Soviet and Russian writer, screenwriter, translator, who, in collaboration with his brother Arkady Strugatsky, created several dozen works that have become classics of modern science and social fiction. After A. N. Strugatsky died in 1991, he published two independent novels.

Boris Strugatsky was born on April 15, 1933 in Leningrad, where his father Natan Zalmanovich Strugatsky had just been appointed researcher at the State Russian Museum. Boris's mother, Alexandra Ivanovna Litvincheva, was a teacher, taught Russian literature at the same school where Boris studied, after the war she was awarded the title of "Honored Teacher of the RSFSR" and was awarded the Order of the Badge of Honor.

During the Great Patriotic War, the Strugatsky family ended up in besieged Leningrad, and because of Boris's illness in January 1942, Arkady and Natan Zalmanovich Strugatsky went to the evacuation alone, the father dies of exhaustion on the road to Vologda. Only in 1943, the older brother Arkady managed to take his mother and brother Boris to the village of Tashla in the Orenburg (then Chkalov) region. They returned to Leningrad in 1945. In 1950 he graduated from school with a silver medal and was going to enter the Faculty of Physics of Leningrad State University, but was not accepted. Then he applied to the Faculty of Mathematics and Mechanics, which he graduated in 1955 with a degree in astronomy.

After graduating from the University, he entered the graduate school of the Pulkovo Observatory, but did not defend his dissertation, the topic of which was disclosed in 1942 abroad. Then B. Strugatsky worked at the counting station of the Pulkovo Observatory as a maintenance engineer for calculating and analytical machines. In 1960, he took part in a geodetic and astroclimatic expedition to the Caucasus as part of a search for a site for the installation of the Large Telescope of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

Since 1964 - a professional writer, a member of the Writers' Union of the USSR. For several more years he worked part-time at the Pulkovo Observatory. Since 1972 - the head of the Leningrad seminar of young science fiction writers (later became known as the "Boris Strugatsky seminar").

In 1974, the KGB was involved as a witness in the case of Mikhail Kheifets, who was charged with Art. 70 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR (Anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda).

Founder of the Bronze Snail Award. Since 2002 Chief Editor magazine "Noon. XXI Century".

He was married to Adelaide Andreevna Karpelyuk (October 23, 1931 - December 20, 2013), the daughter of Major General A. I. Karpelyuk, whom he met in student years while studying at LSU. Son Andrei (born in 1959).

Boris Natanovich was known as a passionate philatelist, which was reflected in his work.

After a hard and prolonged illness(lymphosarcoma) Boris Natanovich Strugatsky died on November 19, 2012 at the age of 79. In accordance with the writer's will, his body was cremated and on April 5, 2014, the ashes of Boris Strugatsky and his wife were scattered over the Pulkovo Heights.

The main corpus of literary works of Boris Strugatsky was created by him in collaboration with his brother Arkady. It is widely believed that most of them joint works written in genre science fiction. B. N. Strugatsky himself did not think so and preferred to talk about "realistic fantasy", where the central role is assigned to a person and his fate, and other planets or technology of the future are nothing more than "scenery".

Independent works

After the death of Arkady Strugatsky, Boris Strugatsky, according to him own definition, continued to "saw a thick log of literature with a two-handed saw, but without a partner." Under the pseudonym S. Vititsky, his novels The Search for Destiny, or the Twenty-seventh Theorem of Ethics (1994-1995) and The Powerless of This World (2003) were published, which continued the study of inexorable fate and opportunities to influence the surrounding reality.

The Strugatsky brothers were often asked: “How do you write together?” Not only did they live in different cities, so also brothers, and everyone has more than enough ambition. Indeed, there were contradictions, but it did not come to a quarrel. The secret is simple - the brothers initially came up with a scheme for how to “resolve” conflicts if the plots of one work by Arkady and Boris, so to speak, do not converge. They just threw lots. Who won - that and the truth.

Mikhail Veller about who the famous brothers were for a huge country:

Oh, and they were healthy guys! One hundred ninety-two sprout and shoulders under the sixtieth size. Rumor claimed that Arcadia's norm was one and a half liters of cognac. After that, he could talk gracefully and sensibly about literature.

At one of the literary meetings in the Komarovo art house, when Arkady Strugatsky was speaking, in a group of smokers for open doors suddenly muttered:

Let's be quiet guys. Until Arkady drove into the snout. He can do it.

Arkady Natanovich Strugatsky was born in Leningrad in 1925. Boris - in 1933. Eight years difference is a natural reason to younger brother, tutored in boyish life by the elder, was formed under his influence. And later, when the position is equalized with age, the way of thinking and the whole worldview turns out to be common.

