Communist Society Will Remember its Past: Memory in Late Soviet Utopian Science Fiction

• In Event: Soviet Science Fiction of the 1950s and 1960s in the Context of Domestic and International Politics and Influences

Abstract

The main ideological criticism leveled at Ivan Efremov’s literary utopia, The Andromeda Nebula, was that the imagined communist society of the future showed little reverence for Lenin and the October Revolution. Dominant scholarship assumes that going forward, utopian science fiction writers inserted token references tofuture commemoration of Soviet history to humour their editors, censors, and critics. My paper nuances this view – from a mere handful of references to the Soviet past, the theme of commemoration became progressively more prominent, attaining an almost central status in late Soviet utopias. The Great Patriotic War displaced that of the Revolution, and imagined commemoration under communism took on an increasingly nationalist colouring. Functionally, I argue, memory of the glorious Soviet past became the key pillar “strengthening” the utopian society that was prone to feebleness on account of its conflictless-ness and material abundance.

Author

• Antony Kalashnikov, U of Waterloo (Canada)