Empire of unknown fathers. Strugatsky watched "Inhabited Island

I know I won't get approval. But the feedback is asking for it. For a long time I forced myself to read the book. What can you do, someone likes whipped cream, someone likes sauerkraut, someone likes barbecue, and someone is crazy about bacon in chocolate. There must be diversity in the world.

The protagonist is a reflective little boy trapped in an almost ubermensha body. Deciding that everything is possible for him and that the life he lives is the only true one in the world. We only know about his world that there is clean air, excellent ecology, people are healthy and happy and every day they sleep on fresh sheets. Who said that there are no emitters in his world? Who said that his world order is the only true and possible one? And who gave him the right to change the world of others, to interfere in someone else's world order with his ideals, and to control the lives of others? The world of a dying country of a dying planet is sharply dualistic. But this dualism leaves no choice. Because you can't choose between evil and evil. And in fact, the main confrontation is Darwinian species. An endangered species is fighting for survival. But at the same time, he also hopes to take world domination.

There are other tense moments, not only concerning the main idea, but also the details.

But most importantly, the thought did not leave - the memory of the Chinese parable of the dragon. The fact that every liberator of the people from the dragon imperceptibly becomes a dragon himself. Throughout the book, one had to observe how a naive boy is increasingly overgrown with dragon scales. Who knows what would have happened if everything had turned out exactly as he intended?

Score: 5

« inhabited island"- one of the best works of the Strugatskys, and indeed one of the best works of Russian and Soviet science fiction.

The first time I read this book was in the seventh grade. I remember that she made a strong impression on me, one might say, shocked me. This is a really terrible book - it seemed to me that the pages smelled of iron, blood and smoke. The first impression was rather oppressive, although I would not call it negative. It's just creepy when you imagine what humanity could have come to. The feeling that we are talking not about some incomprehensible planet, but about our Earth was intensified by the fact that the Country of the Fathers sharply resembled Europe and the USSR of the 30s. gg. XX century. It seems to me that such a book could only be written in a country that survived Stalin's repressions and experienced all the horrors of fascism.

It is impossible not to admire the courage of the protagonist, who found the strength to fight not only for survival, but also for the future of the entire planet, realizing that he might never return home. “I am at home,” Maxim declares to the Stranger at the end of the book. Maxim's house is where he is needed, where he is, why live. He intends to wage war until victory.

The difference in the methods of Maxim and the Stranger is amazing. They have a common goal - but completely opposite means to achieve it. The wanderer is a politician, an agent of earthly special services, a spy-diplomat. He breaks the system of dictatorship from the inside, gradually directing the development of the state in the right direction. His path is the path of reforms and directed development, the minimum of upheavals and catastrophes.

Maxim does not know that the salvation of Saraksh is a foregone conclusion, you just need to wait ... a few centuries. He is a man of action, naive at times, like a superhero from a comic book. His severe good nature does not allow him to give a damn about the natives - he feels bitter pity for them, who failed to rationally arrange their lives. One insane plan after another fails, another ally turns out to be a traitor or simply too weak - but Maxim does not stop. He goes to the underground, understands that they are mired in intrigues and politics; seeks help from mutants, but they only want peace; even cooperates with the government in the person of the prosecutor - only in order to obtain the necessary data on the location of the Center. He is ready to do anything to destroy the towers as soon as possible, which seem to him (not unreasonably) the embodiment of evil in this unfortunate world. His path is a revolution, the destruction of evil and inhuman dictatorship.

The Stranger believes that the revolution will lead to chaos and colossal loss of life. However, Maxim sees how relative the existing stability is. He chooses a decisive battle and challenges all who hope to revive the dictatorship. Before Maxim's eyes, his friends die: underground members die in ridiculous battles, trying to destroy the towers, they drive the tanks of the penalty box onto nuclear mines, the soldiers drugged by radiation climb on the enemy's dagger fire. Maxim decides that the price of victory will not be too high.

You can argue for a long time who is right. There are two truths in this dispute. The revolution may bog down, reforms may lead people for a long time through barren fields of experiments. The truth is that Saraksh will be saved. But what will be the cost of this salvation?

The book is the strongest anti-fascist novel, despite the lack of connection with real story. I repeat, but you need to grow up in a world of totalitarianism in order to create such a strong book. And despite the fact that we understand Maxim's naivete and his voluntarism, we cannot but admire the fearlessness and revolutionary determination of the hero, his heightened sense of justice, so characteristic of the heroes of Russian classics.

Score: 10

It took me a long time to gather my courage before leaving a review for The Inhabited Island.

I'll try.

Of the many people with whom I had to talk about the work of the Strugatskys and whom I asked to name the best, from their point of view, work, half answered - "Inhabited Island". And out of the same multitude of people, almost a third called "Inhabited Island" one of the most unsuccessful, secondary, politicized and inaccurate texts of the ABS.

And I want to say something about technology. This work is a five-fold changeling. Fivefold! I do not know of any other such, neither in science fiction, nor even in the detective genre, which lives on shifters.

Even Japriso's famous "Cinderella Trap" is a fourfold shifter. And "Inhabited Island" - five. A completely unique composition.

Yes - such a technique required some stretching. Yes - in comparison with other works of ABS, the logic is often lame, and if you dig, you will see smeared cracks. For example, the axiom that "radiation has always been" is unreliable. And it is also not entirely reliable that the hero, with his level of intelligence, cannot put together a true picture of the world and restore the missed holes in the perception of this world. And the humanoid civilization itself is a copy of the earthly one...

And - I neglect all this with a light soul. Writing a shifter as such is a rather difficult task. Anyone who has become adept at detective stories knows. But probably only the Strugatskys managed to write a five-fold changeling. And at the same time captivating, like all their texts. With "live" and very different characters.

Therefore, if you ask me in which work ABS reached the top in writing technique, I will not hesitate to say - in "The Inhabited Island".

Score: 10

Throughout the reading of this book, my attitude towards it jumped from “This is the best thing I have ever read” to “Well, how many flat horror stories about totalitarianism can be!”. As can be judged from the assessment, I was closer to the first one.

The book is different from everything I'm used to from the Strugatskys (it so happened that hands reached the OO after TBB, PKB, PNVS, PIP, etc., etc.). It differs in the direction of action, an action-packed novel, energetically changing circumstances and scenery. There is not that calm, measured flow of the fabric of the novel, which is, for example, in TBB. There is no wedge on the point of view of the protagonist. We are allowed to look at the world of Saraksh not only through the eyes of an earthly boy, for whom all this rusty radioactive fascism, all this is disgusting and incomprehensible. But also through the eyes of the people who were born here, grew up, to whom this nuclear desert is the Motherland that he loves, he is ready to defend and fight for its good.

And it flips the reader's perception just as much as the discovery that the world is actually round. Maxim is not a "guy from our yard", and not even a common person from an idealized world where "a heated jungle with soda machines". This "simple" guy is smart, educated, strong, healthy as a bull, manages any transport, is invulnerable to thought waves and has skills and powers on the verge of Superman from American cinema. Even a bullet does not take a young man! The reader, with all the desire, cannot identify himself with him. The ideal Maxim is not our neighbor, even his last name is not a neighbor's: Kammerer. The reader will see much more neighbors in the inhabitants of the Country of the Fathers. Simple-hearted, weary people, whose country, together with them, has experienced more than its age is supposed to.

And then everything falls into place. Saraksh is the Earth, and Maxim is an outlandish alien from outer space, a stranger in a foreign country. Kind, noble, full of compassion, but not a damn thing about the mysterious Saraksh soul.

Of course, the shortcomings of the novel have not gone away. Not very convincing totalitarianism, which they are trying to scare, although it is not scary at all. (A terrorist and a clear enemy of the authorities, Mac Sim, is forgiven every time and is not even imprisoned, although they should have been shot four times. An armed holocaust of geeks, who would be much easier to “caringly” hide in hospitals with migraines). The towers are an open secret, which the reader guesses much earlier than the hero. The girl Rada remained completely undisclosed, who seems to love Maxim, but loves somewhere far away, behind the scenes. However, against the general strong background, these "tails" can be forgiven - there are no ideal books.

The main thing that Strugatsky managed in "Inhabited Island" is a combination of an action-packed novel with an acute social one, unique for our science fiction and for them. The book will scare away neither the lover of complex social fiction, nor the fan of satire, nor the adherent of sweeping epics. Not even a person who (like me) is pretty sick of dystopias. For every turn of the intricate plot of this book proves again and again: do not believe your eyes! You hasten to judge, seeing the picture only from one side - and you will be cruelly deceived. Every time Maxim realizes what things he almost did, this is a call to the reader: do not rush to answer. Doubt. Think.

Score: 10

Dystopia? Novel warning? A book about the nature of power in the modern information society? Being all this, the novel remains a wonderful adventure fiction and has not lost its relevance for forty years now. I'm afraid, and will not lose, at least in the next forty years.

When arguing about this book, they usually discuss - did Maxim Kammerer have the moral right to do what he did, is the price of his actions not too high? Forgetting that he acted not as a progressor of the earth, but as a resident of Saraksh, even though he “fell from the moon” from another world. He did not see for himself a way of returning back, he matured and matured in this world and connected his future with it. And when your world is heading for the abyss, you have the right to save it as best you can, instead of calculating the optimal stopping distance.

And, even when he returned, he remained not only a citizen of the Noon World, but also a guy named Mak Sim from the planet Saraksh. And this, in many ways, determines his actions in the "Beetle" and "Waves", makes him closer to us, the people of the XX-XXI centuries. After all, in our time there are also enough candidates for the role of “fiery creators” (they are also “unknown fathers”).

ps. But the Strugatskys planned to write an "ideologically correct" purely entertaining work (see "Comments"). It’s truly like in that joke: “Of course, I can shave off my beard, but can you hide your mind?”

pps The relevance of the work is also confirmed by the fact that one very popular modern science fiction writer among both readers and critics wrote a kind of remake of OO .... In our time, in our country. For those who are interested, we are watching Divov's Zombie Trail.

And one more postscript... Regarding the fiery creators and unknown fathers... For those who have not read "Comments on what has been passed". The fact is that this novel exists in two editions. During its initial publication in the USSR, the authors were required to remove allusions to our country, so that the novel would remain anti-fascist, but not anti-Soviet. So the “fathers” became “creators”, Maxim received a German surname and many German words appeared in Saraksha. In the “post-perestroika edition”, the creators became fathers back, and the panzers became tanks. And only the surname of Maxim remained alien.

