Bogdanov red star read. Book: Red Star - Alexander Bogdanov

Alexander Bogdanov

A RED STAR

PART ONE

That was when the great breakdown in our country was just beginning, which is still going on and, I think, is now approaching its inevitable and formidable end.

Her first bloody days shook the public consciousness so deeply that everyone expected a quick and bright outcome of the struggle: it seemed that the worst had already happened, that nothing worse could be. No one imagined to what extent the bony hands of a dead man were tenacious, who pressed and still continues to crush the living in his convulsive embrace.

Fighting excitement was rapidly spreading among the masses. The souls of people selflessly opened up towards the future; the present blurred in a pink fog, the past disappeared into the distance, disappearing from the eyes. All human relationships have become unstable and fragile as never before.

During these days something happened that turned my life upside down and pulled me out of the stream of the people's struggle.

I was, in spite of my twenty-seven years, one of the "old" Party workers. I had six years of work, with a break of only a year in prison. Earlier than many others, I sensed the approach of the storm and met it more calmly than they did. I had to work much more than before; but at the same time I did not give up my scientific studies - I was especially interested in the question of the structure of matter - nor literary ones: I wrote in children's magazines, and this gave me the means of living. At the same time, I loved ... or it seemed to me that I loved.

Her party name was Anna Nikolaevna.

She belonged to a different, more moderate trend in our party. I explained this by the softness of her nature and the general confusion of political relations in our country; in spite of the fact that she was older than me, I considered her not yet quite a determined person. In this I was wrong. […]

And yet I did not foresee and did not assume the inevitability of a rupture - when an extraneous influence penetrated our life, which hastened the denouement.

Around this time, a young man arrived in the capital, bearing an extraordinary conspiratorial name in our country, Manny. He brought from the South some messages and instructions, according to which it was possible to see that he enjoyed the complete confidence of his comrades. Having completed his work, he decided to stay in the capital for a while and began to visit us quite often, showing a clear inclination to get closer to me.

He was an original person in many ways, starting with his appearance. His eyes were so masked by very dark glasses that I did not even know their color; his head was somewhat disproportionately large; his features, beautiful, but surprisingly motionless and lifeless, did not at all harmonize with his soft and expressive voice, as well as with his slender, youthfully flexible figure. His speech was free and fluid and always full of content. His scientific background was very one-sided; by profession, he was apparently an engineer.

In conversation, Manny had a tendency to constantly reduce particular and practical issues to general ideological grounds. When he was with us, it always turned out somehow that the contradictions of natures and views with my wife very soon came to the fore so clearly and vividly that we began to painfully feel their hopelessness. Manny's outlook seemed to be similar to mine; he always spoke very softly and carefully in form, but just as harshly and deeply in essence. He was able to connect our political disagreements with Anna Nikolaevna so skillfully with the basic difference in our worldviews that these disagreements seemed psychologically inevitable, almost logical conclusions from them, and all hope of influencing each other, smoothing out the contradictions and coming to something common disappeared. Anna Nikolaevna had a kind of hatred for Manny, combined with a keen interest. He inspired me with great respect and vague distrust: I felt that he was moving towards some goal, but could not understand what.

On one of the January days - this was already at the end of January - there was a discussion in the leading groups of both currents of the party of the project of a mass demonstration with a probable outcome in an armed conflict. Manny came to us the night before and raised the issue of participation in this demonstration, if it is resolved, of the party leaders themselves. An argument ensued, which quickly took on a burning character.

Anna Nikolaevna declared that anyone who votes for a demonstration is morally obliged to go in the front ranks. I found that it was not at all necessary at all, but that one should go who was needed there or who could be seriously useful, and I had in mind just myself, as a person with some experience in such matters. Manny went further and argued that, in view of the obviously inevitable clash with the troops, street agitators and combat organizers should be on the field of action, political leaders have no place there, and physically weak and nervous people can be even very harmful. Anna Nikolaevna was directly offended by these arguments, which seemed to her to be directed specifically against her. She broke off the conversation and went to her room. Manny left soon after.

The next day I had to get up early in the morning and leave without seeing Anna Nikolaevna, but return in the evening. The demonstration was rejected both in our committee and, as I learned, in the leadership team of the other branch. I was pleased with this, because I knew how insufficient preparation for an armed conflict was, and considered such a performance a fruitless waste of forces. It seemed to me that this decision would somewhat weaken the acuteness of Anna Nikolaevna's irritation over yesterday's conversation. On my desk I found a note from Anna Nikolaevna:

"I'm leaving. The more I understand myself and you, the more it becomes clear to me that we are going our separate ways and that we were both wrong. We'd better not meet again. Sorry".

