Roadside Picnic - Writing The Novel and Soviet Censorship

Writing The Novel and Soviet Censorship

The story was written by the Strugatsky brothers in 1971 (the first outlines written January 18–27, 1971 in Leningrad, with the final version completed between October 28 and November 3, 1971 in Komarovo.) It was first published in the Avrora literary magazine in 1972, issues 7-10. Parts of it were published in the Library of Modern Science Fiction book series, vol. 25, 1973. It was also printed in the newspaper Youth of Estonia in 1977-1978.

In 1977, the novel was first published in the United States in English.

Roadside Picnic was refused publication in book form in the Soviet Union for eight years due to government censorship and numerous delays. The heavily censored versions published between 1980 and 1990 significantly departed from the original version written by the authors. The Russian language versions endorsed by the Strugatsky brothers as the original were published in the 1990s.