Early Russian Science fiction: Fedorov, Ciolkovskij, Brjusov
Abstract
The essay examines the relations between Russian modernism, in particular the work of Valerij Brjusov, and the philosophy of Nikolaj Fedorov and his follower and popularizer K. Ciolkovskij. The analysis of Brjusov’s cosmist view, as it expressed in poetry and prose, is preceded by an excursus on the origin of Russian science fiction. In an unpublished article entitled “The Boundaries of Fantasy”, Brjusov offers one of the first science fiction’s theory.
In the post-revolutionary period Russian cosmism is expressed by the notion of the conquest of space, which lays the foundations of Soviet science fiction. The symbolist poet Brjusov, one of the few to welcome the October revolution, follows this evolution in his sci-fi prose.
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