I wandered the streets for a long time, tired, with a feeling of emptiness in my head and cold in my heart. When I returned home, I found an unexpected guest there: Manny was sitting at my table and writing a note.

2. INVITATION

I need to talk to you about a very serious and somewhat strange matter, ”Manny said.

I did not care; I sat down and prepared to listen.

I read your pamphlet on electrons and matter, ”he began. - I myself have studied this issue for several years and I believe that your brochure contains many correct thoughts.

I bowed silently. He continued:

In this work, you have one remark of particular interest to me. You suggested there that the electrical theory of matter, necessarily representing the force of gravity in the form of some derivative of the electrical forces of attraction and repulsion, should lead to the discovery of gravitation with a different sign, that is, to obtain a type of matter that is repelled, not attracted The Earth, the Sun and other bodies familiar to us; For comparison, you pointed out the diamagnetic repulsion of bodies and the repulsion of parallel currents of different directions. All this is said in passing, but I think that you yourself attached more importance to this than you wanted to discover.

You are right, - I replied, - and I think that it is on this path that humanity will solve both the problem of completely free air movement, and then the problem of communication between the planets. But whether this idea is true in itself or not, it is completely sterile as long as there is no exact theory of matter and gravitation. If another type of matter exists, then it is obviously impossible to simply find it: by the force of repulsion it has long been removed from the entire solar system, or, more precisely, it did not enter into its composition when it began to organize itself in the form of a nebula. This means that this type of matter must still be theoretically designed and then practically reproduced. Now there is no data for this and one can, in essence, only have a presentiment of the task itself.

And yet this task has already been solved, - said Manny.

I looked at him in amazement. His face was still motionless, but there was something in his tone that did not allow him to be considered a charlatan.

"Maybe mentally ill," - flashed through my head.

There is no need for me to deceive you, and I know very well what I am saying, - he answered my thought. “Listen to me patiently, and then, if necessary, I will present evidence. - And he said the following: - The great discovery in question was not made by the forces of an individual person. It belongs to a whole scientific society that has existed for a long time and has worked in this direction for a long time. This society has been secret until now, and I am not authorized to acquaint you closer with its origin and history until we manage to agree on the main point.

That was when the great breakdown in our country was just beginning, which is still going on and, I think, is now approaching its inevitable and formidable end.

During these days something happened that turned my life upside down and pulled me out of the stream of the people's struggle.

Her party name was Anna Nikolaevna.

And yet I did not foresee and did not assume the inevitability of a rupture - when an extraneous influence penetrated our life, which hastened the denouement.

"I'm leaving. The more I understand myself and you, the more it becomes clear to me that we are going our separate ways and that we were both wrong. We'd better not meet again. Sorry".

2. INVITATION

I need to talk to you about a very serious and somewhat strange matter, ”Manny said.

I did not care; I sat down and prepared to listen.

I read your pamphlet on electrons and matter, ”he began. - I myself have studied this issue for several years and I believe that your brochure contains many correct thoughts.

I bowed silently. He continued:

(1873-1928) in one article is completely impossible. Therefore, we will not consider his political and scientific activities for now, but take a look at his literary heritage.

novel "A red star" was first published by the St. Petersburg publishing house "Association of Print Artists" in 1908 (remember this date!). Then it was reprinted in 1918 and in 1929. Because Bogdanov was one of the ideologists of Proletkult, then his work is thoroughly saturated with proletarian ideas and aesthetics. As a matter of fact, Bogdanov set the task of conveying his ideas to the broad masses, and it was quite a reasonable decision to describe them in an interesting literary form.

In form, the novel "Krasnaya Zvezda" is a "Jules Verne" example of classic fiction of the late 19th century. I did not notice any special "Russianness" or appeals to Russia in the work. The novel is everywhere positioned as a utopia. But utopia (as well as dystopia) by definition is still a description of the society of the future, which is not in the novel. It's just that Bogdanov describes the society to which, apparently, he strove. A certain absolute, a mathematical model ...

In general, the work really hooked me not so much with the storyline, but with its message, atmosphere, the fact that the novel is essentially an artistic description of the idea that Bogdanov wanted to realize in real life.

