, I think, all the blame) for putting these stories into the English language. Anyways, let's stop complaining and get right to it.

Before the stories begin, we get a little piece by Asimov about how science fiction can transcend national boundaries and how Soviet science fiction seems like an oxymoron to Westeners, but the most distinctive part is how he categorizes Western SF into three stages; the adventure-dominant (from 1926 when Gernsback "coined" the term science fiction to 1938), the technology-dominant of 1938-1950 (which would could equate to Campbell and *Astounding* if you wanted to simplify), and the society-dominant of from beyond 1950 (see *Galaxy* and H. L. Gold's work with Kornbluth, Bester, etc). He talks about how Soviet science fiction is still in Stage Two and how Stage Three might actually be impossible to achieve due to how the Soviet government frames its glorious future. I can definitely name some pre-Soviet "Stage Three" Russian science fiction (like *We* and *Red Star*) and point to the later work of the Strugatsky Brothers (who have a relatively poor story in this collection) as Stage Three fiction, but at least Asimov gave it a shot. Now, on with the stories...

--We kick off with "Hoity-Toity" by A. Belayev. This is the only story to come from before the 1950s - it's from the 30s - and, non-coincidentally, it's the book's only Stage One story. It starts in a circus where a couple visitors question how the titular elephant Hoity-Toity can do such involved tricks and they go behind-the-scenes to investigate it. It refuses to play along with some things and gets beat by its handler, which leads it to draw "I'm not an animal, I'm a human being" in the dirt/sand before running away. The circus director then receives word from a Doctor Wagner about how to summon the animal back, and when Wagner enters the picture we read through the journals of an old assistant of his detailing how they went into the Congo and transplanted the brain of an old assistant of his into an elephant's skull - no other skull would do because his brain had grown while in a tank. The jungle adventures make up most of the story, including when the elephant, now a man, gets separated from Wagner's party and ends up caught in some junglemen's and adventurer's deadly micropolitics. Eventually he escapes and gets picked up by the circus and the rest is history. This is kind of a crazy story, but it's not without its charm. Rampaging elephants, mad scientists; what else do you need in a charming science fiction adventure tale from the 30s? It was a little blocky to read at times, although as I found out when going through the rest of the collection, that's an affliction which every story in the book shares. There's not a whole lot of critique to say about this besides it was fun and it was a bit hard to read; I'm going to give it a pretty average 7/10.
--The Strugatsky Brothers wrote *Roadside Picnic* and many more unique science fiction novels, so thankfully their output goes way past "Spontaneous Reflex," the story of a robot named Urm who responds to updates in his programming by escaping the lab he was built in and going on an innocent rampage that much be stopped by military intervention. The brothers seem to try to frame this in a unique way by starting with Urm's perspective and gradually involving to the scientists involved in his making but it was fairly dry and the revelation of what a "spontaneous reflex" was at the end (basically, programmer made robot get bored, so robot do weird thing) was painfully anticlimactic and so unworthy of my care that it made me shake my head a bit. Oh well; that's how it goes sometimes. It was blocky and hard to care about, and since that's not been my experience of the Strugatskies in the past (not that I've carved deeply through their oeuvre or anything) I think this is another victim of translation malpractice; 5.75/10.
--Alexander Kazantsev steps outside the box by writing two linked stories. The first is called "A Visitor from Outer Space" and is framed in the style of a good ol' club room story (showing that non-English writers were clued into the formula by this point). This club room of interest is on a ship and the narrator talks about how he believes the Tunguska event (the largest recorded asteroid impact, which hit Russia), was actually a crashlanded Martian ship. He strings together evidence of light signals from Mars (ships leaving port, I believe) at just the right times, how they explored both Venus and Earth for water because their own planet was running out, and with a bunch of evidence that convinces some of the others on the ship - it's a fun story, and a kind of modern kind of story that you'd see on Stargate SG-1 or the X-Files. Maybe this kind of conspiratorial, history-rewriting thing isn't as rare as I think this early on in the genre, but I appreciated its ethos and understand why this was the titular story of this book's original English publication; 7.25/10.
--The story continues aboard the same ship in "The Martian" where an unbelievable coincidence occurs; the narrator, a writer trawling through submissions one day, was approached by a man claiming to be from Mars, probably even from the ship that crashed and caused the Tunguska incident. He plans to publish the Martian's diary; it's an interesting follow-up story, but it feels a little forced, not to mention that the first few pages (when the narrator goes on about the wonderfulness of sorting through other people's writings) was just kind of hard and unbelievable to get through. It wasn't well-written - or at least, well-translated. It was disengaging. Nevertheless, it was a moderately clever follow-up and worth a 6.75/10.
--"Infra Draconis" by G. Gurevich is of the most interest to the scientifically-minded reader; in it, a young engineer develops a theory of worlds heated from the inside with an old astronaut who, when he ends up accompanying him on an extra-solar expedition with two married couples, he ends up calling Grandpa. The story is the tale of the expedition and what happens when they realize the planet they came for is frozen; luckily, there's another one, although it happens to be made completely out of water - but Grandpa still wants to go down even though he won't be able to return since there's no land to land the rocket on. He goes down, sees beautiful life, and dies). In a lot of ways, this is the most complex story of the bunch. From a structural perspective it starts in the middle of the tale and then circles back to explain itself (which makes re-reading the first page satisfying) and conceptually it balances a new theory of planetary geography with the honor and society-crafted internal struggle of an aging astronaut. It does both at once and does it satisfying, if not amazingly. That's why this is my favorite story of the bunch: it shows above average craft for the era as depicted here; 7.25/10.. .
--Finally, "Professor Bern's Awakening" by Vladimir Savchenko is a clever, kind of quippy tale. It's about a professor cryogenically freezing himself after coming up with a theory of society's collapse, and he wants to reawaken in ~16000 years when he's convinced another ice age will destroy humanity. And when he awakens, he seems right; he's chased and mauled by semi-human apes. But then the story ends with a little article from a future newspaper about the mysterious incident which reveals the apes to be part of an experiment about the origin of man. Humanity is flourishing in the far future. It's a fun ending which seems like something you'd read out of one of those clever, snappy stories from *Astounding*; the first chunk of it could've been cut down by quite a bit and the same effect could still have been reached, but it's still a good time; who am I to argue with it? 7/10.

