Twilight of utopia

Anton Pervushin , a science fiction writer, author of a number of popular science books and a scientific journalist, devoted his article to a friend of our editorial office who had repeatedly sent smart and concise comments to us. His congratulation opened the 100th issue of the newspaper in March 2012 [1]. This year, B. N. Strugatsky would celebrate his 85th anniversary.

Fantast writer Boris Natanovich Strugatsky was born on April 15, 1933, so in mid-spring it was customary not only to celebrate Cosmonautics Day, but also to recall the work of Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, which influenced and continues to influence the worldview of generations.

However, recently, an unpleasant criticism of the famous science fiction writers has been louder: publicists and bloggers talk about “betrayal of ideals” that supposedly the Strugatsky brothers “deceived gullible Soviet people”, creating an attractive utopian image and abandoning it in later years. Empathetically it is clear where the furious cries and powerless anger come from.

In Russia, two ideologies have entered into an irreconcilable conflict, which can be conditionally called “liberal-democratic” and “Soviet-patriotic”, and, of course, the carriers of any of them would like to see the Strugatsky on their side of the virtual “barricades”, and negative emotions arise at the moment when it becomes clear that there is no clear positioning in the framework of any ideology: reading Some texts, the authors can be mistaken for convinced communists, reading others - for opposition who criticize power and patriotic discourse.

In fact, all claims disappear, if we accept that the Strugatsky brothers had their own virtual “barricade”, which was erected a little away from the battles of the “liberals” with “guardians” and has more relation to philosophy than political and ideological constructions.

Being science fiction writers, the Strugatsky operated on categories going beyond the scope of momentary. The entourage used, which, as an illustration, can be linked with a particular ideology (the world of the victorious communism - in the early texts, strange gloomy worlds - in the later ones), was always secondary to them, and so that in numerous interviews they refused to comment on issues related to the details of the narratives, referring to “bad memory”.

The problems that the Strugatsky discussed throughout the creative path even today look global and anxious. How to build a society in which each person will get the opportunity to realize their individual talents? Does moral right have a more developed society to intervene in the activities of a less developed one? What will be an incentive for the further development of society, when the main needs of a person will be satisfied and interstate contradictions are overcome? Is there any meaning in the existence of society, except for the satisfaction of human needs?

The year after the year, from the text to the text, the Strugatsky brothers tried to indicate at least the general contours for the theoretical solution of these problems, while acting very pragmatic: first of all, they described the utopian “world-in-Kotor-Wish-Wait” [2] (the so-called “world of half a day” [3]), then began to look for possible approaches to it, simultaneously showing alternative variants of different degrees of anti-utopicity. They saw the main driving force of utopia in the development of science, which was extremely specifically spoke out in a small note “From the infinity of secrets to the infinity of knowledge” (1961):

“We are sure: communism is not a fat paradise of a hungry bourgeois and not a sleepy pink distance of a poetic loafer, communism is the last and eternal battle of humanity, the battle for knowledge, the battle is infinitely difficult and infinitely fascinating. And the future is not a grandiose almshouse of mankind, retired, but millions of centuries of resolving the last and eternal contradiction between the infinity of secrets and the infinity of knowledge ”[4].

Here, of course, questions appear. If the expansion of knowledge is the highest priority, then it cannot be limited in any way. But in this case, what to do with dangerous experiments, with dual -purpose technologies, with space flights, which without proper organization can end very sadly, as, for example, shown in the novel “Olders” (1962) [5]?

At the beginning of the creative path, the Strugatsky knew the answer. In the archives of the brothers, sketches of unpublished chapters were discovered, and one of them is dedicated to the meeting of the Presidium of the Economic Council of the World, which coordinates the direction of ways to “infinity of knowledge” [6]. The meeting discusses an important project - terraforming Venus. But the project is so complicated and resourceful that for the sake of it, members of the Presidium have to close many scientific and technical programs: a mine to the center of the Earth, studying distant planets of the solar system, sending starships, etc.

It is noteworthy that at the same meeting, the members of the Presidium devoted the time of the discussion about the crime of the chemist and the “talented blank” Suvylo, who polluted the river with nitric acid with his experiment. It turns out that such experiments should be observed by the advice of new discoveries and research supervision, which were justified by the fact that Suvilo was obliged to turn to them for permission, but did not do it.

As a result, the Presidium of the ESM decided to deprive the unlucky chemist-pest for three years to engage in practical experiments. That is, control over the “last and eternal battle of mankind” is still carried out, although very soft: agree that three years of excommunication from practice is not a very serious punishment for the poisoning of an entire river.