The Russian revolutionary Leonid was visited by a strange guest who turned out to be a Martian and offered to fly to Mars in order to help the Martians understand earthlings and in the future to be something like a goodwill ambassador. Well, here I immediately drew attention to the description of the appearance of the Martians-aliens:

His eyes were monstrously huge, as human eyes never are. Their pupils were dilated even in comparison with this unnatural size of the eyes themselves, which made their expression almost frightening. The upper part of the face and head was as wide as was unavoidable to accommodate such eyes; on the contrary, the lower part of the face, without any signs of a beard or mustache, was comparatively small. All together gave the impression of extreme originality, perhaps ugliness, but not caricature.

Doesn't it look like anything? Of course, this is the classic alien from Hollywood movies. So my question arose. Where did this image come from? Who invented it first?

The aliens naturally arrived on a "plate". But for Bogdanov, this vehicle has its own name - eteronef... A beautiful word, by the way. Here's a description:

I managed to notice the external shape of the eteronef the day before: it was almost a ball with a smoothed segment at the bottom, in the manner of a set Columbian egg - a shape designed, of course, to obtain the largest volume with the smallest surface, that is, the least material consumption and the smallest area cooling. As for the material, it seems that aluminum and glass predominated.

Aetheroonef and many of the Martian spacecraft were powered by so-called "negative matter". This substance has anti-gravity properties.

We arrange all aircraft in this way: they are made of ordinary materials, but they contain a reservoir filled with a sufficient amount of "negative matter". Then it remains to give this whole weightless system the proper speed of movement.

And the flight at Eteronef is described as follows:

In the first second we had to walk only one centimeter, in the second three, in the third five, in the fourth seven centimeters; and the speed had to change all the time, continuously increasing according to the law of arithmetic progression. In a minute we had to reach the speed of a walking person, in 15 minutes - a courier train, etc.

We moved according to the law of falling bodies, but fell upward and 500 times slower than ordinary heavy bodies falling near the surface of the earth.

The social society of Martians (read - the ideal society according to Bogdanov) is built on the postulate that labor is a natural need for a developed socialist person, and all kinds of disguised or explicit coercion to work are completely unnecessary. And the whole life of a socialist Martian - work, leisure, creativity, personal relationships - everything is built around this.

I read on the Internet that the production of artificial fibers began to develop actively only by 1940. And Bogdanov already describes in detail the technical process in 1908! Apparently, then it was high-tech, something like our nanotechnology.

Several times a month, "material" for yarn in the form of a semi-liquid transparent substance in large tanks was delivered by rail from the nearest chemical plants. From these cisterns, the material, with the help of special devices that eliminate the access of air, was poured into a huge, high-hanging metal tank, the flat bottom of which had hundreds of thousands of tiny microscopic holes. Through the holes, a viscous liquid was pressed under high pressure in thin streams, which, under the influence of air, hardened already a few centimeters and turned into transparent cobweb fibers. Tens of thousands of mechanical spindles picked up these fibers, twisted dozens of them into threads of various thicknesses and densities, and pulled them further, transferring the finished "yarn" to the next weaving department. There, on looms, threads were intertwined into various fabrics, from the most delicate, like muslin and cambric, to the densest, like cloth and felt, which stretched even further into the cutting workshop in endless wide ribbons. Here they were picked up by new machines, carefully folded in many layers and cut out from them in thousands of previously outlined and measured according to drawings, various patterns of individual parts of the suit.

And here is the work of the protagonist at the Martian weaving factory. By the way, some sources indicate that the novel was helped to write by none other than! But I did not find any reliable confirmation. But from the next excerpt it just smacks of "Gastavism"!

To work "no worse" than others - I strove for this with all my might and, in general, not without success. But I could not help but notice that it costs me much more effort than the rest of the workers. After the usual 4-6 (earthly) hours of labor, I was very tired, and I needed immediate rest, while others went to museums, libraries, laboratories or other factories to observe production, and sometimes even work there ...

I hoped that the habit of new types of work would come and make me equal to all workers. But that was not the case. I became more and more convinced that I did not have enough _attention culture_. Physical movements were required very little, and in their speed and dexterity I was not inferior, even surpassed many. But it required such continuous and intense attention when observing machines and material, which was very difficult for my brain: obviously, only in a number of several generations could this ability have developed to the extent that it was ordinary and average here.

When - usually towards the end of my day's work - fatigue began to show in her and my attention began to change, I made a mistake or slowed down for a second the execution of some act of work, then inevitably and unmistakably the hand of one of the neighbors corrected the matter.