Score: 10

The action of the novel takes place in the World of Noon, to which many works of the authors belong - this is the world of victorious communism, where humanity has entered its Golden Age: people's lives have changed dramatically, technical achievements raised the quality of life to a new height, there was a radical restructuring of the moral and ethical basis, even the very nature of man has undergone changes. People have become smarter, more resilient, stronger, have the ability to see in the dark and swim underwater without any devices for half an hour, the body has become immune to radiation, even a wound in the heart now does not lead to death. But the thirst for adventure, risk and the opportunity to show courage remained. Many, to satisfy it, join the ranks of the GSP - the Free Search Group, engaged in deep space exploration. It is to such people that main character novel by Maxim Kammerer. His ship crashes while landing and the young explorer is left alone like Robinson on a planet completely unfamiliar to him. A short walk through the forest convinces him that, unlike Robinson's, his island is inhabited - the thickets are crammed with old iron, the remains of some kind of equipment, the water and soil are poisoned by radiation. Soon he also discovers local bearers of reason, contact with which somewhat puzzles Maxim, but does not make him refuse to continue. So Kammerer ends up in a certain camp, which, as he later finds out, is the base for suicide bombers - "educated" who are busy neutralizing the old military equipment left in the surrounding forests since the last war. There, he meets Corporal Guy Gaal, who will play a big role in the fate of the space explorer. The camp authorities, realizing that they themselves are unable to understand who Maxim is, send him to the Capital with Guy being transferred to a new duty station. Thus begins Maxim Kammerer's journey through the land of the Unknown Fathers, a journey that will change both the traveler and the country itself.

"Inhabited Island" was published in 1971, after which the book publications of the Strugatskys were stopped for almost a decade, the text of this novel seemed so anti-Soviet and provocative to the authorities. Moreover, what came out was already pretty mutilated by censorship. The book was so radically altered to please those in power that the Strugatskys, in order to restore the original text for publications that began to appear after 1991, made 896 changes to the novel. Now, reading the restored text, one can perfectly understand why the novel had such an unenviable fate at the time of its release. In it, fantasy plays only the role of a shell, but in fact it is a very harsh criticism of the totalitarian system. It is surprising that the book, even in a modified form, was able to get to the press. But it is even more surprising that over the years that have passed since its publication, it not only has not lost its relevance, but has become even more in tune with the processes taking place in our state. Here listen:

“Before the war, they obeyed us, and now they are viciously taking revenge.”

“You all imagine that the old story was canceled and a new one started.”

“We are considered degenerates. Where it came from - now you don’t remember. But now it is beneficial for the Unknown Fathers to persecute us, this distracts the people from internal problems, from the corruption of financiers raking in money on military orders and on the construction of towers. If we didn't exist, the Fathers would have invented us..."

"- Unknown Fathers also have a hard time," Maxim said.

Yes, Zef said seriously. - Sleepless nights and painful thoughts about the fate of his people... Tired and kind, all-seeing and all-understanding... Massaraksh, I haven't read newspapers for a long time, I forgot how it's going to go on...

Faithful and kind, - corrected one-armed. - Giving themselves entirely to progress and the fight against chaos.

Doesn't it remind you of anything? Is this about the Soviet Empire of Evil? Or about what is happening here and now? Apparently, the system for suppressing the free thinking of the people is the same for any type of government - even under totalitarianism, even under democracy. And it doesn’t matter at all what they use for this - five minutes of hatred and newspeak like in George Orwell’s “1984”, a network of Towers like the Strugatskys, or the Internet, television and the press like here and now. After all, there is only one goal - to create from thinking individuals an unthinking and submissive herd, which can be twirled as it pleases. And those unfortunate degenerates of Saraksh, who suffer twice a day from an increase in the level of radiation, but are not sensitive to it the rest of the time, those whom the Unknown Fathers themselves are trying to exterminate with all their might, they are just a way to show the attitude of the authorities towards people who do not accept the System as a given. Now, "geeks" are all who can be used as an object to vent hatred. It is not for nothing that nationalism has flourished in such a violent color in our country now. After all, "geek" can be anyone not like everyone else.

Let's go back to the novel. The image of Maxim undergoes a series of metamorphoses in the course of the development of the plot. In the beginning, he is a very naive individual in whose brain there is simply no place for such concepts as killing his own kind, he cannot even imagine what juvenile delinquency or corruption is, has no idea about politics, inflation or economics. Then, as he became acquainted with the realities surrounding him, after he own skin will experience what lies, cynicism, betrayal and human meanness are, he throws off rose-colored glasses, his soul becomes callous and he begins to ask difficult and difficult questions for him: “Maybe it’s impossible in this world otherwise, and if you want to do something , you have to go through stupidity, through senseless blood, and maybe you have to go through meanness. But his thirst to free people from the zombie influence of the Towers is so great that he, breaking himself, goes to the end. But, as subsequent events show, all the same, deep down he remains a naive idealist who simply cannot understand the full depth of human meanness. In many ways, he shows his short-sightedness, due to ignorance of all the realities of the world around him, he cannot predict all the consequences of his actions, but this in no way prevents him from carrying out his plans. He only wants to free people, but it doesn't even occur to him that all these forty million duped citizens are happy in their own way. And will they be happier if the radiation disappears? After all, they do not live in paradise: the soil practically does not produce a crop, as it is poisoned by radiation and contaminated with various production wastes; basic products are not enough; many people, in their twenty years of life under the supervision of the Unknown Fathers, have already lost the habit of both thinking and acting independently. In addition, the “withdrawal syndrome” after turning off the radiation in 20% can cause schizophrenia. And yet the soul of Maxim strives to end everything with one blow. He advocates a revolutionary solution to the issue, his vision of the situation is fundamentally different from the point of view of the Wanderer, who advocates imperceptible, evolutionary changes that can gradually change the situation on the planet. And it is not clear who is right. A world infected with the virus of war, utterly filthy, with a dying ecology and brutal social conditions, may simply not live up to the results of quiet evolution, choking on dirt, blood and hatred. After all, it is not for nothing that the authors gave so much space in the book to describe the horrors of life in Saraksha both in “peaceful” time and during the war. When reading the novel with your mind, you understand that it is the Wanderer who is right, but with your heart you remain on the side of Maxim, perceiving him as the only ray of sunshine in the world with a sky forever overcast with clouds. It is difficult to be a god, but even more difficult to become one.

Finally, I would like to say a few words about the recent adaptation of the novel. Fyodor Bondarchuk was able to accurately convey the “letter” of the book in the format of a two-part film, that is, to state the plot of the book in cinematic language with minimal losses. But the "spirit", that is, the semantic content, was not given to him. Having read the book, I am not inclined to blame him for this failure, since he got an extremely difficult work for the film adaptation. Here is a visual series that could have been made more successful.

Bottom line: I can’t say that the book is one of the pinnacles of world fiction, but it is not far from the level of a masterpiece. The authors managed to publish a novel in a totalitarian country that harshly criticizes the existing system. But what is most striking is not this, but the fact that the country in which this work saw the light of day has long since disappeared, and its relevance has not diminished at all, if not even increased. Excellent food for thought. I definitely recommend. Read the classics!!!

P.S. T9 writes the word "massaraksh" on the first try.))

Score: 10

It was this book that at one time brought me back to the Strugatskys (I already told the sadly stupid story about how I turned away from them in my review of The Land of Crimson Clouds).

Having started reading it somewhere in the course of the second institute, I quickly understood how the plot would develop. A good communist will put in place the evil capitalists who have defiled their planet, plant gardens for them and build socialism. Because that's pretty much how it was in Soviet science fiction that I've read before. “Yeah, now,” the book told me. I was surprised, no less than the naive title character, who did not know what "children's crime" was, which in a good way did not work out. Okay, I decided, then everything will be in the "Western" manner. The hero will scatter the evil government, find the local stronghold of evil, undermining which, as you know, instantly sweeps away all enemies and generally solves all world problems, destroys it and drives off with the young lady into the sunset. "Dummkopf. Rotznase,” the book told me when I got to the end. I was as dumbfounded as the hero. How is it, because everything was so simple, here are the bad ones, here are the good ones ...

You know, since childhood, I have always felt sorry for movie villains. They spend the whole film, planning, and then a stupid and lucky hero comes and all their work goes down the drain. And finally, I got a work where the villain is not such a villain, and the hero is more likely not a hero, but a fool who climbed to break firewood and chop from his shoulder, without really understanding what was happening here. I got a quite simple, but good storyline for a fantastic work of this kind “we wanted the best, it turned out as always.” But this plot is again rarely used. Heroes who find themselves in other unfamiliar worlds, both ours and foreign ones, for the most part are omniscient and infallible, I immediately understand who is right and who is wrong. The dark lords they oppose are undeniably evil and extremely limited.

Dear young and talented "parents" of countless foreigners, maybe you would turn to the work of the masters and try ... What does "tried already" mean? Yes, stop frightening me with “Time of Students” and Bondarchuk. I'm just talking about the main idea. Series "Stalker", you say ... No, no further, I understand. Demand creates supply. And, alas, we have no demand for works with the problems of the "Island". In the world of dreams, everyone loves to “raise Mother Rus' from its knees” and assert itself at the expense of elves and orcs, and not feel like a clumsy elephant in a china shop in a foreign world.

Score: 9

It so happened that, although I love the Strugatskys, I have not read The Inhabited Island before, and I cannot afford, like many, to compare my teenage impressions of it with adults.

Boris Natanovich says in the comments to this book that, according to their idea, "The Island" was supposed to be a senseless adventure of a Komsomol member from the twenty-second century. The authors were angry at the attitude of censorship towards their "Ugly Swans" and "The Tale of the Troika" and decided in revenge to write a simple toothless story about a narrow-minded hero. Type: if you want garbage - get it. But something went wrong. There are so many phenomena, characters, orders and other things mirrored from the then Soviet (and even from our present) reality in the book that you wonder how it could be published? It's impossible to get it all! Yes, and the hero may be naive, young and grew up in greenhouse conditions, but one can hardly consider him stupid and frivolous.

From the very first pages, when we, together with Maxim, get to Saraksh, we really see, hear and feel the world unfolding before us. Together with Maxim, we are surprised and do not understand, together we are horrified and angry. Together with him, we begin to love the people of this dirty, deceitful, sick, through and through poisonous planet... Here it is - the effect of presence, where are the modern technologies! The authors seem to take us by the hand and lead us after the hero. We perceive everything through the perception of Maxim, which, of course, helps us understand him, but prevents us from stepping back and hearing our own self. And if I was there, and all this with me?

I dream of Saraksh for the third night. Very scary dreams...

The theme of intervention in the life of a foreign world, the theme of Progression is very complex and ambiguous. And can Maxim Kammerer in his situation be considered a Progressor at all? I don't think so.

I do not see a hero who saved people from oppression and fooling, nor a cruel terrorist who killed a lot of people for the sake of his conscience, but I see a prosperous, clean and cheerful boy who was broken by the planet Saraksh. And broken boys, if they find the strength to grow back together, change irreversibly, so Maxim became what he became. The history of his formation is the history of pain and anger, and there are no right decisions here, because you are in hell, and in hell, no matter how you decide, there will still be hell.