At the same time, Arkady was a Japanese philologist, referent-translator and served in uniform for more than one year - on the easternmost borders. Let us note that elements of Japanese coloring, details and terms, rituals and weapons have entered the Russian literature of recent decades precisely from its light - heavy? - arms. Boris, on the contrary, is a stellar astronomer by profession and most During his life he worked at the Pulkovo Observatory. Arkady was a forelock, mustachioed, hoarse and cool. What was set off by Boris's slyly wise smile, friendly manners, sparse hair and lop-eared ears.

They dressed like provincial Soviet engineers. Those flannel shirts, those nylon jackets, those bunny earflaps and shabby pants… Nothing from the heavenly beings, nothing from the glitter of the stars. And small-sized apartments according to Khrushchev's standards in residential areas. The car "Zaporozhets" will adequately complete the portrait of a genius in the interior. High style. Be, not seem to be. Genius does not need paraphernalia and affectation. And it is not determined by the assessment of official instances or their specular reflection- professional hangouts.

In the already distant 1966, young people who would now be called “advanced” read three authors and were proud of it: Bradbury, Lem, Strugatsky. It's Hard to Be a God, a book unsurpassed in its purity and elegance of the ironic-romantic style, made them famous. “Monday starts on Saturday” turned the Strugatskys into idols for countless research institutes and design bureaus, students and laboratory assistants. "Snail on the Slope" attracted aesthetic snobs and sophisticated intellectuals.

"Raznochintsy intelligentsia" - that's how the main reader of the Strugatskys would have been defined a hundred years earlier. The cream of the middle class, the brains and conscience of the country. Those who are in opposition to the authorities, while believing in goodness and in their own strength.

What is amazing: generations change, time flows, and the Strugatskys find readers in each maturing generation, and remain with it, and do not disappear from the shelves.

A strong artistic component. poetic start. The steel core of the plot, about which they repeated so much to their students. transparent tongue like clean water crystal. Lively characters, savory phrases - and calm wisdom without zaum.

“Well, then? When will you defeat your enemies? And establish a fair regime? What will you do then? Sweet to eat? - Yes! Then we will eat sweetly, and drink, and have fun, and freely enjoy life! We deserve it, damn it! - That's it. And then what? - Sorry? I don't understand you, sir. What else?

This dialogue was addressed to us - forty years later, who have dug into this politically correct and civilized world- Dying without a goal and an idea. And don't say you weren't warned!

How do they work together? It was affirmed by a few initiates: one sits at a typewriter and knocks on the keys, sometimes accompanying the appearance of the text by reading aloud. The second is lying on the couch, or drinking coffee in an armchair, or walking around with a cigarette. Sometimes he inserts his own phrase or paragraph, continuing the thought and scene of the co-author. After a few pages or an hour and a half, they change places. Style, intonation, course of action - the same for both. The Strugatskys always avoided direct answers about the technology of co-authorship. They only said that they had been discussing and coordinating everything by phone for a long time: Arkady lived in Moscow, Boris lived in his native Leningrad.

Even under Soviet rule, their fan clubs arose in different cities and played their books. No other Soviet writer could boast of this.

Each of their books starts out as a game. An easy convention, an entertaining tale. Time passes, and you discover that that light fairy-tale world remained in you and gained rigidity: this is ours, the real world in one of its deep beings discovered by the artist's talent.

None of the Soviet writers of this era introduced a new word into the Russian language. Have you heard the word "stalker"? "Roadside picnic" became a steady turnaround.

Not a single modern Soviet writer has been translated so much. Hundreds of publications in all civilized and less civilized languages ​​of the world: exact number difficult to account for (there were reasons for that). They could be rich - but the VAAP (All-Union Copyright Agency) of the USSR took 97 percent (!) Of the fees in favor of the state.

For official criticism, they did not exist. Some envied their brilliance and glory, others considered "real literature" in the form exclusively " critical realism” in defiance of “socialist” realism. For a piece of government pie, the writers ate each other alive, and the squeamish, mocking Strugatskys kept aloof from the "literary process."

Between them and their readers never stood other people's opinions and state lures. And the readers included half of the entire young intelligentsia of the country. The half with a higher forehead and smaller blinders. Then the young intelligentsia became middle-aged, and a new generation of matured schoolchildren was added to the readers.

Their language gave pleasure, the plot was addictive, and the thought made them think. Students, engineers and doctors, lawyers and journalists - the layer from which the elite is formed in normal countries - exchanged Strugatsky phrases like a password.

The Strugatskys never wrote science fiction (in the conventional sense). The Strugatskys wrote harsh and piercing dystopias. They were the only ones in the deaf and impenetrable Soviet empire who managed to be free among all writers.

Dystopia was a forbidden genre: no free-thinking, the party will indicate and predict everything that is needed! But ... "fantasy", youth, light genre, Jules Verne, you know ...

... And the Strugatskys have always been loved for their inflexibility, for their tough and active optimism. Their heroes always fought for what they believed in. They fought with such determined force that victory was inevitable. Even if it was outside the scope of the book.