However, soon the Strugatsky brothers saw another danger on the path of "liberated" humanity. This happened during work on the first version of the story “Snail on the slope” (1965), which is now known as “Anxiety” [7]. In the “Comments to the Passed” (1999), Boris Natanovich openly wrote about the worldview fracture, which science fiction writers had to survive in March 1965, but, most importantly, he indicates a new problem that influenced the intonation of all subsequent texts:

“Gorbovsky is our old hero, to some extent he is the personification of a person of the future, the embodiment of kindness and mind, the embodiment of intelligence in the highest sense of the word. He sits on the edge of a gigantic cliff, hanging his legs, looks at a strange forest that spreads under it to the horizon and is waiting for something.

In the world of noon, all fundamental social and many scientific problems have long been resolved for a long time. The problem of a human-like-like Android robot is solved, the problem of contact with other civilizations, the problem of education, of course. The man became careless. He seemed to have lost the instinct of self -preservation. A playing man appeared. <...> Everything necessary is done automatically, billions of smart cars are busy with this, and billions of people are engaged only in what they like to do. As we are now playing chess, in cross-knits or volleyball, so they are engaged in science, research, space flights, immersion in the depths. <...>

Gorbovsky is scary. Gorbovsky suspects that such a situation cannot end with good, that sooner or later humanity will drive in space on a certain hidden danger that can not even imagine, and then humanity awaits shock, humanity awaits shame, defeat, death - anything ... And now Gorbovsky, with its supernatural instinct to the planet to the planet and seeks a strange one. What exactly - he himself does not know. This wild and dangerous Pandora, which earthlings have been so fun and have been mastered in the hunt for several decades, seems to him the focus of some hidden threats, he himself does not know which ones. And he sits here in order to be in place at the moment when something happens. He sits in order to prevent people from performing actions with reckless, hasty, to catch them like shaved children “ over the abyss in rye ” ... ” [8].

The Strugatsky brothers begin to suspect that for the "shattered" mankind, control from the Council of New discoveries and research supervision will clearly not be enough. We need some other organizations with authority to apply the methods of physical impact. The SGB appears in utopia - the Council of Galactic Security.

With his representative - the merciless Rudolf Sikorski - the young cosmonaut of the future Maxim Kammerer accidentally occurs, the crashed on the planet Saraksh in the novel “Inhabited Island” (1969–1971) [9]. And this is also not enough, because the danger to earthlings is not only fraught with other people's worlds, but also advanced scientific research: in the earlier story “The Far Rainbow” (1963) [10], the Strugatsky brothers presented the option when, due to the large-scale experiment, the population of the whole world dies; Only children can be saved.

In the end, the matured science fiction writers had to come and came to an unpleasant conclusion: if progress begins to threaten the lives of people, it must be artificially slowed down with the use of any means, including the elimination of carriers of a potential threat. In the story “Beetle in the Anthill” (1979–1980) [11] we see the development of a situation in which the merciless Rudolf Sikorski has no other way out, except to kill a person who is considered “automatically” of powerful aliens. Boris Natanovich later recalled with some bitterness:

“We wrote a tragic story that even in the brightest, most good and fair world the appearance of a secret police (any kind, such as, genre) inevitably leads to the fact that innocent people suffer and die - no matter what the goals of this secret police and no matter what the most honest and noble employees are equipped with this police” [12].

So, the “Secret Police” appears in the utopia-the control commission (or KOLSKON-2), which is headed by the SGB reconnaissance reconnaissance with the experience of killing people. And it is quite predictable that the farther, the more Komkon-2, due to the specifics of their work, intervenes in the affairs of scientists, including historians of science, in the same story, the Strugatsky brilliantly described the conflict of Sikorski with Isaac Bromberg, which can be called a representative of the “systemic opposition”.

In the next story, the Waves extinguish the wind (1985–1986) [13] we observe how this organization has grown to the “galactic” dimensions, and its personnel composition is replenished at the expense of progressors - specialists on secret influence on the development of alien races. It is appropriate to quote a fragment, which describes the meeting of Maxim Kammerer with a new employee tovo Glumov:

“By profession, Toyvo Glumov was a progressor. Experts told me that it could have made a progressor of the highest class, a progressor-AC. He had brilliant data. He perfectly owned himself, he possessed exceptional composure, a rare speed of reaction, and he was a born actor and master of impersonation. And so, having worked as a progressor for a little more than three years, he fired for no apparent reason and returned to the ground. <...>

He arose in front of me in December 94, fulfilled by icy readiness to answer questions again and again, why, so promising, absolutely healthy, in every possible way encouraged, suddenly throws his work, his mentors, his comrades, destroys carefully developed plans, extinguishes hopes entrusted to him ... I, of course, did not begin to ask him. I was not at all interested in why he did not want to be a progressor anymore. I was interested in why he suddenly wanted to become a counterprogressor, so to speak.