Score: 9

The Inhabited Island is probably one of the most intense novels by the Strugatskys. It is full of bright characters, secrets, events and - ideas, sometimes hidden behind the adventure plot.

What else does a sci-fi thriller fan need? A young and pure-hearted hero who finds himself on a planet engulfed in wars, disease and famine in order to begin to interfere in the course of its history and remake everything in his own way, trying on a variety of social “masks”, acting alternately in the role of Robinson, soldier, terrorist, convict. What opportunities does such a plot give: a variety of heroes, scenery, characters. A dynamic action that captures the imagination, which is rapidly transferred to the city, then to the forest, then to the desert and again - to the city.

Enthusiastic and honest Maxim finds himself in a world far from his almost ideal world of Noon, a world that is one step away from the last line, when no efforts will help the survival of sentient beings. Its inhabitants are tired and unhappy people who have gone through all the circles of hell, experienced hunger, illness, the death of loved ones, whose all efforts are aimed at personal survival and who no longer have the strength for high ideals and dreams. What will a hero like Maxim, who grew up on the concepts of honesty, social justice, equality and brotherhood, do? He will begin to reshape the world to fit his notions of justice, not really taking into account the opinions of its inhabitants, i.e. will be Progressive.

There is, in my opinion, a key episode in the novel. Dialogue between Maxim and the Sorcerer about conscience. About how hard it is for an honest person to perceive reality with its dark side - crime, deceit, violence. The omniscient Sorcerer is trying to convey the simple idea that guided only by his own concepts of justice, and not by the arguments of reason and historical experience, one can easily take the path of an evil God, arrogating to himself the right to decide the fate of millions, regardless of their opinions and desires. And the end of this path is always the same: someone always, under a plausible pretext, becomes the "master" of life, taking the threads of history into his hands.

Is he right? Or maybe the truth is on the side of Maxim, who believes that it is possible to lead people to freedom, even if they do not want it, and to achieve this goal, everything is possible, including throwing the tormented and weak-minded monasteries of Saraksh into an unequal battle? Or is the truth somewhere in the middle? Again, you will not find a clear answer in the book, the reader will have to determine the side for himself. And this dialogue about a sick conscience and good intentions, sometimes leading to Hell, is modern and more relevant than ever.

But still. If you read this dispute carefully, it will become clear why, having become the legendary Progressor, Maxim after a few years will leave his profession and take up the opposite kind of activity. And maybe it will become a little clearer what the Wanderers achieve with their experiments on Reasonable Beings.

Score: 9

“Inhabited Island” is primarily remembered for the fact that “massaraksh” is firmly imprinted into the use of abusive words. And then this "massaraksh" can be used whenever the intersection of storylines with the phenomena of our time is found.

In addition to the details repeatedly analyzed by critics, I would like to ask questions:

Who is Maxim Kammerer that he looks like a stupid superman on Saraksha, and a member of the "shadow government" Rudolf Sikorsky, according to a stingy description, is completely different? Or in the society of Progressors of the future bodily and mental development strictly subordinated to the functionality of the chosen profession?

Why do the authorities “flirt” with the alien for so long, when they are completely unceremonious with their citizens? Did “their own” decide to assign a certain mission to Maxim, studying his behavior from afar?

Society, politics and nature of Saraksh, of course, are shocking at once and remain indelibly in memory. The atmosphere of dystopia and the constant "echoes of war", the horrors of psycho-indoctrination and the adventure romance of sabotage activities ... The idea of ​​​​conquering and correcting shortcomings, no matter how they manifest themselves. The instructive point is that the destruction of the nodal centers of the dictatorship does not mean the death of the entire network of power. The maturation of the main character in extremely harsh conditions, which, apparently, he really lacked in his homeland (although he already has amazing “input data” for interstellar travel, he trained on something!). And the most important fantastic assumption is that people similar in physiology to earthlings will have similar forms of psyche and social structure. The Strugatskys traditionally introduce the topic of contact with “completely aliens” with extreme caution, starting with questions relating exclusively to people of the earthly type.

Wherever a modern reader would end up in Saraksha is fairly clear. But what would Maxim Kammerer do if he got into our society from the world of the future, this separate topic that makes the skin goosebumps.

And of course, this work is not at all like the flat-linear crafts of Western authors on the theme of superheroes. Which are similar to fairy tales, even if a rather complex structure of society is written out there. "Save the world" and reap the laurels - will not work. To allow destruction on its way that exceeds the beneficial effect is an unaffordable luxury for which the superhero on Saraksha will be "knocked out". And the depth of study of the dystopian society does not at all leave the impression that the book was written under the image of "one hero against all." This is what I like about her...

Score: 10

In the next (it seems - for the fourth) time I re-read this work of ABS. This time - as an adult, from the standpoint of realism, paying attention to the little things that I had not noticed before. And this time I managed to see the forest for the trees.

"Inhabited Island" - the story of how a fanatic sacrificed his mythical conscience (which, in fact, is nothing more than a "white man's burden"), the lives of millions of people. He blew up a huge building packed with people (Center) and did not even wince (there was some kind of reflection, but in the end it turned into “well, to hell with them”). He doomed the Country of the Fathers to starvation, economic collapse and being torn to pieces by neighboring states. Eight million people, because of his fanaticism, became schizophrenics (the Stranger at the end reports that in 20% of cases radiation starvation causes schizophrenia, and 40 million people live in the Country of the Fathers). And at the same time - almost no positive effects.

Blow up towers? Well done. And what? Now an industrial society that has survived a total war will suddenly become white and fluffy? Will the squabbling for power stop? Is everyone suddenly enlightened? Obviously not. But 8 million schizophrenics - yes. Hunger is yes.

And, worst of all, there was nothing for our Lawrence of Arabia for this. The Stranger yelled at him. For the murder of millions, they simply raised their voice at him. Something like this, the Americans “punish” their soldiers if they accidentally bomb civilians in some wild country - “ah-ah-ah, it didn’t work out well, you bombed the village in vain, but oh well - go to work.”

God save us from such conscientious maxims.

P.S. And the Sorcerer is right, although, most likely, the authors themselves thought differently. The very appearance of such a character - a prime example how in the work of brilliant writers there is more meaning than they intentionally put into it. The work “argues” with its creators (unless, of course, this is a dispute between the ANS and the BNS, which is also possible, in view of their very different life experiences).

Spoiler (plot reveal) (click on it to see)

The impatience of a troubled conscience! - proclaimed the Sorcerer. - your

conscience is spoiled by constant attention, it begins to moan at

the slightest inconvenience, and your mind bows respectfully before her, instead of

to yell at her and put her in her place. your conscience

outraged by the existing order of things, and your mind obediently and hastily

looking for ways to change this order. But order has its own laws. These laws

arise from the aspirations of vast human masses, and they can change

also only with a change in these aspirations ... So, on the one hand -

aspirations of huge human masses, on the other hand - your conscience,

embodiment of your aspirations. Your conscience moves you to change

existing order, that is, to change the aspirations of millions

human masses in the image and likeness of your aspirations. It's funny and

ahistorical. Your mind, clouded and stunned by conscience, has lost

the ability to distinguish the real good of the masses from the imaginary is no longer

intelligence. The mind must be kept clear. If you don't want to, you can't - well, by the way

worse for you. And not only for you. You will say that in the world where you are from

come, people can't live with a bad conscience. Well, stop living.

This is also a good way out - both for you and for others.

Score: 10

Writing a review on the Strugatskys is like describing the victory of Zenit in the UEFA Cup. It is difficult to find the right words to describe their works in the way they deserve.

This story is about a man. About a strong person, I would even say about a pure person. This story is about the eternal struggle between reason and conscience. About people's aspirations for ideals. About how even the best of us have to change under the cover of circumstances. And everything would seem right in this story, only one question arises. Should he have changed? Is one person worth one planet?

Maxim thought it was worth it. He absolutely osoznono makes this choice. Yes, he has changed, yes he is different now. But he had, in my opinion, the main thing - the goal, which is undoubtedly too much for one person.

In addition to the aforementioned problems, this is also a very exciting adventure story in fantastic scenery, which keeps you in suspense until a very unexpected, explosive (literally and figuratively) finale.

You can also rejoice at the power of the Theory of Education: Maxim, who grew up on Earth and was brought up in the spirit of the MP, after everything he experienced in Saraksha, did not change his beliefs, remained true to communist ideals despite the cruel lessons of life. And the "development-growing up of the hero" here "does not roll."

It seems to me that the story is simply doomed to a long life and the love of readers.

Score: 10

In The Inhabited Island by the Strugatsky brothers, Maxim Kramerer, a young seeker of habitable planets and new civilizations, crash-lands in an unknown world that, in terms of its level of development, resembles the worst version of the potential development of the USSR in the 60s. Around dirt, propaganda, prisoners and the underground, poverty, rudeness, war and inequality. Have to young man to fight for yourself and your ideas, to try to change this world and not be brutish yourself.

Another book by the Strugatskys is another small masterpiece of the masters. A clear projection on the modern world, on a system that zombifies people with the help of television screens, newspapers and radio, without the use of any towers and emitters. For most of the work, I seriously believed that the action takes place on Earth, since Maxim was completely different from those people who surround me on this planet.

This is a physiologically perfect, and most importantly, a happy, cheerful and naive person who grew up in an ideal society of the future, who does not understand the logic of what is happening on this dirty and evil planet. He has colossal knowledge and skills, but he has absolutely no idea how they can be used to change something for the better, help his new friends and the population that lives in fear and hopelessness. Well, the most important questions remain open: does this society need the freedom that Mak-Sim brings them, how correct are its ideals under these conditions, what can happen if the existing order is broken and what should appear in return?

This is one of the most dynamic and exciting books by the Strugatsky brothers, which surprisingly harmoniously combines several serious literary genres. It clearly spells out the history of the world, the relationship between the mysterious owners of this state and their images. The book is read so quickly and enthusiastically that sometimes you have to slow down to think a little about the analogies, the phrases spoken by the characters and draw parallels with our reality. It is this combination of the philosophy of a utopian, but so familiar, society and an interesting plot that makes this book so memorable.

Score: 9

Awesome novel.

In other words, it's just more difficult to convey my impressions. My acquaintance with the authors began with this work, under the impression, almost immediately, I bought another book by their authorship and .. was severely disappointed. So, to date, this is the best book I have read of theirs, and definitely a work of a very high level in a motley environment of literature. At first glance, this is a youthful action movie, exciting and dynamic; where the rather young Maxim rushes headlong onto the path of progressorism, tirelessly trying to remake the world alien to him and push its inhabitants onto the path of reason, friendship and mutual assistance, to stop senseless wars and a predatory attitude towards nature and his own kind.