FACTS FROM THE LIFE OF THE STROGATSKII BROTHERS:

Arkady and Boris Strugatsky are the only ones Russian writers, whose novels in their homeland are abbreviated by readers.

According to one version, the reason for this was the negative attitude of the Soviet authorities towards the work of the Strugatsky brothers after the publication of the novel "Ugly Swans" - allegedly with the help of such a simple cipher, fans of science fiction writers avoided possible troubles with official bodies. According to another, this is due to the fact that after the appearance of their first works, readers shortened the designations to ABS for convenience, and then transferred this principle to the titles of novels.

The Strugatsky brothers guessed the Karpov-Kasparov pair a year before Kasparov was born.

The novel "Noon, XXII century" (1962) mentions the "Kasparo-Karpov method" - a system of hard coding on a crystalline quasi-biomass of a biological code (in fact, a technology for transferring a personality to another medium). Before the start of the famous chess match for the title of world champion between Anatoly Karpov and Garry Kasparov, there were still 22 years left. Anatoly Karpov was then in his eleventh year, and Garry Kasparov was born a year after the release of the novel.

The Strugatsky brothers did not like some of their works. Boris Strugatsky:

"The Tale of Friendship and Non-Friendship" is one of two or three of our stories that "could not have been written." Written under pressure creative process having no relationship. We ourselves didn’t love her - like “Country” (“Country of Crimson Clouds”), “Guy” (“Guy from the Underworld”) and “Baby”.

The total circulation of the Strugatsky brothers' works exceeds 40 million copies. In addition to Russian editions, their books have gone through more than 620 editions in 42 languages ​​in 33 countries around the world.

In the works of the Strugatsky brothers, there are practically no main characters - women.

The vast majority of the main actors Practically all novels, stories and short stories by the Strugatskys are men. Women, if they appear on the pages of works, turn out to be much less prominently written out: for example, Rada Gaal in The Inhabited Island, Red Shewhart's wife in Roadside Picnic, Kira in It's Hard to Be a God.

Boris Strugatsky:“We did not know how, and even, in my opinion, were afraid to write women and about women. Why? Don't know. Maybe because they professed an ancient principle: women and men are creatures of a different breed. It seemed to us that we know and understand men (men themselves), but none of us would dare to say that he knows and understands women. Yes, and children, for that matter! After all, children are, of course, the third special kind sentient beings that live on earth.

The Strugatsky brothers did not consider their work anti-Soviet, and themselves - dissidents.

Despite the fact that the official Soviet authorities and censorship often regarded the works as slanderous, and the work of the Strugatsky brothers was especially popular among dissidents, the writers themselves never considered themselves anti-Soviet or dissidents. The foreign publication of the story "Ugly Swans" only strengthened this attitude, despite the fact that after it the authors had to officially deny the release of the work in the West by publishing a letter on the pages of the Literary Gazette.

Boris Strugatsky:“They (the works of the Strugatsky brothers) are permeated with rejection of totalitarianism and bureaucracy. But since the USSR was a true triumph of totalitarianism and bureaucracy, such our stories as "The Snail on the Slope", "The Tale of the Troika" and even "The Inhabited Island" were perceived by the especially zealous ideologists of the regime precisely as "anti-Soviet".

The Strugatsky brothers did not believe in the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence.

Direct indications of the existence of other civilizations are contained in such novels by the Strugatskys as It's Hard to Be a God, The Kid, The Inhabited Island, Roadside Picnic, and The Dead Climber's Hotel. At the same time, the authors themselves considered the presence of extraterrestrial intelligence precisely as a fantastic idea.

Boris Strugatsky:“I do not believe in the existence of a “other mind” - on Earth, or even in the Universe: I have no reason for this. And although you can still somehow count on the Universe - it is too huge in space and time for at least something (for example, Mind) to exist in it in a single copy, then our Earth, on the contrary, is too small to be so huge, an almost dimensionless, incredibly active thing, like the Mind, could exist here, remaining unnoticed.

“And with Hawking (claiming that the human mind is alone in the universe) I almost agree. And I agree even more with Iosif Shklovsky - this is our wonderful astrophysicist, back in the late 1960s he spoke in the sense that another mind exists in our universe, but is extremely rare. I think he's right. After all, our Universe is so huge in space and time that it would be strange if at least something existed in it in a single copy.

Many now famous science fiction writers are direct students of the Strugatskys.

Not all readers knew about the existence of a literary association under the leadership of Boris Strugatsky. This fact became widely known in 1996 after the release of the first issue of the collection fantastic works"Time of students", in which the works of the members of the literary association were published.

Fantasy without a computer.

According to the recollections of relatives and friends, Arkady Strugatsky was very conservative in technique. Even when brother Boris got his own personal computer, Arkady Natanovich was not tempted electronic novelty and until the end of his days he typed his works on a typewriter.