His answer was remembered. He is hostile to the very idea of ​​progress. If possible, he will not go into details. It’s just that he, the progressor, is negative about progressive. And there (he showed a thumb over his shoulder) he came up with a very trivial thought: while he, waving his sword, stomps along the cobblestone of Arkanarsky squares, here (he showed his index finger under his feet) some dodger in a fashionable rainbow and a metavizir over his shoulder walks along the Sverdlovsk areas ” [14].

In fact, this is the sentence of all utopia, invented by the Strugatsky, in general. The world of the victorious scentism failed to create an adequate system of checks and counterweights between science and the interests of public security; Instead, he attracted to control over the advanced developments of people who proved their merciless in the territory of “barbaric” planets.

In this case, the Institute of Progressor is an incubator for the production of archaic viruses that can destroy the healthy organism of civilization. And in the final of the story “Waves, the winds” we see an intermediate result of the spread of the infection: Toyvo Glumov seriously offers to destroy the sprouts of the new - Luds, which are the following stage in the evolution of man as a species.

What could serve as the basis for the system of retrains and counterweights? The Strugatsky brothers do not give a definite answer, leaving him at the discretion of the reader. But they are the mouths of the character of Leonid Andreyevich Gorbovsky, who embodies “intelligence in the highest sense of the word”, invited us to think about the categorical imperative: “Of all possible solutions, choose the best. Not the most promising, not the most rational, not the most progressive and, of course, not the most effective - the best! ” [15] .

Can there be good science? Can you be kind in science? We will have to look for answers on our own - now, alas, without the Strugatsky brothers.

Anton Pervushin

1. Strugatsky B. N. Equivy on progressors // TRV-hunger, No. 100 dated March 27, 2012
2. The phrases “Mir-in-Korotor-Nam-Nem-Sobe-Wish” and “Mir-in-Kotor-I-I-Hotel-West-I-E-Work” B. N. Strugatsky used in many interviews that he gave from 1998 to 2012.
3. The world of half a day (noon) is called the world of the communist future, described in a number of texts that are associated with chronologically: from the novel “Country of Bagrow Clouds” (1959) through the collection of short stories “Half, XXII century (Return)” (1960–1963) to the story “Waves extinguish the wind” (1986).
4. Strugatsky A., Strugatsky B. from the infinity of secrets to the infinity of knowledge // Technique - youth. 1961. No. 10. S. 6.
5. Strugatsky A., Strugatsky B. Olders. M.: Young Guard, 1962.
6. The chapter called "Presidium of the ESM" was first published in the book: Unknown Strugatsky. From the "country of crimson clouds" to "it is difficult to be a god": drafts, manuscripts, options / comp. S. Bondarenko. Donetsk: Stalker, 2005. S. 275–287.
7. Strugatsky A., Strugatsky B. Anxiety // Measurement of F. 1990. No. 3. S. 6–15.
8. Strugatsky B. Comments on the passed: “Snail on the slope” / “Anxiety” // If. 1999. No. 1-2. S. 270–271.
9. Strugatsky A., Strugatsky B. Inhabited Island. M.: Children's literature, 1971.
10. Strugatsky A., Strugatsky B. Distant Rainbow // New Signal. M.: Knowledge, 1963. S. 50–156.
11. Strugatsky A., Strugatsky B. Beetle in an anthill // Knowledge - Power. 1979. No. 9–12. 1980. No. 1-3, 5–6.
12. Strugatsky B. Comments on the passed: “Beetle in the anthill” // If. 1999. No. 3. S. 307.
13. Strugatsky A., Strugatsky B. Waves extinguish the wind // Knowledge - Power. 1985. No. 6–12. 1986. No. 1, 3.
14. Strugatsky A., Strugatsky B. Waves extinguish the wind // Knowledge - Power. 1985. No. 6. C. 48.
15. Strugatsky A., Strugatsky B. Waves extinguish the wind // Knowledge - Power. 1986. No. 1. S. 48.