Here I still want to copy more, tk. it is in these excerpts about art that the aesthetics of Proletkult is embodied.

About art in general:

“I never imagined that you had any special art museums,” I said to Enno on the way to the museum. - I thought that sculptural and art galleries are a feature of capitalism with its ostentatious luxury and desire to rudely heap wealth. In a socialist society, I assumed, art is scattered everywhere alongside the life that it adorns.

“You were not mistaken in that,” answered Enno. - Most of our works of art are always intended for public buildings - those in which we discuss our common affairs, those in which we study and research, in which we rest ... We decorate our factories and plants much less: the aesthetics of powerful machines and their harmonious movement is pleasing to us in its pure form, and there are very few such works of art that would be in full harmony with it, without in the least dissipating or weakening its impressions. The least we decorate is our homes, which for the most part live very little. And our art museums are scientific and aesthetic institutions, they are schools for studying how art develops, or rather, how humanity develops in its artistic activity.

About painting:

The later works of art, as well as the ancients, are characterized by extreme simplicity and unity of motive. Very complex human beings with a rich and harmonious life content are depicted, and at the same time such moments of their life are chosen when all of it is concentrated in some one feeling, an aspiration ... Favorite themes of the latest artists are the ecstasy of creative thought, the ecstasy of love, the ecstasy of pleasure nature, the tranquility of voluntary death - plots that deeply outline the essence of a great tribe that knows how to live with fullness and intensity, die consciously and with dignity.

About architecture:

By architecture, the Martians understand not only the aesthetics of buildings and large engineering structures, but also the aesthetics of furniture, tools, machines, in general the aesthetics of everything materially useful. What a tremendous role this art plays in their lives can be judged by the particular completeness and thoroughness of this collection. From primitive cave dwellings with their crudely decorated utensils to luxurious public houses made of glass and aluminum with their interior furnishings performed by the best artists, to giant factories with their menacingly beautiful machines, to the greatest canals with their granite embankments and air bridges, there were all typical forms are presented in the form of pictures, drawings, models and especially stereograms in large stereoscopes, where everything was reproduced with complete illusion of identity. A special place was occupied by the aesthetics of gardens, fields and parks; and no matter how unusual the nature of the planet was for me, even I often understood the beauty of those combinations of colors and shapes that were created from this nature by the collective genius of the tribe with big eyes.

In the works of previous eras, very often, like ours, elegance was achieved at the expense of convenience, adornments harmed strength, art committed violence against the direct useful purpose of objects. Nothing of the kind my eye has caught in the works of the modern era - not in its furniture, not in its tools, not in its structures. I asked Enno if their modern architecture allowed them to deviate from the practical perfection of objects for the sake of their beauty.

- Never, - answered Enno, - it would be false beauty, artificiality, not art.

Sculpture:

In pre-socialist times, the Martians erected monuments to their great men; now they erect monuments only to great events; such as the first attempt to reach Earth, which ended in the death of researchers, such as the destruction of a deadly epidemic disease, such as the discovery of the decomposition and synthesis of all chemical elements. A number of monuments were presented in stereograms of the same department where tombs and temples were located (the Martians also had religions earlier). One of the last monuments to great people was that of the engineer Manny told me about. The artist was able to clearly imagine the strength of the human soul, who victoriously led the army of labor in the struggle against nature and proudly rejected the cowardly judgment of morality over his actions.

As for poetry ... Here we see a confrontation of opinions. This time, Leonidas argues from the point of view of his contemporary poetic avant-garde, and the Martian Enno - from the point of view of classical poetry:

“Whose poems are these?” I asked.
“Mine,” said Enno, “I wrote them for Manny.
I could not fully judge the inner beauty of poetry in a language that was still alien to me; but there is no doubt that their thought was clear, the rhythm is very harmonious, the rhyme is sonorous and rich. This gave a new direction to my thoughts.
- So, in your poetry, strict rhythm and rhyme still flourish?
“Of course,” Enno said with a touch of surprise. - Does this seem ugly to you?
“No, it’s not at all,” I explained, “but we have a widespread belief that this form was generated by the tastes of the ruling classes of our society, as an expression of their lasciviousness and addiction to conventions that fetter the freedom of artistic speech. From this they conclude that the poetry of the future, the poetry of the era of socialism, must reject and forget these shy laws.
“This is completely unfair,” Enno objected fervently. - Correctly rhythmic seems to us beautiful not at all because of an addiction to the conventional, but because it deeply harmonizes with the rhythmic correctness of the processes of our life and consciousness. And the rhyme, which completes a series of varieties in the same final chords, is not it in the same deep relationship with the life connection of people, which increases their inner diversity with the unity of pleasure in art? Without rhythm, there is no art form at all. Where there is no rhythm of sounds, there must be, and, moreover, the stricter rhythm of ideas ... And if the rhyme is really of feudal origin, then this can be said about many other good and beautiful things.
- But does rhyme really hinder and complicate the expression of a poetic idea?
- So what of this? After all, this constraint stems from the goal that the artist freely sets for himself. It not only complicates, but also improves the expression of the poetic idea, and only for this does it exist. The more difficult the goal, the more difficult the path to it and, consequently, the more constraints on this path. If you want to build a beautiful building, how many rules of technique and harmony will determine and, therefore, "hamper" your work! You are free to choose your goals - this is the only human freedom. But since you desire an end, thereby you also desire the means by which it is achieved.