Arkady Strugatsky knew Japanese very well

Fantast studied at the Military Institute foreign languages, and later served as a divisional translator for Far East. His specialization was English and Japanese. Even after demobilization, translation work foreign literature he didn't leave.

In the works of the Strugatsky brothers, the Bible is often quoted, although they themselves have never been believers.

Numerous quotations from the Gospel and the fame of dissidents forced many readers to see religious overtones in the books of the Strugatsky brothers, and classify their authors as secret believers. In particular, a common interpretation of the image of Maxim Kammerer in the novel "Inhabited Island" was a comparison of his story with the story of Christ, who appeared in the world to atone for his sins by his death. However, the Strugatsky brothers themselves never considered themselves believers or religious people.

Boris Strugatsky:“The fact is that we both highly valued the Gospel (the Old Testament - to a lesser extent) as a brilliant Literary work: an impeccable plot, painfully beautiful intrigue, a hero that boggles the imagination. Quote this text, or paraphrase it, or refer to it freely, or embed it in our new plot gave us real pleasure and seemed very fruitful. Wherein religious ideas The Bibles remained intellectually and emotionally alien to us, while ethics, on the contrary, were understandable and close. Curious situation. In a sense, even implausible.

The expression "And a no brainer" became popular thanks to the Strugatsky brothers

The source of the expression “And it’s clear to a hedgehog” is Mayakovsky’s poem (“It’s clear even to a hedgehog - / This Petya was a bourgeois”). It became widespread first in the Strugatsky story "The Land of Crimson Clouds", and then in Soviet boarding schools for gifted children. They recruited teenagers who had two years left to study (grades A, B, C, D, E) or one year (grades E, F, I).

The students of the one-year stream were called “hedgehogs”. When they came to the boarding school, two-year students were already ahead of them in a non-standard program, so at the beginning school year the expression "no brainer" was very relevant.

Based on the plot of their novels, 17 films were shot.

Among them - "Stalker" by Tarkovsky, "Days of Eclipse" by Alexander Sokurov, "Ugly Swans" by Konstantin Lopushansky, "Inhabited Island" by Fyodor Bondarchuk.

The literary prize of the Strugatsky brothers is awarded on their "average birthday".

“June 21 is “an average birthday (between August 28 and April 15)”, a date that is “official”, of course, is not, but according to tradition, on this day in St. Petersburg the annual literary prize is awarded to them. A. and B. Strugatsky.

International literary prize them. A. and B. Strugatsky was established in 1998 and has been awarded since 1999 in two categories: “For the best piece of art(novel, story, short story)" and "For the best critical and journalistic work about science fiction or on a fantastic theme (article, review, essay, book)". More often than others - three times - the poet, writer, journalist Dmitry Bykov became the laureate in the nomination "Fiction Prose", twice - the writers Mikhail Uspensky and Vyacheslav Rybakov (both from the Leningrad LITO, led by Boris Strugatsky). The most titled winner of the award in the nomination "Criticism and journalism" is the writer Kir Bulychev - he received the award twice.

A joke that became a name.

Writers believe that the true title of a novel often comes after it has been written. But there are exceptions. Boris Strugatsky said: back in the early 60s, one good friend played a trick on him, claiming that in the Leningrad House of Books A new book Ernest Hemingway "Monday Starts Saturday" Boris Natanovich spent half a day looking for this novel. When the deception was revealed, the writer did not resent. But I remembered the invented name of a non-existent work. Strugatsky liked it for its deep aphorism, and later the brothers used it for their famous story.

The principle of creativity

Each writer has his own signs. Boris Strugatsky never answered the question: “What are you working on now?” He considered it almost insulting.

Never say "I do". Always only: “I did it,” he explained to everyone in a row. - Great rule. I recommend.

They came from another planet

Incredible popularity gave rise to many rumors and legends. In the early 1970s, some romantically inclined science fiction fans had the idea of ​​a fix: their favorite authors, the brothers Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, were in fact not people at all, but agents of a powerful extraterrestrial civilization. It came to curiosities. Fantasts received many letters offering them help, since they were "stuck in this time on Earth", apologizing for the fact that modern technology not advanced enough to repair their ship... Perhaps it was highest form recognition of the talent of science fiction writers.

Both brothers, after their death, according to their will, were not only cremated, but their ashes were scattered from a helicopter over the Pulkovo Observatory, where the BNS once worked.

According to materials:

The names of the Strugatsky brothers are Arkady and Boris. They were born on August 28, 1925 and April 15, 1933, respectively. The brothers are Russian and Soviet writers, who also tried themselves as screenwriters and co-authors with other writers. The Strugatskys are considered classics of modern social science fiction in the world of literature.