But this is only at first glance. Under such an uncomplicated glossy cover, the authors managed to push a huge baggage of social, political and philosophical thoughts (the word “ideas” is not enough here). The authors are trying to gently push the reader to realize and comprehend the familiar world in which we live - after all, upon closer examination, those familiar things and ideas that often seem obvious may not look so unambiguous. So this book is definitely food for thought. It is very interesting, together with Maxim, to understand the political system of the “island” that he inherited, to observe the evolution of his understanding and perception, and then, with horror, to realize with him that the entire underground and “opposition” does not seek to fundamentally change anything, its only desire is to climb up to the top of the government vertical and lead the "process" themselves. I don’t want to go into further details of the plot, but I can’t help but quote Maxim’s key question:

Listen, he said. - And why is the true purpose of the towers hidden from ordinary underground workers?

Zef frowned and spat, and Vepr answered sadly:

Because the majority in the headquarters hopes someday to seize power and use the towers in the old way, but for other purposes.

For what - others? - Maxim asked gloomily... - To educate the masses in the spirit of kindness and mutual love, - Vepr said.

I could say that this is one of the key dialogues, but it would not be so - the book is literally filled with thoughts that encourage further reflection and rethinking. Here is the cruel prose of the causes of modern wars, and the principle of supplying the population with stupid mental chewing gum, and the principle of propaganda, and much more - I'll get tired of listing. Instead, I can’t resist and give one more piece:

And a decent politician, - said the prosecutor.

A rare combination of words, - said Mack.

Now that I have re-read The Inhabited Island for the second time, some things may already seem banal, but at the same time, looking around, it is hard not to notice that, unfortunately, for many they are still hidden from understanding. And when I read it for the first time, many years ago, it could have looked like a revelation or even theses invented by the authors to make the plot more dashing. But, unfortunately, gradually acquiring life experience, I state that it is difficult to disagree with the authors. This is what makes this piece so wonderful.

Further, there is no hint of fascism, which some commentators write about here (except, perhaps, an island empire). Here is described the construction of the world native to the authors of the union of free republics, a little bit on the topic of the possible future of this world and, unfortunately, the world in which we continue to live. Here I do not reduce everything to the countries of the former socialist bloc, on the contrary, to one degree or another, this applies to most modern countries and especially the so-called big geopolitics. One can only be surprised and admired by the authors who managed to write and publish a novel about totalitarianism while living in the country they described. Although some light on the latter is shed by comments about the large censorship simplification of the novel published earlier.

Another novel is consonant with Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 - he also teaches to think and comprehend, but in comparison with it, the Strugatskys came out a cut above, because in addition to ideas, they were also able to literally clothe their work in a dynamic and exciting plot. There are also travels, explorations of unknown spaces and a romantic note, and the bitterness of the loss of the only close friend, and a hero close in spirit, with the native name Maxim, and much more.

I definitely put it on my list of books that everyone should read.

Natalia MAMAYEVA

inhabited island

There is a TV - give a podium ...

V. Vysotsky. TV victim

Jews are like nails and rivets in a multi-story building: they are not of great value in themselves, but without them the building will not stand.

J. Addison

- ... flew to Giganda. There we are now in full swing social transformation ...

“I know your transformations,” Maxim said. - I converted it myself. At the same time, he put the people - a terrible thing ...

M. Uspensky. snake milk

If we consider "Inhabited Island" from the point of view of the plot and those ideas that lie on the surface, then a logical question arises: why did the authors return to the idea that they had already discussed twice and rejected. Both in "An Attempt to Escape" and "It's Hard to Be a God", the variant of the progressor influence of a person from the world of a bright future on an extraterrestrial civilization was considered. In both cases, these attempts ended tragically, both for the progressor himself and for the civilization that became the object of his efforts. At the same time, the senselessness of the transformations by and large was obvious to the progressor himself. Therefore, it is not clear why it was necessary to create the image of another progressor, however, we admit, charming and charming, Maxim Kammerer, and moreover, to assure that it was he who managed to achieve success.

After The Snail, the helplessness of the story is especially striking. But the point is that just after"Snails". After the incomplete publication of "The Snail on the Slope" and the editors' acquaintance with "The Tale of the Troika", the attitude towards the ABS on the part of the authorities became sharply negative. If before that the brothers were to some extent recognized as beacons that should be equaled, now the situation has changed dramatically. Times have also changed. The thaw is over. Neo-Stalinism was gaining momentum. The very attitude towards the work of the Strugatskys changed to a sharply negative one. Now it was really necessary to write an "optimistic" (by the definition of the authors themselves) story in order to calm criticism. Kaitokh and other critics quite unfairly put forward "Monday" as a contender for such a story. This is extremely unfair to “Monday”, which is by no means a frivolous work written “for excuses”.

But "Inhabited Island" was originally conceived as a kind of justification. Boris Natanovich writes that an entry appeared in his working diary: "We need to compose an application for an optimistic story about contact." At the same time, "this deliberately peppy entry is located just between two purely gloomy ones - about the refusal to print the Tale of the Troika" both in the "Young Guard" and in "Detgiz".

Therefore, the Strugatskys decided to write "a thoughtless, brainless, absolutely toothless, entertaining, without a single idea novel about the adventures of a Komsomol member of the 22nd century ...". But then exactly what happened to their hero Viktor Banev happened to the authors (according to Zurmansor):

“You see,” Zurzmansor said, “the article that Mr. Burgomaster is waiting for, you still won’t succeed ... You will read this speech and, first of all, you will find that it is ugly. Stylistically ugly, I mean. You will begin to correct the style, begin to look for more precise expressions, your fantasy will start to work, you will be muddied by musty words, you will want to make words alive, replace official lies with burning facts, and you yourself will not notice how you begin to write the truth "(" Ugly Swans ").

As a result, the novel very soon ceased to be "toothless." If you fish out various social and political ideas and allusions from the "Inhabited Island", you can find the following ...

Note: The author insists on retaining the term "catch". Most of the works of the Strugatskys do not need this, since their ideas are full-blooded and make the reader think even against his will. Alas, the ideas of the "Inhabited Island" are not. Of course, they rehabilitate a generally weak work, but these are just rehabilitation crutches.

So, about ideas. The work can be read as a satire on the political system of the Soviet Union. Geeks are dissidents, dissenters. The system of towers is clearly associated with the system of TV towers, brainwashing the audience, and the appeal to each other by members of the cabinet - Papa, father-in-law, brother-in-law - hint at nepotism in the government. Then, of course, “the emitting towers, and the geeks, and the Battle Guards - everything fell into place, like cartridges in a clip, everything found its prototype in our adored reality, everything turned out to be a carrier of subtext” (“Comments on what has been passed”).

There are, however, other, more private interpretations. For example, in geeks they see Jews who are both an oppressed stratum, which they treat with great suspicion, and those puppeteers who pull the true springs of power.

However, the above allusions can be extended to any totalitarian state, in which, of course, the Jewish question will also be relevant. But the reduction of the entire content of the novel to a disguised political satire written in Aesopian language reduces all its value as an independent work.

The hero nevertheless appears before the reader as a "real Soviet guy." The fact that this guy is struggling with the system that gave birth to him, and does not even notice it himself, gives the novel a certain gloomy grotesque flavor. But after all, the hero with his sincerity is really sympathetic to both the author and the reader. Therefore, I don’t want to see in him a cretin, fooled by the system. It is assumed that the reader identifies with the hero and tries to solve exactly those problems that concern the hero. Then there is a clear contradiction between the plot and the semantic line, which already took place in the work "It's hard to be a god" (see above). A well-made plot and embossed characters are difficult to give in when they are tried to be turned into nothing more than instruments of political satire. The fact that the hero in the first part of the novel behaves completely inadequately can be attributed to the costs of the author's original intention. It was assumed that the hero would be an extremely narrow-minded, albeit ideologically correct guy from the future, and, probably, the authors initially tried to emphasize his narrow-mindedness by all possible means. The fact that a person from the future has no idea about money and cigarettes is still understandable, but the fact that he does not know how to behave in completely elementary communicative situations is surprising. Maxim does not see the aggression clearly directed against him, does not notice the presence of constantly repeating generally accepted rituals, does not understand why a completely outsider girl should quit all her affairs and begin to happily communicate with him. Already in the second part of the novel, "Legionnaire", the hero sharply wiser and ceases to look like an infantile idiot. The authors, of course, were more interested in writing about a person who thinks and thinks. But some vestiges of the original version, apparently, have been preserved. Maxim's supermanship, which is somewhat tiring, should be attributed to the same rudiments. “So, he twists coins into a tube ... runs with a man on his shoulders ... Yeah, I already read that. I remember that at this point I thought that the guy was extremely hefty and that they are usually so stupid ”(this is the Prosecutor reading the case of the convicted Sim).

The optimistic ending of the novel, of course, is far-fetched, however, this is quite obvious to both readers and critics. Kaitokh directly wrote about the “imaginary” and depressing “happy ending” of the novel. However, it was obvious to any thinking reader that the Galactic Security Council, if it really tried to influence events on Saraksha, would find itself in the same situation as the loner Maxim Kammerer. And if the Council refuses incorrect forceful intervention, then the only way out will be the position of passive observation, which will naturally lead to the final "It's hard to be a god."

Therefore, we will try to answer the question of whether the novel has value if it is read not in Aesopian, but in “normal” language. Let's not talk about the plot. The plot is well and firmly put together, and there are no complaints about the "Island" as an adventure work. However, the realization of it as a purely adventure work in the format of the film "Inhabited Island" (directed by F. Bondarchuk) is a pitiful sight. The very reality of a state that survived an atomic war and is confidently moving on to the next one is written out very prominently and in relief (by the Strugatskys, not by Bondarchuk). The same goes for characters. Separately, it should be said about the names. Exotic names of heroes are mostly the names of Albanian writers of the 18th-20th centuries. Corporal Variboba is named after Y.Variboba, a prominent 18th-century Arberesh poet. Grameno is the author of patriotic songs and short stories. Ahmet Zogu is one of the Albanian rulers. Zef is a lyric poet of the 19th century. At one time, E. Vitkovsky discovered this.