You know, upon a review, I realized that I liked these stories more than I thought I did. Maybe I just didn't like the reading experience because of the blockiness of the prose; I can't imagine that all five voices could write in the exact same disengaging fashion for me. Hence, there's a deeper problem... and I think that's the translation. Nonetheless, this wasn't a bad collection. It didn't change my view on Soviet science fiction, but its stories reveal a little more about the progression of the genre than meets the ideas, so I suppose I'll cherish those insights; for now, I'm going to give it a three-star 6/10 to balance the unpleasant reading with the better-than-expected remembrances; anyways, thanks for reading this, and stay tuned for more translated fiction reviews (Abe, Sorokin, etc). Until then, happy reading...

[Miramira Endevall · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really, really enjoyed 5/6 of these stories, they were utterly delightful. I also particularly enjoyed Asimov's thoughtful introduction. I confess it was strange to see a character remark, "The world has enough Hitlers, Trumans and Roosevelts; we need no more tyrants." It was also strange to read just how much farther advanced the Soviet writers believed American technology to be.

[Aathavan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story that made the book worthwhile for me is 'Professor Bern's awakening'. It is an unsophisticated yet thrilling look at a professor who freezes himself to survive past the nuclear winter and the next ice age - insights at many levels.

[Michaela · Rating 4 out of 5]

These were really fun! I think my favorite was Infra Draconis and then Professor Bern’s Awakening. That was a good one to end the collection on as well

[Brandon Manley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection of short stories is an interesting time capsule that gives one glimpses into Soviet life. Of course the stories themselves are not completely original (most of science fiction isn’t), but the stories do convey a sense of wonder the Soviets had for technology, science, and the frontiers of human exploration. Despite the flavor being distinctly Russian, these stories prove that science and technology live in the hearts of the curious and do not see political lines. Just the like Cold War, we are entering a time in which political boundaries play an increasingly invasive role in everyday life; these stories are a helpful reminder that, at heart, we are all the same: we love, we explore, and we love to explore.

[Elija Soskolne · Rating 4 out of 5]

trumanin ja hitlerin vertailu oli kyl semi jännää. aika hyvä

[Michael Burnam-Fink · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this up at a used bookstore based on the cover alone, and for the chance of a glimpse into the Soviet mindset. From a literary perspective, there's not much to recommend these stories. They're fairly standard Golden Age scifi, with all the clumsiness that that entails, plus the added awkwardness of being a work in translation. Sadly, of the six stories only two are of any interest; a pair of linked stories theorizing that the Tunguska explosion was a spacecraft from Mars. The theory that the Martians must be advanced Socialists come to peacefully trade for Greenland's icecap is a rather nice antidote to the standard alien invasion story, but aside from the names, there's little that's particularly "Soviet" about these stories. The only recognizable name in collection are the Strugatsky brothers, and they're wasted with a bog standard 'robot gains self-awareness/goes berserk' golem fable.