A family

The brothers' parents are Natan Strugatsky and Alexandra Litvincheva, an art historian and teacher. The name of the father of the Strugatsky brothers speaks of his Jewish origin. Alexandra married against the will of her parents: because of her marriage to a Jew, her relationship with her relatives was severed. The father of the Strugatsky brothers served during civil war commissar of the cavalry brigade, later - a political worker with the Soviet commander Frunze. After demobilization, he became a party functionary in Ukraine. There he met his future wife. In January 1942, the company commander militia and employee public library named after Saltykov-Shchedrin died tragically, while his wife died in extreme old age, shortly after receiving the title of honored teacher Russian Federation and holder of the Order of the Badge of Honor.

First attempts

The Strugatsky brothers began to create their first fantasy worlds even before the war. To be more precise, Arkady was the first to try the pen. According to Boris, it was prose work"The discovery of Major Kovalev", which, unfortunately, was lost during the siege of Leningrad. The first surviving story of Arkady was "How Kang died." In the 50s, he continued his writing attempts, and soon the story "The Fourth Kingdom" appeared. The first real publication of Arkady Natanovich was the story "Bikini Ashes", which he created in collaboration with Lev Petrov while serving in the army. Its author dedicated the sad events during the tests of the hydrogen bomb on the Bikini Atoll.

Boris began to try to write from the beginning of the 50s. The brothers did not lose contact and shared ideas of works in written correspondence and in personal meetings during Arkady's vacations from military service.

First joint work

The first common creation of the two Strugatsky brothers was the science fiction story "From the outside", which they later reworked into a story. This story was published in Technique for Youth in 1958.

In 1959, the brothers published their first book, The Land of Crimson Clouds. According to rumors, this work was created in a dispute with Arkady's wife, Elena Ilyinichnaya. By 1957, a draft of the work was prepared, but the editorial staff postponed publication for a long time. Associated with this work common characters other works: "The Way to Amltea", "Interns" and stories from the debut joint collection of the Strugatsky brothers "Six Matches". Thus began a long cycle about the fantastic world of the future, which was called the World of Noon. According to the authors, they themselves would like to live in this universe.

For many decades the Strugatsky brothers were the best authors Soviet literary fiction. Their multifaceted creations reflected the gradual development writing skills and worldview of the authors. Each written work of the brothers initiated new disputes and lengthy discussions. More than once critics have compared the world of the Strugatskys with fantasy world future Ivan Efremov, which he described in his famous work"Andromeda's nebula".

heyday

The first works of the brothers corresponded to all the framework of socialist realism, but at the same time they retained their unique features: their heroes were not "schematic" - they were endowed with individual traits and character, and at the same time remained humanists, intellectuals and brave researchers pursuing the ideas of the development of the world and scientific and technological progress. In addition, their characters are distinguished by their individual language - this simple, but expressive device made the characters alive and close to the reader. Such characters very successfully fell on the period of the "thaw" in the USSR, thereby reflecting the desperate hope for a better future and technological progress in science, as well as for a thaw in interpolitical relations.

Especially significant book in those days, the story of the Strugatsky brothers "Noon, XXII century" began, successfully depicting an optimistic prospect for the future human race in which the enlightened and happy people, intelligent and brave explorers outer space, creative personalities inspired by life.

But already in the "Distant Rainbow" tense motives begin to sound: a catastrophe on a distant planet, which occurred as a result of the experiments of scientists, raised the question of moral choice a person in a difficult situation. It is a choice between two bad outcomes, one of which is even worse than the other. In the same work, the Strugatsky brothers raise another problem: how will those who cannot think creatively live in the World of Noon?

To meet with their own past and think about whether it is possible to get rid of the “paleolithic in the mind”, the characters of the story “Attempt to Escape” had to, and after the authors puzzled the employees of the Institute of Experimental History with this problem in the work “It is difficult to be a god”. The brothers also touch upon topical issues of our time, painting a grotesque picture of a futuristic consumer society in the story “Predatory things of the century”. This work became the first dystopia in utopia in Russian literature, which became very specific for Soviet literature.

In the 60s, the brothers also wrote other extraordinary works. For example, the work of the Strugatsky brothers “Monday begins on Saturday”, sparkling with good-natured, but topical humor, was so liked by readers that they soon wrote a sequel, which they called “The Tale of the Troika”, where humor has already given way to direct satire. This work turned out to be so scandalous that soon the Angara almanac, where the Tale was published, ceased to be published, and the story itself was unavailable to readers for a long time. The same fate awaited the story "The Snail on the Slope", in which the action takes place in the Forest and in the Office of the Forest: the whole situation described in the book strongly resembled the bureaucratic situation in the Office. Soviet criticism failed to discern much more important thoughts about impending progress, which blows out of the way everything that prevents it from rushing even faster.