So, back to the plot. What does Max want? The same thing that Anton-Rumata of Estorsky wanted, what Candide wanted - to go against the logic of history and do good to people against their will, moreover, without even asking them about their desires. What justifies the behavior of Maxim? Firstly, a part of the population, however, very narrow in social terms, he nevertheless asked. Illegal geeks, of course, stand for the change of the existing regime. And since only geeks are capable of sensibly assessing the situation in the country, their words have their own logic. Finally, they are simply humanly pitiful, since their torment from the radiation of the towers is monstrous and is described in great detail in the story. Maxima is supported by his authority by the Galactic Security Council, which is also trying to carefully save this planet, taking into account all the consequences. Finally, Maxim, unlike Rumata, just like Candide in the Forest, becomes a part of this world and therefore considers himself entitled to make decisions for everyone, and not only make decisions, but act. As a result, he acts, destroying the system of towers with their radiation, which affects the psyche of the population. By doing this, he plunges the country into a new round of civil war, into the abyss of disease and hunger. Finally, there is a risk that the Camp of the Fathers will simply cease to be a country, but will become an underdeveloped colony of neighboring Khonti or Pandea.

Within the framework of this problem, one of the most interesting sociological studies is Maxim's dispute with the Sorcerer, whom he meets in the country of mutants. In essence, this is a dispute about the same thing - about the role of the individual in history. The completely fabulous and seemingly illiterate Sorcerer due to his biography, using the concepts of modern philosophy, sociology, political science, convincingly proves to Maxim that any society develops according to a certain internal logic, and it is impossible, and most importantly, it is not necessary to break this logic of historical development:

“Balance…” a loud, hoarse voice suddenly said. “I already told you that, Mac. You didn't want to understand me... But now, I hope you understand... You want to break this balance. Well, it's possible. It's up to you. But the question is - why? Is anyone asking you for this? You made the right choice: you turned to the most miserable, to the most unfortunate, to the people who, in the balance of power, got the heaviest share. But even they do not want to disturb the balance. Then what drives you? .. "

On the other hand, the Wizard admits that new power, which appeared on the historical arena, is able to break this balance, and Maxim is such a force. Maxim really managed to blow up this balance in direct and figuratively. And the question is - why did he manage to do this? Because the course of the historical process really determines the personality, or because the history of this country is already ripe for a decisive change, because “the lower classes no longer wanted, but the upper classes could not” and in this case it is not so important that the Center was blown up by the superhero Maxim Kamerer? The very logic of history led to the fact that the Center should be discovered and destroyed in the near future, either due to the concerted actions of the underground, or due to disagreements in the upper echelons of power. The scenes described in the novel make it easy to substantiate both the first and second options.

The continuation of these arguments about the role of the individual in history is contained in S. Lukyanenko's dilogy "Star Labyrinth". Progressor Nick Riemer, aka earthling Pyotr Khromov, talks with the inhabitants of a boarding school on the planet of Geometers about what history is, what and who it depends on, in which direction the ball of historical progress will roll. This scene takes place precisely on the planet that built a happy communist future, that is, in the homeland of Maxim Kammerer. These arguments of Lukyanenko themselves are sinning with some stylistic prolixities and do not contain anything fundamentally new in the discussion about the paths of history, but, of course, fans and readers of the novel "Inhabited Island" will be curious.

Another plot thread of the novel, which exists outside of political allusions, is connected with the description of the Golovanov civilization. Here, the idea of ​​Contact, which is very relevant for science fiction of all times and peoples, reappears. The Strugatskys show how another civilization is born inside one, clearly hostile to it. Such a civilization of the Amazons originated within the civilization of the Forest, but we did not see the process itself. Candide is already present at the stage when a new civilization has become more powerful than the one that gave birth to it and began to destroy it. The Golovanov civilization, on the other hand, is at the dawn of its existence, and the Strugatskys describe the conditions under which it could theoretically emerge. Apparently, this civilization will not be too favorable to the long-suffering inhabitants of Saraksh. In the "Inhabited Island" Golovans simply reclaim the territory, exterminating the natives. Subsequently, in the story "The Beetle in the Anthill", Golovans, having encountered a hominoid civilization of a higher level, shamelessly study it, and having received everything necessary information, immediately break with it, starting to study the super-civilization of the people, as follows from several phrases casually dropped in the story “Waves extinguish the wind”. Thus, throughout the trilogy, the problem of the emergence of new civilization, its rapid development and spacewalk, contact with other civilizations and rupture of relations. Thus, the authors give a kind of introduction to "interplanetary diplomacy".

But in general, the work is devoid of the depth that was observed in earlier things. There is a fairly obvious political background, there are adventures, there are several interesting philosophical problems that have already been discussed and discussed in sufficient depth in previous works. At the same time, there is a clear inconsistency between the ideology of the work, directed against Soviet officialdom and a lively plot, which should have satisfied official criticism.

Apparently, those commentators on the events who believed that the number of scandals around the ABS name (six abusive articles in the central press in half a year) finally turned into quality, were right, and somewhere it was decided to take the shrews to the nail and roughly punish them. Therefore, the authors tried to write the most "toothless" work.

Despite this, the work nevertheless turned out to be saturated with more than transparent political allusions, so criticism demanded “to remove from the novel as many realities of Russian life as possible (ideally, all without exception) and, above all, the Russian names of the heroes” (“Comments on the Passed” ). As a result, Maxim Rostislavsky turned into Maxim Kammerer. The representative of the Galactic Security Council Pavel Grigoryevich (aka the Wanderer) became Sikorsky. Tanks turned into panzerwagens, penalists into blitztregers, "fool, brat!" - in "Dumkopf, Rotznase!" ... Disappeared from the novel: "footcloths", "prisoners", "shrimp salad", "tobacco and cologne", "orders", "counterintelligence", "lollipops", as well as some proverbs and sayings, like "God marks the rogue." Unknown Fathers - Papa, Father-in-law and Brother-in-law turned into Fiery Creators - Chancellor, Count and Baron. However, the realities of Soviet life were still read quite clearly, and being described in Aesopian language, they even looked more prominent. In any case, the story did not turn out as "cheerful, absolutely ideologically consistent, purely entertaining" as it was intended to be written "by its authors mainly for the sake of money." From the story one can extract both a number of sharp political allusions, and rather abstract, but curious political arguments. However, it is "extract". A truly deep, strong philosophical work "Inhabited Island" is still not. You can't even demand from geniuses that they be geniuses all the time.

In subsequent editions, the original text of the novel has been partially restored. The names of the heroes remained with them, Kammerer remained Kammerer, and Sikorski - Sikorski. Some changes made by the authors under pressure turned out to be so successful that it was decided to keep them - for example, strange-sounding "educated" instead of the banal "prisoners" or "Captain Chachu" instead of "Captain Chachu". But some of the original terms, phrases, phrases and neologisms have returned.

In conclusion, it should be said that the story performed another very important function. It contributed to the further construction of the world of the XXII century. Subsequently, in this world, the action of the works "The Kid", "The Kid from the Underworld", "The Beetle in the Anthill", "The Waves Extinguish the Wind" will unfold. In order for their characters and the world in which they live to look as authentic as possible, both the skeleton of the future and the appropriate surroundings are needed. The story undoubtedly works for this entourage, although its action does not take place on Earth. The memories themselves and the abstract reasoning of Maxim Kammerer provide a lot of information for constructing earthly reality.

Plot

Robinson

The novel takes place in 2157. A space explorer, a young earthling Maxim Kammerer, crashes while trying to land on an unknown planet. Maxim himself remains unharmed, but his ship explodes (later it turns out that it was destroyed by the natives as part of a program to clean up the territory from dangerous devices and mechanisms), thereby cutting off his way back to Earth. Maxim finds himself in the forest, the atmosphere is breathable.

After some time, Maxim meets several natives (including Zef), who take him to a prison camp, where Maxim is being interrogated. As a result, having not received answers to questions from him and not understanding his language, Maxim is sent, accompanied by guardsman Guy Gaal, to a certain science Center, in which he is being studied (only much later does Maxim realize that it was a television studio copying his unusual mentahrams (memories), and not attempts to establish Contact). Then Maxim, who already understands a few words, is taken from the center by some person (Funk) and taken to the city. On the way, the latter becomes ill, he is pulled out of the car and Maxim is left to his own devices. After walking around the city, Maxim goes to a diner, where he meets a young girl Radu Gaal, Gay Gaal's sister, and escorts her home. On the way they are attacked by armed bandits. Using the physical abilities of the earthlings of 2157, supernatural for ordinary people, Maxim easily copes with the bandits, putting two to flight and killing or seriously injuring the rest.

Maxim cannot convince anyone of his earthly origin: due to the peculiarities of the atmosphere and the monstrous refraction, the surface of the planet seems to be concave, and the inhabitants of Saraksh are sure that they live on the inner surface of the sphere, in the only existing world. Maxim's attempts to state the real state of affairs would have led to the fact that he was declared crazy. He says he has lost his memory. Because of his unusual physical abilities and poor knowledge of the realities of the life of the Country of the Fathers, those around him believe that he is either a savage (highlander) or a mutant from distant lands. They call him Mac Sim.

At this time, Funk is looking for him on behalf of the Wanderer, a very influential person.

Guardsman

At home at the Rada, Maxim meets her family and, thanks to Guy Gaal, gets into the guard as a candidate.

Maxim gets acquainted with the official doctrine, according to which the overwhelming majority of the population, supporting the rulers of the country - the wise and just "Unknown Fathers", who managed to stop the civil war, are opposed by "geeks" - cruel outcasts trying to destroy the PBZ (anti-ballistic protection) towers, bribed by the neighboring state of Khonti . Geeks can be recognized by bouts of headache.

Maxim is impressed by the sincere enthusiasm with which the population supports the Unknown Fathers and the guard, and Guy Gaal, his sister and uncle are sympathetic. Maxim participates in the operation to arrest the geeks, and then is present at the interrogation and sentencing. Against his expectations, the degenerates turn out to be ordinary convinced, often smart and courageous people, the trials of them are quick (a few minutes), and the sentences are cruel. Maxim begins to doubt the official version. Guards captain Chachu appoints Maxim a "test of blood": he orders to shoot the captured geeks. Instead, Maxim lets them go, after which he refuses to obey the captain. Chachu shoots Maxim, but he survives thanks to the phenomenal abilities of an inhabitant of the Earth. Maxim finds representatives of the underground in order to find out what is really happening.

At this time, the Unknown Fathers, concerned about the economic situation in the country and the spread of their influence abroad, decide on a war with Khonti, which is supported by Umnik - the State Prosecutor.

Terrorist

Underground workers (all of them are geeks) take Maxim and tell him that no ballistic missiles neighboring states- Khonti and Pandey - no. Moreover, they cannot be on the southern border: there is a desert inhabited by dying mutants. The real purpose of the towers, according to the geeks, is to emit radiation that causes headaches in a small part of the population in order to declare them enemies. For 20 years, the underground has been destroying these towers with varying success (which, however, are restored within a matter of days).