On the other hand, as a historical artifact this collection is quite neat. Released in 1962, at the height of the Cold War, and with a decent introduction by Isaac Asimov, it serves a reminder of an attempt to build international bridges at a time of immense paranoia.

[Denise · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection of short stories is an interesting artifact of another time. Written in the 50s and 60s, these stories were written in a society somewhat isolated from the rest of the world. When other countries were contentedly reading American science fiction, writers in the USSR were independently developing their own science fiction as they were making great strides in actual applied science. The result was science fiction that, though similar in some ways, had distinct differences in style and content from American works in the same genre. One notable characteristic is that all six of these stories included long passages of characters explaining and discussing the scientific basis and theories that feed the plot and drive the story. It is worth noting that fantastic plots and storylines that often manifest in American literature are absent here. The science, though somewhat dated at this point, was plausible at the time these stories were written. Even the story of a brain transplant into an elephant's body may seem fantastic on the surface, the science explained is sound biology and human physiology. Occasionally, the social and ideological perspective of Soviet culture is displayed, however such political antagonism and subtle proaganda only presents itself in two of the stories, and then only briefly and in passing. No worse than a Captain America comic. The short introduction by Asimov is well worth the read. The stories kept my interest, for the most part. They were well written and clever, with unexpected humor and cleverness, and did not suffer too much in translation. It was an interesting read that left me wishing more collaboration was possible between the US and Russia, in both the sciences and literature. What a shame ruthless dictators, much like the current president of Russia, made (and continue to make) this impossible.

[Christopher Faherty · Rating 3 out of 5]

Story 1: 4/5. Drunk elephants, love to see it
Story 2: 2/5. Nothing really happens, cool robot though
Story 3: 2/5. Nothing happens, cool premise though
Story 4: 1/5. Man this sucked. Nothing happens and there is a lot of soviet propaganda
Story 5: 4/5. Weird premise, kinda doesnt make sense. Worked for me though
Story 6: 4/5. Best one, takes too long to get to the point, heartbreakingly short, crazy amazing twist ending though

[Danny · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting selection of science fiction from the Soviet Union!

[Kristyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fascinating collection of short stories. One element that linked them all was detailed curiosity.

[Erik Graff · Rating 2 out of 5]

While visiting the family in Norway in 1962, aged ten, I had a lot of time on my hands. We were constantly visiting relatives and friends of Mother. There were lots of parties. The grownups drank and smoked every night, chatting among themselves--in Norwegian.

Although I'd grown up in a bilingual household, Mother being from Oslo and Father knowing the language from his studies there after the war, and had gone to Norwegian pre-school, first grade in the States had caused me to forsake further use of the language. The problem was the accent, my inability to pronounce the "th" or the hard "j", the administration's decision that this was a speech impediment and their placement of me in a special class for the disabled. That only lasted until they met Mom, but it was humiliating. By age ten, the refusal to speak or respond to Norwegian had led to my loss of all fluency.

Thus, during the summer of sixty-two, in such diverse places as aboard the HMS Milora with its foreign crew, in Montreal, in Germany, Denmark, Iceland and Norway I was the typical, monolingual American. In all the various circumstances where I was the only kid, I had to find something to do. Often, that was reading, most persons not having televisions, and reading what was available, which wasn't all that much.

At the time my interests were science, technology, science fiction and, furtively, sex. The space race being in full swing, there was a lot of material available about the Soviet Vostok program and I saw one of their launches on a family friend's television while there. Meanwhile, while scanning the shortwave frequencies for English language programming, I was also exposed to the jamming of U.S. propaganda. Russia wasn't far, sharing a border with Norway to the north.

Thus, the finding of Soviet Science Fiction was a happy event. I certainly knew Asimov, having read a bunch of his stuff, and I was beginning to get interested in the Soviets who were amassing space firsts, one after the other.

Unfortunately, I found the short stories contained in this collection to be boring, focussing as they did on near-future technologies with very little interesting in terms of plot or characterization. A typical story would be about the breakdown of some vital equipment and an engineer-cosmonaut's desperately clever efforts to effect repair.

With only a few exceptions, such as Stanislaw Lem, I avoided most Eastern European science fiction afterwards.

[Andrew Zissou · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting but largely uncaptivating for the most part. Worth it though for the final story: Professor Bern's Awakening.

[Keith B · Rating 4 out of 5]

Don't know why this is listed with Violet L. Dutt as author, she has nothing to do with the book. Read this many years ago. I have the original 1962 edition, not the cover shown here.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice selection if a little dry