Alexander Alexandrovich Bogdanov (1873-1928) - Russian writer, economist, philosopher, natural scientist. In 1908 he completed and published his best science fiction work - the novel "Red Star", which can be considered the forerunner of Soviet science fiction. At the same time, he conducted active revolutionary work in close contact with V. I. Lenin. created a two-volume essay "General organizational science", in which he put forward a number of ideas that were later developed in cybernetics: the principles of feedback, modeling, systems analysis of the studied subject, etc. After the October Revolution, A. Bogdanov devotes himself to work in biology and medicine. In 1926 he became the head of the world's first Institute of Blood Transfusion and died after an unsuccessful experiment on himself in 1928. Bogdanov's utopia novel "Red Star" was first published in the St. Petersburg publishing house "Society of Print Artists" in 1908. Then it was reprinted in 1918 and in 1929.

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It’s hard to believe that this novel is already 104 years old (it was written 40 years before Orwell’s 1984) - it is so relevant and, oddly enough, at the same time archaic and utopian (this is especially clearly manifested in the description of the socialist society of the Martians). This novel is the forerunner of Soviet science fiction.

Of course, one can feel that Bogdanov (real name - Malinovsky) lived with the ideas of the revolution and was Lenin's companion - the work is imbued with the spirit of socialism and proletarianism. Even the name is symbolic: "Red Star" is a magical scarlet pentalf as a symbol of communism and progress, and the planet was chosen red, named after the god of war. The novel describes the social transformations of the Martian society "according to Karl Marx" with a touch of fantasy. But at the same time, adventures in the spirit of the novels of Jules Verne are not forgotten.

Alexander Bogdanov turned out to be not only a good politician and scientist, but also an excellent visionary. So, in "Red Star" he predicted:

Creation of technology for rejuvenation with the blood of young people - what is not plasma rejuvenation and the method of stem cells (by the way, the author himself was engaged in hematology, created the world's first Blood Institute and died after the 11th experimental blood transfusion carried out on himself - rejection began);

The possibility of using euthanasia;

The emergence of not just a rocket engine, but also described the principle of its operation;

The use of atomic energy, including as a nuclear weapon;

Chemical creation of artificial fibers;

Creation of 3D cinemas;

Invention of computers and video communication (videophone);

Using proteins to create artificial food;

The threat of environmental disaster.

The Martians themselves are outwardly similar to the gray-green men that Hollywood replicated - another "tyring" of the Americans can be traced.

“His eyes were monstrously huge, as human eyes never are. Their pupils were dilated even in comparison with this unnatural size of the eyes themselves, which made their expression almost frightening. The upper part of the face and head was as wide as was unavoidable to accommodate such eyes; on the contrary, the lower part of the face, without any signs of a beard or mustache, was comparatively small. All together gave the impression of extreme originality, perhaps ugliness. "

It is very interesting how the heroes communicate, in the spirit of their time - unemotionally, indifferently politely. And, despite the peculiarities of the era and the venerable age of the work, it rather freely describes the relationship of the sexes among the Martians.

Score: 9

Nice utopian novel. Bogdanov's imagination takes us from the familiar earthly world to the amazing ideal world of Mars. According to the author's idea, with all the advantages of the communist system over the capitalist one, the former also has some problems in front of nature, space, and the planet. The novel was written long before the October Revolution of 1917, but the text shows confidence in the victory of the socialists, the overthrow of the bourgeoisie, as, in fact, happened.

Now I would like to touch upon predictions. It is known that in the works of science fiction classics there are many predictions of those things that we use today without hesitation.