Maxim considers this activity senseless and harmful, but agrees to participate in the operation. Maxim, along with other underground workers, manages to blow up the tower. At the same time, four underground workers die. The operation turns out to be a security trap. Maxim manages to escape and returns to Guy and Rada Gaal's apartment. Maxim tells them what he has learned, but neither Guy nor Rada admits the idea that the Unknown Fathers are wrong or lying. Guy believes that the geeks have circled Maxim around his finger.

Maxim, Guy and Radu are arrested. Maxim and the captured geeks are sent south to clear the southern borders of old military equipment and mines, destroy mutants and build a PBZ network further south.

Upon learning of this, the Stranger asks the State Prosecutor to hand Maxim over to him. The prosecutor agrees, but having studied the case of Mak Sim, and himself amazed by his physical characteristics (especially immunity to radiation), he orders to immediately deliver the exiled to himself, and inform the Stranger about the death of Maxim.

Convict

In the camp, Maxim falls into the squad of Zef (a degenerate, previously known psychiatrist Allu Zef) and learns from the underground the whole truth about the towers. The truth is terrible. The radiation of the Towers actually constantly has a hypnotic effect on people, forcing them to blindly believe in government propaganda and follow the orders of the rulers. Twice a day, it intensifies, causing euphoria and enthusiastic admiration for the authorities in people. Only a small part of the population, called degenerates, is not affected by hypnotic radiation, but when it intensifies, they experience terrible pain. The Unknown Fathers themselves are also degenerates. "Immunity" to radiation gave them the opportunity to seize and hold power over the country for a long time. The retribution is the same suffering that all other geeks experience and from which even strong painkillers cannot save. The main goal of some of the leaders of the underground is the destruction of the system of relay towers to save the population from being duped, and especially the destruction of the Center - the main emitter of the country. Other leaders of the underground want to seize control of the towers for their own purposes. That is why the purpose of the towers is hidden not only by the authorities, but also by the leadership of the underground.

Being in the camp, and accidentally discovering the Fortress with Zef (no longer working command post for military equipment control), Maxim first meets Golovans - very smart dogs with big heads. Golovans play an important role in other works of Mir Poludnya.

Maxim decides to run away from the camp. The territory is not guarded, but there is radiation around, so the prisoners cannot escape. Maxim, however, is not afraid of radiation (another phenomenal ability of earthlings of the future). He fixes up an old tank and steals it (while Mac Sim is declared dead). Having escaped and picked up Gaius exiled to the border along the way, Maxim finds himself in the south in the once flourishing part of the empire, and now a desert scorched by an atomic war, where mutant people live, suffering from radiation and oppressed from all sides by the guards and wild people from the south. After leaving the zone of action of the towers, Maxim tells Guy the true state of things and convinces him that he is right. The absence of hypnotic radiation has a detrimental effect on Guy's condition - he has all the manifestations of an abstinence syndrome.

Maxim's attempts to raise a mutant uprising or convince them to ally with the southern savages to attack the Country of the Fathers are unsuccessful: the mutants are weak physically and morally; all they need is to live another 10-20 years. He argues with the Sorcerer (a surprisingly intelligent mutant) about whether one person can influence the history of millions of masses and whether it is possible for a society to achieve the ideals of spiritual and physical freedom.

After failing to raise an uprising, the leader of the mutants (former Colonel medical service Empire) gives Maxim one of the last planes on the planet - a huge bomb carrier. Maxim decides to make an alliance with the Island Empire, a remote country with a strong navy, whose white submarines sometimes attack the Country of the Fathers. Together with Guy, he flies there. In flight, Maxim accidentally falls into the zone of action of the towers and sees that Guy is still succumbing to the influence of radiation, but now his fanatical devotion is already directed at Maxim personally. The plane is shot down by an automatic air defense system left over from the war. Maxim guesses that it is possible that his spaceship was shot down and blown up by her. Maxim manages to land the downed plane in the sea on the water and save himself and Guy. Near the shore, Maxim and Guy find a half-sunken and abandoned white submarine, and in it is an album with photographs of the massacres of the inhabitants of the Country of the Fathers and mutants (including the mass execution of children), reflecting the ideology of the Island Empire. It is clear to them that any alliance with the Island Empire is out of the question.

earthling

Having learned that the Country of the Fathers started a war with Khonti - a former part of a single Empire, Maxim and Guy return. Like most prisoners, they are sent to the front to clear minefields in front of the troops. Funk finds him there, but Maxim does not agree to leave his friends. During the battle, Guy dies, but Maxim manages to survive and enters the Institute under the guidance of the mysterious Wanderer, one of the most influential members of the Government. He agrees to work there. The Stranger himself is on a long trip.

The war leads to the defeat of the Country of the Fathers. The public prosecutor, who was a supporter of the war, understands that for this the Fathers should execute him in a few days. He contacts Maxim and reports the coordinates of the Center that controls the entire system of towers. Maxim, using phenomenal physical abilities, insensitivity to radiation and connections with the underground, destroys the Center. While attempting to kill the Traveler, who appears to be the main villain up to this point, it is revealed that the Traveler is actually Earthman Rudolph Sikorsky, a Galactic Security worker, and also that Rada is alive and in the Traveler's residence. The Wanderer accuses Maxim of spoiling the carefully prepared plan for saving the planet Saraksh by his own initiative and points out some of its shortcomings. So radiation starvation in 20% of cases ends in schizophrenia; the restoration of the economy and economy requires the decontamination of almost the entire soil cover of the planet; famine and inflation are approaching the state. In addition, the Island Empire is preparing a major invasion of the Land of the Fathers, which is difficult to stop without "black radiation" (radiation that causes severe depression).

Maxim remains on the planet. He states that his main goal is to prevent anyone from building zombie towers again, even with the best of intentions. Otherwise, he is ready to obey Sikorski. Sikorski doesn't mind.

Main heroes

• Maxim Kammerer- Researcher of the Free Search Group (GSP) from Earth.
• Wanderer, he is Rudolph Sikorsky- one of the Unknown Fathers (members of the government), a secret agent of the Earth's Galactic Security Council.
• Guy Gaal- Corporal of the Guard, then a private in the army, then a deserter and a prisoner, a friend and colleague of Kammerer.
• Rada Gaal- Guy's sister, in love with Maxim.
• Allu Zef- underground worker, former psychiatrist professor, repressed by the regime.
• State Attorney, he is smart ass- one of the Unknown Fathers, the head of the justice system, weaving intrigues against the Wanderer.

History of creation and publication

Cover of the first book edition in 1971

The very idea to write a novel was born on June 12, 1967, when an entry appeared in Boris Strugatsky's working diary: "We need to compose an application for an optimistic story about contact." It was a difficult time for writers when The Tale of Troika was rejected by Detgiz and Young Guard. The novel was written within six months.

In the novel, the inhabitants of Saraksh, due to the dense atmosphere and strong refraction, believe that they live in a spherical cavity inside the firmament and walk with their heads towards the center of the ball. According to Boris Strugatsky, the authors were inspired by the idea of ​​a hollow planet, described by Vladimir Obruchev in the novel Plutonia.

The hollow earth theory is a very old theory. We read about it long before Pavel and Bergier (whom we also read). The most famous example in Russia is Obruchev's "Plutonium". We applied this theory to Saraksh solely for reasons of plot convenience: to exclude the very possibility of an “alien” explanation by the natives of the origin of our Poppy.

Boris Strugatsky, OFF-LINE interview

According to the memoirs of Boris Strugatsky, "Inhabited Island" was subjected to strict censorship:

In the "Neva" they demanded: to reduce; throw out words like "motherland", "patriot", "fatherland"; Mack must not be allowed to forget Hitler's name; clarify the role of the Wanderer; emphasize the presence of social inequality in the Country of the Fathers; replace the Galactic Security Commission with another term (abbreviation!) ...

In Detgiz (at first) they demanded: to reduce; remove naturalism in the description of the war; clarify the role of the Wanderer; obscure the social structure of the Country of the Fathers; decisively exclude the very concept of "Guard" (say, replace it with "Legion"); decisively replace the very concept of "Unknown Fathers"; remove words like “social democrats”, “communists”, etc.

“What is a telegraph pole? This is a well-edited pine." It was not possible to bring the "Inhabited Island" to the state of the pillar, moreover, the pine remained a pine, despite all the tricks of the chopsticks in civilian clothes, but there was still plenty of firewood, and even more turned out to be spoiled by the author's blood and frayed author's nerves. And this exhausting struggle for the final and irreproachable ideological disinfection lasted for almost two years.

Boris Strugatsky, "Comments on the past"

After the release of the magazine version, denunciations and direct accusations of being anti-Soviet began to pour in the Neva. On June 13, 1969, the manuscript was confiscated in Detgiz.

The essence of the claims of censorship was reduced to the requirement to remove all hints of the realities of the patronal life and, above all, Russian names. Thus, Maxim Rostilavsky became Maxim Kammerer, Pavel Grigorievich became Rudolf Sikorsky, Unknown Fathers, Papa, Father-in-law and Brother-in-law were renamed Fiery Creators, Chancellor, Count and Baron. And so on, including the disappearance of "footcloths" and the replacement of "tanks" with "panzervagens".

5 months after the submission of the manuscript with corrections to the censorship department of Glavlit, permission was received for publication. The book went out of print in January 1971. After this publication, the publication of the Strugatskys' book editions was almost stopped for a whole decade. In the publications that began to appear after 1991, according to Yuri Fleishman, the authors restored 896 places in the novel, changed to suit the Soviet censorship.

Reviews

Mass brainwashing people with the help of rather primitive technical means and in the name of some obscure goals ("Inhabited Island"). In fact, these models are not so neutral to our world. By depicting this triumph of things as something fatal, inexorable and not subject to the social will of people, the authors - voluntarily or involuntarily - devalue the role of our ideas, the meaning of our struggle, everything that is dear to the people. The social equivalent of their paintings and plots is, at best, the proclamation of pessimism, the ideological demoralization of man.

V. Svininnikov. "Shine and poverty" of "philosophical" fiction" - "Journalist", 1969, No. 9

After getting acquainted with the "Inhabited Island" I thought: is it possible to find such, at least the most primitive zero-transmitter, which would tell respected science fiction writers in secret: spare the reader. Take care of such a trifle as literary images, come up with situations that carry at least a minimum supply of general interest information. Otherwise, in the words of the authors of The Inhabited Island, no escape from this gray, dull, deplorable boredom is foreseen for him.

"Inhabited Island" resembles a well-made, professionally made movie. The plot is captivating. The reader is in suspense until the last page. The denouement is unexpected. You can’t say about this story that the end is clear from the very beginning. And scene after scene is written as if you are watching it on a screen. Another merit of the story is good humor.