"The Second Invasion of the Martians: Notes of a Sane" is also satire which was not received well by critics. Even the names of the characters, borrowed from the heroes of Greek legends, could not veil the allusion to the current situation. The authors put serious question about the honor and personal dignity of man and all mankind. A similar theme is heard in the story “Hotel “At the Dead Climber”: is a person ready for a meeting with an alien race? The same work was an experiment by the Strugatsky brothers in mixing a science fiction novel and a detective story.

Summarizing

With the beginning of the 70s, the Strugatskys returned to the Noon universe and invented "Inhabited Island", "Guy from the Underworld" and "Baby". Soviet censorship closely followed the work of the brothers. In preparation for printing Inhabited island"they had to make more than 900 edits before the essay was published in 1991. In the 70s, the brothers practically did not publish books.

The famous story of the Strugatsky brothers "Roadside Picnic" was published in a magazine, after which it did not appear in book editions for 8 years. The theme of the Zone was voiced in the story - the territory where, after the Visitation of aliens, mysterious events, and stalkers - brave men who secretly climb into this Zone. It was developed in Andrei Tarkovsky's film Stalker, which was filmed in 1979 according to the script by the Strugatskys. Only after the Chernobyl disaster actually happened, the story was reflected in the game S.T.A.L.K.E.R., as well as in numerous works based on it. It was only in 1980 that the Strugatsky brothers included the Roadside Picnic in the collection Unscheduled Meetings, but in an abridged format. Strict censorship of that time did not allow young authors to breathe freely.

The main theme of the creativity of the Strugatsky brothers was the problem of choice. It was she who became the foundation for the story "A Billion Years Before the End of the World", where the characters faced a difficult choice between a peaceful life with a rejection of their own principles and beliefs and the threat of death while trying to preserve their identity. At the same time, the brothers wrote the novel The Doomed City, where the authors attempted to create a dynamic model of consciousness typical of broad sections of society, as well as trace its fate against the backdrop of changing social realities, exploring its changes. The heroes of this novel, like the heroes of the novel Lame Fate, are endowed with autobiographical details.

The peak of creative thought

The brothers revisit the World of Noon in the novels The Beetle in the Anthill, The Aelita Prize, and The Waves Kill the Wind. These works drew the final line under the utopian theme in the works of the Strugatskys. In their opinion, technological progress is not able to bring happiness to a person if he cannot give up his animal nature, burdened with anger and aggression. It is upbringing that can make a real Human out of a monkey. capital letter- a reasonable and intellectual result of human development, according to the Strugatsky brothers. The theme of self-growth and personality education sounds in the novel Burdened with Evil, or Forty Years Later.

Last common work Strugatsky was the play "Jews of the city of St. Petersburg, or Sad conversations about candlelight", which became a kind of warning to the overly zealous optimistic hopes of a man of the last time.

Separate works

Arkady, in parallel with the general work, wrote independently under the pseudonym S. Yaroslavtsev. Among such works are the story "Details of the Life of Nikita Vorontsov", the burlesque fairy tale "Expedition to the Underworld", the story "The Devil Among People". In each work of Arkady, the theme of the impossibility of changing the world for the better sounds.

After the death of Arkady in 1991, Boris continues literary creativity. He takes the pseudonym S. Vititsky and publishes the novels "The Powerless of This World" and "Search for Destiny, or the Twenty-seventh Theorem of Ethics." With these books, he continues to explore the phenomena of the future and studies the ideas of influencing the surrounding reality.

Other activities

In addition to writing books, the Strugatsky brothers also tried their hand at screenwriting. Several films were made based on their works and with their editing.

The brothers also translated from English novels Hol Clement, and Andre Norton and John Wyndham. For translation activities, they took the pseudonyms S. Pobedin, S. Berezhkov, S. Vitin. In addition, Arkady Strugatsky translated stories Akutagawa Ryunosuke from Japanese, as well as Noma Hiroshi, Kobo Abe, Sanyuteya Ente and Natsume Soseki. The translation of the medieval novel "The Tale of Yoshitsune" did not pass by.

Boris did not lag behind his brother, also leading vigorous activity: for complete collection of their joint writings, he prepared extensive "Comments on the past", which were later published as a separate book. A video interview was even published on the official website of the Strugatskys, in which Boris answers more than 7,000 questions from readers and critics. The brothers were open to dialogue with their reader.

• Fans often use the abbreviation "ABS", which stands for the names of Arkady and Boris Strugatsky. It is used not only in oral references to the brothers, but even in printed publications.
• In 1989, Sotskon issued a banknote called "Two Strugatskys". Shortly before the death of Arkady, "One Strugl" was presented on Volgakon.
• In St. Petersburg in 2014, the square in the Moskovsky district was named after the Strugatsky Brothers.
• There are no graves of the Strugatskys, since, according to the will, their ashes after cremation were ordered to be scattered over exactly designated places: Arkady wished to have his ashes scattered over the Ryazan Highway, and Boris wished to remain over the Pulkovo Observatory.
• In 2015, enthusiasts planned to create a museum in the brothers' St. Petersburg apartment, but discussions on that score with the authorities of the Moscow region are still ongoing.
• The Strugatsky brothers are the only Russian writers whose works are referred to by abbreviations: for example, "The Land of Crimson Clouds" - SBT.
• The expression "and a no brainer" became known precisely thanks to the Strugatskys, although V. Mayakovsky was its creator. The expression became widespread after the story "The Country of Crimson Clouds", and later - in Soviet boarding schools, in which children were recruited into classes A, B, C, D, E - those who had studied for two years, and E, F, I - those to whom one.

