Russian Science Fiction and Fantasy - Early Period

Early Period

See also: Russian mythology and Folklore of Russia

Though secular literature was forming gradually in Russia since the 17th century, it was not until the late 18th century that European rhetoric genres were transplanted to native ground, with narrative fiction techniques open to complex interactions with new scientific and social ideas. While science fiction did not emerge as a coherent genre until the early 20th century, many aspects thereof, such as utopia or imaginary voyage, are found in earlier works by Russian authors.

The first work which is considered a prototype to science fiction is Fedor Dmitriev-Mamonov's A Philosopher Nobleman («Dvoryanin-filosof», 1769). It is a voltairean conte philosophique influenced by Micromégas.

Utopias were a major form of early Russian speculative fiction; the first generic utopia in Russia was a short story by Alexander Sumarokov, "A Dream of Happy Society" (1759). Two early examples of utopias in form of imaginary voyage are Vasily Levshin's Newest Voyage (1784, which is also the first Russian "flight" to the Moon) and Mikhail Shcherbatov's Journey to the Land of Ophir. Pseudo-historical heroic romances in classical settings (modeled on Fenelon's Telemaque) also had a strong utopian element; examples include works by Fyodor Emin, Mikhail Kheraskov, Pavel Lvov and Pyotr Zakharyin. Ancient Night of the Universe (1807), an epic poem by Semyon Bobrov, is the first work of Russian Cosmism.

Some of Faddei Bulgarin's tales are set in the future, others exploited themes of hollow earth and space flight, as did Osip Senkovsky's Fantastic Voyages of Baron Brambeus. Aleksandr Bestuzhev with his Gothic stories with German couleur locale also was a bestselling author. Other writers to acquire a Gothic mode were Sergey Lyubetsky, Vladimir Olin, Alexey K. Tolstoy, Elizaveta Kologrivova, Mikhail Lermontov ("Stoss").

Closer to mid-19th century a notion of imaginary voyage into outer space became trivialised enough to be used in popular chapbooks, such as Voyage to the Sun and Planet Mercury and All the Visible and Invisible Worlds (1832) by Dmitry Sigov, Correspondence of a Moonman with an Earthman (1842) by Pyotr Mashkov, Voyage to the Moon in a Wonderful Machine (1844) by Semyon Dyachkov and Voyage in the Sun (1846) by Demokrit Terpinovich. Authors of popular literature often used fantastic motifs like magic demons (Rafail Zotov's Qin-Kiu-Tong), invisibility (Ivan Shteven's Magic Spectacles), shrinking men (Vasily Alferyev's Picture).

Hoffmann's fantastic tales caused great impact upon many Russian writers including Nikolay Gogol, Antony Pogorelsky, Nikolay Melgunov, Vladimir Karlgof, Nikolai Polevoy, Aleksey Tomofeev, Konstantin Aksakov, Vasily Ushakov. Folklore supernatural tall-tales are stylized by Orest Somov, Vladimir Olin, Mikhail Zagoskin, Nikolay Bilevich. Alexander Pushkin's The Queen of Spades (1834) was called "a masterpiece of fantastic art" by Dostoyevsky. A central figure of the early 19th century is Vladimir Odoevsky, a romantic writer influenced by E.T.A. Hoffmann, who combined his vision of the future with faith in scientific and technological progress. He was also an author of many Gothic tales.

Perhaps the first true science fiction author in Russia was Alexander Veltman. Along with pseudo-historical romances set in Old Russia and heavily peopled by fairy-tale characters (Koschei the Immortal, 1833) and modern day hoffmanesque tales blended with satiric moralising (New Yemelya or, Metamorphoses, 1845), in 1836 he published Predki Kalimerosa: Aleksandr Filippovich Makedonskii (The forebears of Kalimeros: Alexander, son of Philip of Macedon), which has been called the first original Russian science fiction novel and the first novel to use time travel. In it the narrator rides to ancient Greece on a hippogriff, meets Aristotle, and goes on a voyage with Alexander the Great before returning to the 19th century. Year 3448 (1833), a Heliodoric love romance set in the far future, is also science-fictional; in it a traveler visits the imaginary Balkan country of Bosphorania, ruled by the righteous Ioann, who devotes all his time and effort to the good of his people. There are descriptions of the social and technological advances of the 35th century, including popular festivals and expeditions to the South Pole.

  • Nikolai Gogol

  • Alexander Pushkin

  • Alexey K. Tolstoy

  • Vladimir Odoevsky

  • Faddei Bulgarin

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