- I. Bestuzhev-Lada. "This wonderful world... "-" Literary newspaper", 1969, September 3

“Maxim Kammerer, Toivo Glumov… Ask science fiction lovers, and they will immediately give you dozens of names of people - science fiction heroes who made no less, and at times even more impression on them than the heroes, so to speak, of ordinary realistic literature. They do not fall out, do not get out of our perception of modernity, do not violate the whole picture. Like all true masters of the word, the Strugatskys draw characters familiar to us from life. And the more incredible the situation in which they find themselves, the more interesting. Don't we feel the same when we read about the adventures of Shukshin's heroes?

N. Koptyug. "Hero of Our Time" - "Siberian Lights", 1988, No. 8

Publications

In periodicals

• "Inhabited Island" The first chapter of the story ... Magazine Knowledge is power. . - N 12. - P. 52-54.
• "Inhabited Island" Fantastic adventure story. - From abbr. / Art. B. Vlasov // Neva. - . - N 3. - S. 86-130; N 4. - S. 85-127; N 5. - S. 90-140.
• "Inhabited Island" An excerpt from the story / Foreword "Through the fetters of a closed world" by R. Koposov; Afterword “Instead of an epilogue” by A. Strugatsky: Interview / Recorded by S. Shnegas // “Komsomolets of Tataria”. - . - Aug 3 - p. 4.

Book publications

• "Inhabited Island" Fantastic. story / Foreword publishing houses; Managing editor N. M. Berkova. Art editor L. D. Biryukov. Technical editor N. Yu. Zaporozhets. Proofreaders E. N. Sizova and K. P. Tyagelskaya. Artist Y. Makarov. - M.: Children's literature, . - 320 s, illustration. - (Library of Adventure and Science Fiction). - 100,000 copies.
• Collection "Beetle in the anthill". Novels / Comp. R. Sekachev; Foreword "The Duty of Thought" by A. Zerkalov; Artistic V. Chupin, L. Nikitin. - Chisinau: Lumina, . - 588 p., ill. - (Adventure World). - 100,000 copies. Including "Inhabited Island" - S. 13-245.
• Collection "Waves extinguish the wind." Tale / Afterword "Brothers in Reason" G. Prashkevich; Artistic V. Staradymov. - Tomsk: Prince. publishing house, . - 592 p., ill. - 100,000 copies. Including "Inhabited Island" - S. 4-279.
• "Inhabited Island" From the original author's edition / Foreword by V. Kazakov; Artistic Y. Makarov // "Monday" (Abakan). - . - N 43. - S. 2.
• Collection "Waves extinguish the wind." Tale / Afterword “Brothers in Reason” by G. Prashkevich; Artistic V. Staradymov. - Tomsk: Prince. publishing house, . - 592 p., ill. - 150.000 copies. Including "Inhabited Island" - S. 4-279.
• Tale / Art. A. Nazarenko. - M.: Ibis, CDI, 1992. - 560 p., illustration. - 100.000 copies. Including "Inhabited Island" - S. 1-265.
• "Inhabited island. Kid" / Foreword of the publishing house; "Publications" by A. Kerzin; Artistic V. Lyubarov. - M.: Text, 1993. - 432 p., ill. - (Collected works: in 10 volumes; V. 6). - 225,000 copies. Including "Inhabited Island": Tale / Foreword. authors. - S. 5-295.
• Collection "Waves extinguish the wind" / Khudozh. V. Kruzhkovsky. - M.: . - 576 p., ill. - (Bella Fanta). - 100,000 copies. Including "Inhabited Island" - S. 3-275.
• Collection "Inhabited Island". Moscow: Eksmo, . Contents: Inhabited island. Beetle in an anthill. ISBN 5-7516-0081-9
• "Inhabited island. Baby". Fantastic. novels / Foreword by S. Pereslegin “The Last Ships of the Free Search” (pp. 5-7); Ser. issued S. Gertseva, A. Kudryavtsev; Il. Ya. Ashmarina; Artistic A. Dubovik; Comp. N. Yutanov; Layout design by A. Nechaev; Rep. ed. N. Yutanov; Ed. L. Filippov; Region design A. Kudryavtseva. - M .: LLC "Publishing House AST
• "Inhabited island. Baby". Fantastic. novels / Foreword by S. Pereslegin “The Last Ships of the Free Search” (pp. 5-7); Ser. issued S. Gertseva, A. Kudryavtsev; Il. Ya. Ashmarina; Artistic A. Dubovik; Comp. N. Yutanov; Layout design by A. Nechaev; Rep. ed. N. Yutanov; Ed. L. Filippov; Region design A. Kudryavtseva. - M.: LLC "AST Publishing House"; St. Petersburg: Terra Fantastica, . - 544 s - (Worlds of the Strugatsky brothers). 5 100 copies (p) ISBN 5-17-000643-8; ISBN 5-7921-0083-7.
• Collected works in 11 volumes: Vol. 5. 1967-1968 / Ed. ed. S. Bondarenko, L. Filippova; Textologist. works by S. Bondarenko; Designed covers by A. Nechaev. - Donetsk: Stalker; St. Petersburg: Terra Fantastica, . - 671 pages, 10,000 copies. (p) ISBN 966-596-445-3; ISBN 966-596-450-X; ISBN 5-7921-0419-0. Including "Inhabited Island" - S. 315-634.
• "Inhabited island. Baby". Fantastic. novels / Foreword by S. Pereslegin “The Last Ships of the Free Search” (pp. 5-7); Ser. issued S. Gertseva, A. Kudryavtsev; Il. Ya. Ashmarina; Artistic A. Dubovik; Comp. N. Yutanov; Layout design by A. Nechaev; Rep. ed. N. Yutanov; Ed. L. Filippov; Cover design by A. Kudryavtsev. - M.: LLC "AST Publishing House"; St. Petersburg: Terra Fantastica, . - 544 s - (Worlds of the Strugatsky brothers). 5 100 copies (p) ISBN 5-17-001848-7; ISBN 5-7921-0083-7.
• Collection "Inhabited Island. Baby. Beetle in an anthill. Waves extinguish the wind ": Fantastic. novels / Art. A. Dubovik. - M.: LLC "AST Publishing House"; SPb.: Terra Fantastica, 2002. - 795 p. - (Classics of Russian science fiction). 10,000 copies (p) ISBN 5-17-014244-7; ISBN 5-7921-0531-6. Including "Inhabited Island" - S. 5-316.
• "Inhabited Island" Fantastic. novel. - M.: LLC "AST Publishing House"; Donetsk: Stalker, 2003. - 414 p. - (Worlds of the Strugatsky brothers). 5,000 copies (o) ISBN 5-17-019594-X; ISBN 966-696-186-5.
• Collection "Inhabited Island". Fantastic. novels / Ser. issued artistic E. Savchenko; Rep. ed. A. Ermolaev; Issue. ed. S. Abovskaya; Artistic ed. E. Savchenko; In the design binding isp. artist's work M. Whelan. - M.:

Arkady Strugatsky, Boris Strugatsky

inhabited island

inhabited island

Part one

ROBINSON

CHAPTER FIRST

Maxim opened the hatch, leaned out and looked apprehensively at the sky. The sky here was low and somehow hard, without this frivolous transparency, hinting at the bottomlessness of the cosmos and the multiplicity of inhabited worlds - a real biblical firmament, smooth and impenetrable. This firmament undoubtedly rested on the mighty shoulders of the local Atlas and uniformly phosphorescent. Maxim looked at the zenith for a hole pierced by the ship, but there was no hole there - only two large black blots blurred there, like drops of carcass in water. Maxim opened the hatch wide open and jumped into the tall, dry grass.

The air was hot and thick, smelling of dust, old iron, crushed greenery, life. It also smelled of death, old and incomprehensible. The grass was waist deep; not far away thickets of bushes darkened, somehow dull, crooked trees stuck out. It was almost light, like on a bright moonlit night on Earth, but there were no moon shadows and no lunar hazy blue. Everything was grey, dusty, flat. The ship stood at the bottom of a huge hollow with gentle slopes; the countryside rose visibly towards a blurry, indistinct horizon, and this was strange, because somewhere nearby a river flowed, large and calm, flowing westward, up the slope of the basin.

Maxim walked around the ship, running his hand along its cold, slightly damp side. He found impact marks where he expected. A deep, unpleasant dent under the indicator ring is when the ship was suddenly thrown up and turned sideways, so that the cyberpilot was offended and Maxim had to hastily take control, and a notch near the right pupil - this is ten seconds later, when the ship was put on the bow and he crooked. Maxim again looked at the zenith. The black spots were barely visible now. A meteorite attack in the stratosphere, the probability is zero point zero-zero ... But after all, every possible event will someday come true ...

Maxim slipped into the cockpit, switched control to auto repair, activated the express laboratory and headed for the river. An adventure, of course, but still a routine. Boredom. In our GSP, even adventures are routine. Meteor attack, beam attack, landing accident. Landing accident, meteorite attack, beam attack... Adventures of the body.

The tall brittle grass rustled and crunched underfoot, the prickly seeds dug into his shorts. With an itchy ringing, a cloud of some kind of midges swooped in, pushed in front of the face and fell behind. Adult, respectable people do not go to the Free Search Group. They have their own, grown-up, solid affairs, and they know that all these alien planets are essentially monotonous and tedious. Monotonously boring. Tiringly monotonous ... Of course, if you are twenty years old, if you really don’t know how, if you really don’t know what you would like to be able to do, if you haven’t learned to appreciate your main asset - time, if you don’t have and don’t foresee any - or special talents, if the dominant of your being at twenty years old, as ten years ago, is not the head, but hands and feet, if you are so primitive that you imagine that on unknown planets you can find some kind of treasure that is impossible on Earth, if , if, if… then… of course. Then take the catalog, open it on any page, point your finger at any line and fly yourself. Discover the planet, call it by its own name, determine physical characteristics, fight monsters, if there are any, make contacts, if there is someone, little by little Robinson, if you don’t find anyone ... And it’s not that all this is in vain. They will thank you, they will tell you that you have made a feasible contribution, some prominent specialist will call you for a detailed conversation ... Schoolchildren, especially those who are lagging behind and certainly younger, will look at you with respect, but the teacher will only ask: in GSP? - and he will turn the conversation to another topic, and his face will be guilty and sad, because he takes responsibility for the fact that you are still in the GSP. And the father will say: "Hm ..." - and hesitantly offer you a place as a laboratory assistant; and my mother will say: “Maksik, but you drew well as a child ...”; and Peter will say: “How much can you do? Stop being embarrassed…”; and Jenny will say: "Meet my husband." And everyone will be right, everyone except you. And you will return to the GSP Office and, trying not to look at two of the same dumbass rummaging through the catalogs at the neighboring rack, you will take another volume, open a page at random and poke your finger ...