This is what it looks like short biography brothers Strugatsky. Brothers' contribution to fantasy literature Soviet Union and Russia is immeasurable: they devoted almost all their free time to creativity and reflection. Each of their works is permeated with subtle thought and in-depth research not only of technological innovations, but also of the spiritual vicissitudes of man.

Prominent Russian Soviet prose writers, film writers, co-author brothers, the undisputed leaders of the Soviet science fiction over the past three decades and the most famous Soviet science fiction writers abroad (at the beginning of the 1991s - 321 book editions in 27 countries); classics of modern science fiction, whose influence on its development, in particular, in the USSR, can hardly be overestimated.

Arkady Natanovich Strugatsky was born on August 28, 1925 in the city of Batumi, then lived in Leningrad. Father is an art critic, mother is a teacher. With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, he worked on the construction of fortifications, then - in a grenade workshop. At the end of January 1942, together with his father, he was evacuated from besieged Leningrad. Miraculously survived - the only one of the entire car. He buried his father in Vologda. He ended up in the city of Chkalov (now Orenburg). In the city of Tashla, Orenburg region, he worked at a milk collection point, where he was drafted into the army. He studied at the Aktobe Art School. In the spring of 1943, just before graduation, he was seconded to Moscow, to the Military Institute of Foreign Languages. He graduated in 1949 with a degree in translation from English and Japanese. He was teaching at the Kansk School of Military Translators, served as a divisional translator in the Far East. Demobilized in 1955. He worked in the Abstract Journal, then as an editor in Detgiz and Gospolitizdat.

Boris Natanovich Strugatsky was born on April 15, 1933 in Leningrad, where he returned after evacuation. Arkady and Boris Strugatsky graduated from the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics of Leningrad State University with an astronomer's diploma, worked at the Pulkovo Observatory; since 1960 - a professional writer. Member of the Union of Writers. He was published mainly in collaboration with his brother (also known for translations of the American SF - in collaboration with his brother, under the pseudonyms S. Pobedin and S. Vitin). Laureate State Prize RSFSR (1986 - for the script of the film " Letters from the Dead Man”, together with V. Rybakov and director K. Lopushansky). Permanent leader of the seminar of young science fiction writers at the St. Petersburg Writers' Organization. Lives in St. Petersburg.

Widespread fame came to the Strugatsky brothers after the publication of the first NF stories, which were examples of good-quality "solid" (natural science) SF and differed from other works of those years by great attention to the psychological development of characters - "Six Matches" (1959), "Test of the TFR" ( 1960), "Private Assumptions" (1960) and others; the majority was the collection Six Matches (1960). In a number early stories the Strugatsky brothers successfully tested the construction method for the first time own history future - the first and to this day remaining unsurpassed in the Soviet science fiction. Unlike similar large-scale constructions by R. Heinlein, P. Anderson, L. Niven and other science fiction writers, the near future according to the Strugatskys did not have a clearly defined chronological scheme from the very beginning (it was later restored by enthusiastic readers from the Ludens research group) , but more attention was paid to the creation of "through" characters, passing from book to book and mentioned sporadically. As a result separate fragments over time, they formed into a bright, multicolored, internally evolving and organic mosaic - one of the most significant worlds of science fiction in Russian literature.

This page contains a bibliography of a writer named "The Strugatsky Brothers", that is, only those works that were signed by both brothers. Bibliographies of works written by them separately from each other, as well as under pseudonyms, can be seen on the individual pages of A.N. Strugatsky and B.N. Strugatsky.
Books:

No series

From outside

(Science fiction)

Guy from the underworld

(Science fiction)

Second Martian Invasion

(Science fiction)

Publications in the Literature section

Life on the edge of fantasy

Two people - one writer - Arkady and Boris Strugatsky together created about 30 novels and short stories, more than two dozen stories. Their works were filmed by such directors as Andrei Tarkovsky, Alexander Sokurov, Alexei German.

The Strugatsky brothers were guides for readers to another, fictional world. And no matter what parallel universes they come up with, the focus has always been on a person with his strong and weaknesses. Because of this, fictional or predicted worlds suddenly became tangible, familiar and therefore relevant.

First literary texts Arkady Strugatsky wrote before the Great Patriotic War. Unfortunately, all the manuscripts were lost in besieged Leningrad. The first completed story, How Kang Died, dates from 1946. It was published in 2001.