Before going down the cliff to the river, Maxim looked around. Behind him, the grass that he had crushed was bristling, straightening, the gnarled trees blackened against the sky, and the small circle of the open hatch shone. Everything was very familiar. All right, he told himself. - Well, let ... It would be nice to find a civilization, powerful, ancient, wise. And human…” He went down to the water. The river was really big, slow, and with a simple eye you could see how it descends from the east and rises to the west. (The refraction here, however, is monstrous...) And it was clear that the other bank was flat and overgrown with dense reeds, and a kilometer upstream, some pillars and crooked beams, warped lattice trusses, shaggy with climbing plants, stick out of the water. "Civilization," Maxim thought without much excitement. A lot of iron was felt around, and something else was felt, unpleasant, stuffy, and when Maxim scooped up a handful of water, he realized that this was radiation, quite strong and harmful. The river carried radioactive substances from the east, and it became clear to Maxim that there would be little use from this civilization, that again it’s not that it’s better not to start contact, but you need to do standard analyzes, circle the planet unnoticed around the equator twice and get out, and on Earth to hand over the materials to serious, experienced uncles from the Galactic Security Council and quickly forget about everything. Forget everything...

He shook his fingers in disgust and wiped them on the sand, then squatted down and thought. He tried to imagine the inhabitants of this planet, hardly a prosperous planet. Somewhere beyond the forests was a city, hardly a prosperous city: dirty factories, decrepit reactors dumping radioactive slop into the river, ugly, wild houses with iron roofs, many walls and few windows, dirty gaps between houses, littered with garbage and corpses of domestic animals. , a large ditch around the city and drawbridges ... Although no, this was before the reactors. And people. He tried to imagine these people, but he couldn't. He only knew that they were wearing a lot, they were actually wrapped in thick, coarse cloth, and they had high white collars that rubbed their chins. Then he saw footprints in the sand.

They were bare footprints. Someone went down the cliff and went into the river. Someone with big wide feet, heavy, clumsy, clumsy - no doubt a humanoid, but he had six toes on his feet. Moaning and groaning, he slid off the cliff, hobbled along the sand, plunged into the radioactive water with a splash and, snorting and snoring, swam to the other side, into the reeds. Without taking off the high white collar...

A bright blue flash lit up everything around, as if lightning had struck, and at once there was a rumble, hiss, and fiery crackle over the cliff. Maxim jumped up. Dry earth tumbled down the cliff, something with a dangerous screech swept through the sky and fell in the middle of the river, raising a fountain of spray mixed with white steam. Maxim hastily ran up the cliff. He already knew what had happened, but did not understand why, and he was not surprised when he saw in the place where the ship had just stood, a swirling column of red-hot smoke, a giant corkscrew going into the phosphorescent firmament. The ship burst, the ceramite shell blazed with purple light, the dry grass around it burned merrily, the bushes burned, and gnarled trees were engaged in smoky lights. The furious heat hit his face, and Maxim shielded himself with his palm and backed away along the cliff - one step, then another step, then another and another ... a sudden volcano, from the senseless riot of unbridled energy.

"Inhabited Island" was conceived by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky in the summer of 1967, after publishing houses refused to publish their "Tale of the Troika". Later, Boris Strugatsky wrote in his Commentary on the Past: “I remember very well how...

"Inhabited Island" was conceived by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky in the summer of 1967, after publishing houses refused to publish their "Tale of the Troika". Later, Boris Strugatsky wrote in his “Comments on the Past”: “I remember very well how, discouraged and angry, we said to each other:“ Oh, you don’t want satire? Do you no longer need the Saltykov-Shchedrins? Do you care about today's problems? Oh, very good! You will get a thoughtless, brainless, absolutely toothless, entertaining, without a single idea novel about the adventures of a boy-fucker, a Komsomol member of the 22nd century.

The story was finished in May 1968 and published at the beginning of 1969 in the Neva. Then the main character's name was Maxim Rostislavsky, the Stranger - Pavel Grigorievich: the "German" names Maxim Kammerer and Rudolf Sikorsky appeared in 1971. Then, for publication in Detgiz, the Strugatskys, at the request of the censors, carried out a “titanic purge”, destroying any parallels with reality. Footcloths and prisoners, counterintelligence, tobacco and cologne, liberals, communists and social democrats disappeared from the story. Unknown Fathers - Papa, Father-in-law and Brother-in-law, became Fiery Creators - Chancellor, Count and Baron. The Galactic Security Commission became the Galactic Security Service in the magazine version. A total of 896 corrections were made to the book. Two decades later, "Inhabited Island" was printed in the author's edition - only the heroes remained with German names.

Despite the censorship exceptions, readers quickly discovered "undesirable associations" in the story. However, because it was considered "anti-fascist" and even "infused with revolutionary romance", it did not bring trouble to the authors. Then perestroika began, and "Inhabited Island" became a fantasy. And now, when the fictional world of the "Island" and reality are becoming frighteningly similar, a film by Fyodor Bondarchuk has appeared. The film is undeniably successful.

In my mind - I first read "The Island" in the summer of '69 in a magazine version - the world of Saraksh should have looked a little different. The wanderer in the story is “bald as an ass, tall, with round green eyes and large protruding ears, in an eternal ridiculous knee-length jacket”, and the underground Tick Fescu, nicknamed Vepr, is “a dry, wiry, crippled old man”, whose role is clearly not for Gosha Kutsenko, as well as the role of the underground fighter Ptitsa - Ordi Tader (in the book she is “white and almost transparent”) - not for Anna Mikhalkova. "Red face" Zef in the book has a remarkable beard, but the hero of Sergei Garmash does not. Funk in the Strugatskys is fat, with a square, scaly face and red swollen eyes. The Pied Piper Gang, which Maxim cracks down on, in the book consists of "wet, miserable and stooped" characters, while in the film they resemble ninjas. And the Guard seems to have been written off from the American Starship Troopers.

Apparently, wanting to modernize the plot, Bondarchuk included in his film something that was missing in the story. So, the Unknown Fathers “put in their place the bastards who, after the collapse of the empire, picked up fat pieces.” And the neighbors of Saraksh - Khonti and Pandeya - are “our former provinces, we have one history with them, and they will never be able to forgive us for this” (in the book, the Khonti are “the worst external enemies of our state, before the war they obeyed us, and now viciously avenge"). And the TV announcer reports that the troops "rebuffed the aggressor in response to the attack on the border guards" ...

All this does not change the assessment of the film, which conveys the main thing - the image of a totalitarian world, where power rests on "brainwashing", devotion to leaders and hatred of "geeks" who are immune to the radiation of "towers", forcing "to lose the ability to critically analyze reality." Where everything is put at the service of the State, which reigns supreme over the life of anyone. Where extreme poverty in the "Unprosperous Areas" is combined with a fanatical belief in the need to devote all forces to the needs of defense. Where they say about the fallen away provinces: "Return the reptiles to the bosom, having previously severely punished."

I will wait for the second film with interest, although the Strugatskys' "Inhabited Island" will end in mid-sentence - when Maxim, having destroyed the Center that controls the zombie radiation, realizes that the most difficult thing is just beginning.

Boris Strugatsky: “But there is also a second part…”

- How different is the movie from the book?

The excessive exoticism of clothes interferes a little. In Saraksha, people dressed like we did in the late forties. And behaved like us (if not in fits of enthusiasm). And the guards looked more like the enkavedeshniki, and not like the American paratroopers. But the general impression is without any dissonance.

- Which of the fragments of the book that were not included in the film was fundamentally important to show?

I've only seen the first part so far. I have no serious comments.

-To what extent do on-screen heroes correspond to your ideas about them?

Of course, Mac, Wanderer, Egghead, Zef are in place. Guy, Rada, Chachu could be brighter. Disappointed Funk, Vepr, Ordi ... General impression rather good.

In the book, Maxim, who has just appeared on Saraksha, is very different from Maxim at the moment of his escape from hard labor, which ends the first film. And the on-screen hero does not change.

Yes, this is the film's weak point. But there is still the second part - it is there that the final transformation of the inhabitant of the World of Noon into a man of the Disfigured World takes place. Let's see…

- How understandable is the film to those who have not read the book?

I am afraid that many things will be misunderstood, and some things will remain incomprehensible. The notion of the Noon World will pass by the minds of most young people. I'm already getting bewildered letters: why doesn't Mac know that you have to pay for food in a cafe? You can't get food if you don't work. As a last resort, it is necessary to present a certificate stating that you have worked well and have the right to eat. I'm not sure that the mass audience will figure out who are "geeks" and who are not. Why do the Fathers respect the Stranger so much? I guess many viewers will not understand that the Wanderer is preparing a universal "painkiller" for the authorities. And so on.

Khonti and Pandeya are former colonies of the empire, towards which hatred is carefully cultivated in Saraksha. Against the backdrop of conflicts with Georgia and Ukraine, it sounds more than modern.

This is certainly a common phenomenon for all empires. You don't have to be a prophet to predict this.

Did England hate India or Australia, Spain hate the Netherlands and Cuba, and Portugal hate Brazil or Angola?

And how did the peoples who settled down treat Turkey? And Algeria and Vietnam - to France? It all depends on the circumstances - what kind of empire it was, how it treated the conquered. In any case, hostility to the former metropolis is a common phenomenon.

- And hostility to the former colonies?

Well, don't forget the towers! Both for them and for us. Without the "towers" the sharpness of the rejection would have dropped by many degrees. And in general, hostility is based on, on the one hand, a relic desire to restore the lost status quo, and on the other hand, an equally acute fear that the status quo will begin to be restored. If not for this dichotomy, Russia's relations with the former colonies would approach ideal. And Russia would generally have a completely different image in the world.

Organization "Communists of St. Petersburg and Leningrad region"made claims: the film does not reflect the communist views of Maxim, who helps the "underground communists" in Saraksha.

Somersaults of propaganda. Today, it is important for ideologists that the words “communism”, “underground revolutionary”, “Marxism”, “social democracy” sound more often in the film, and forty years ago it was required that there were fewer such words (ideally, not at all) so that the reader does not have the opportunity to establish the similarities between Saraksh and Mother Earth.

Today in Russia there are many people who, like in Saraksha, have a suppressed ability to critically perceive reality. Maybe the "towers" are already standing, but we don't know about it?

They are certainly worth it, and we are well aware of them. Only there is no need for psi-generators and any "wave" fantasy. The friendly and consistent work of the media is quite enough.

Weren't you surprised by the film adaptation of one of the most anti-totalitarian books by the Strugatskys, and even by a director favored by the authorities?

I don't see anything surprising in this venture. The novel, in my opinion, just asked for the screen, and it was either the third or the fourth attempt at a film adaptation. It turned out to be the best of all screen adaptations. Honor and praise to Fyodor Bondarchuk and his "gang" for honest, fearless and incredibly difficult work.