Fragment of an article by Alexander Mirer "The Continuous Fountain of Ideas", Dimension F magazine (No. 3, 1990):

“I met Arkady Natanovich Strugatsky in 1965. It was a time of storm and stress in science fiction, it was right after the story "It's Hard to Be a God" came out. Now it is hard to imagine that we lived without Lem, Bradbury, Azimov and without the Strugatskys. Today it seems to us that the Strugatskys have always existed, and now older people say to me: “But I grew up on the Strugatskys!” And when I ask: “Excuse me, please, but you are over fifty, how could you grow up on the Strugatskys?”, He calmly answers: “They turned me over!”

"It's hard to be a god" was something like a bombshell. Although we had already read "Solaris" and "Invincible". Then two names immediately stood side by side: Stanislav Lem and the Strugatsky brothers. I remember very well how I ran around my acquaintances then and shouted to everyone: “Did I tell you that the “Land of Crimson Clouds” is an application for great writers? Nate - read! Under this impression, I probably started writing science fiction. In some way I godson» story «It's hard to be a god».

Having started writing science fiction, I quickly got to the seminar - no matter how ridiculous it sounds - "Young Guard". Then there was an excellent editorial office of fiction under the direction of Sergei Zhemaitis, who, by the way, was the first to publish the Strugatskys in mass circulation, despite the stamping of their feet, party penalties and defeats. It was at this seminar that I met Arkady Natanovich.<...>Then I perceived him: “This is Strugatsky himself!”, “These are the Strugatsky brothers!” - that is, already at that time they were classics for us, for me, anyway. After years,<...>Arkady Natanovich and I became friends.

It must be said that it is obvious main feature Arkady Natanovich is chivalry. For many years I somehow failed to pick up best word. He is an amazingly gentle person, despite all the outward officer tricks and tricks.<...>

There is such a vile thing as a literary table of ranks. There is a completely different score on this scoreboard... let's just say: a phantom score. According to the number of millions of people, the Strugatsky brothers are a huge phenomenon in Soviet and partly in world literature. That is, I personally believe that they are at least among the top five prose writers of the second half of the 20th century.<...>

Arkady and Boris Strugatsky

People often ask how Arkady Natanovich and Boris Natanovich work together - do they come to the Bologoe station? The craft, like any other, has its challenges. The main difficulty is that this is an absolutely individual production, in which there is no QCD (technical control department. - Note. "Culture.rf"). One of the most important components of any creative person is the ability to self-criticism. See what happens: the Strugatskys are incredibly prolific writers, in the 60s they gave out books to the mountain one after another, one better than the other, because within this duo there is an absolutely wonderful distribution of roles. One of Arkady Natanovich's character traits is a constantly working imagination. He is constantly inventing. Kozma Prutkov had: “If you have a fountain, shut it up.” Arkady Natanovich is precisely the fountain that no one could ever "plug up". And when they began to work together, it turned out, obviously, that Boris Natanovich is precisely that critical component that the fountain plugs at the very moment when it is needed: “Stop. We are recording it."

This feature of Arkady Natanovich - the continuous generation of ideas by Arkady Natanovich - gives a lot of pleasure to the people around him. He can improvise in the most exciting way, for example, about his military past. I remember these stories - absolutely wonderful - he always acted in them in some kind of funny roles, by no means heroic. For example, there was a cycle oral stories how Strugatsky was forced to work as an adjutant and therefore he had to ride a horse. Accordingly, his horse threw off himself, respectively, she skinned him on the branches of trees. When he, the unfortunate one, got on the one-horse, the stallion on which he was riding rushed over the fence, because there was a mare behind the fence ... and the one-horse hung on the fence along with Strugatsky. When he was on duty at a military school - at that time all officers on duty were supposed to carry sabers and salute with them - then in the morning report he almost hacked to death his head of the school. And when Strugatsky went AWOL, the consequences were absolutely crushing... Some of these stories, obviously, were transformed from real incidents, and some were brilliantly and ramifiedly invented on the go.

irresistible writing start Arkady Natanovich is just felt in this fountain of ideas, which always works. Perhaps because of this Arkady Natanovich immediately became uninterested in what had already been written. I don't know about Boris Natanovich, but Arkady Natanovich always loves his last thing. He loves her for a while - until a new one appears. But he is no longer interested in it - because there is something new ahead, something else needs to be invented, and now this invention is going on. By the way, in my opinion, this trait is usually the death of a creative person. For example, because of this, Lem switched to reviews of the unwritten: the plot and the main idea, and that's all: invented and I won't bother with it! And thanks to the duet, the Strugatskys were able to realize all this business!

"The Glass Bead Game" with Igor Volgin. Arkady and Boris Strugatsky. "It's Hard to Be God"

Brothers Strugatsky. Children of Noon