Bogdanov predicted 3D cinema and three-dimensional television in general, it turns out. It is believed that video chat was predicted by Hugo Gernsbek in the novel "Ralph 124C 41+", first published only in 1911, that is, 3 years after Alexander Bogdanov's "Red Star" was written, where there is a phone with the transmission of the interlocutor's video. Also, before the discovery of Einstein, the prospect of using nuclear energy is being discussed. Bogdanov predicts the acceleration and deceleration of spaceships, as well as weightlessness with insufficient acceleration or its absence. Well, computers, which appeared only after the Second World War.

Another interesting fact: the surname of one of the heroes is Werner, this is one of the pseudonyms of Alexander Malinovsky, that is, Bogdanov.

On the whole, the work left a warm impression.

Score: 8

As a rule, works of the early 20th century are either entirely adventure or completely utopian, having nothing to do with reality. In this case, it is a mixture of real socialism, with elements of utopia, adventure, technical foresight and classical love. And all this is united by a good literary style. In a word, before us, even today, is a work that is read, which captivates and which makes us argue and look for analogies. And philosophical reasoning on certain ethical problems is simply a pleasure: this is especially true of raising children, euthanasia, and the peculiarities of the development of socialism.

Score: 8

If we assume that the Martians meant the future of humanity, then the density of predictions in the novel is off the charts. The author provided for low-thrust electric nuclear rocket engines (i.e., not just those where nuclear bombs explode and thus jet thrust is created, but such as are planned for an expedition to Mars), and nuclear weapons, and artificial fibers, and computers with printing devices, and much more. But this is not the most striking thing. The most striking thing is that the author predicted that the socialist revolution will by no means triumph on the entire planet at once, but only in some countries, that in these countries there will be many dissidents striving for the restoration of capitalism.

"But even where socialism holds on and emerges victorious, its character will be deeply and permanently distorted by many years of siege, the necessary terror and military clique, with the inevitable consequence of barbaric patriotism." I just can't believe it was written in 1908! Here Bogdanov, in his scientific foresight, surpassed both Kautsky and Lenin combined.

Score: 9

To understand how much this book surpasses the sci-fi works of those who worked half a century later and in the 21st century, it is worth considering that in the "Red Star" Alexander Bogdanov predicted the appearance of television, 3D video format, as well as the use of blood transfusions for medical purposes. All this the author predicted when he sat down to write a book in 1908.

If we evaluate the book as a whole, I can only say positive things - an intriguing description of the social structure of a foreign civilization, progressive technologies, a type of economy alien to earthlings, a description of political ideology on Mars, and most importantly, the last 10 pages are such events that make you doubt whether that the adventures experienced by the protagonist were real, and so only at the very end on the last lines does the author give the final answer to the question "Was it all real or not?"

Among the weaknesses, I can only note that there are moments in which there are passages in which there are many scientific and engineering terms. But even here you can make a concession, because the author was first of all a scientist, and only then a writer.

Score: 8

In Russian science fiction as a whole, until the 1930s, there will not be anything even close to this book. Unlike the childishly written for adults "Aelita", which is united only by an idea with the inhabited Mars, on which people fly, this is a serious and interesting book. The world of Mars is excellently described, one might even ask the question: is this a utopia? Outstanding achievements lead to new problems that many science fiction writers do not describe so vividly.

Spoiler (plot disclosure)

The most instilled in the memory are the arguments of the Martians about all their congeners - as part of a single whole, and unborn children are considered the deprivation of the whole of their part, a blow to all

The reaction of the protagonist is quite plausible, not like again in Aelita, the reasoning about Mars of an earthling, even if he is most likely, like Bogdanov himself, a member of the RSDLP, are complex, he can hardly get along in the world he dreamed of on Earth.

If I understood correctly, the book was not republished in the USSR for 50 years. Bogdanov is still a unique person - all his life he was an active figure in the Bolshevik Party, honestly and without betrayal and intrigue worked for the good of the party, but at the same time he seriously disagreed with his philosophy (with which I, to be honest, I am not thoroughly familiar outside of his fiction books) both with the pre-revolutionary Bolsheviks and later.

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

And in the book there is neither the Communist Party, nor the revolution - on Mars, Bogdanov "got by"

Of similar books, one can only see Wells' People Like Gods.

Score: 10

I first read "Krasnaya Zvezda" a couple of years ago - I decided to read it, because I considered it a classic. I was satisfied. But since it was a late Soviet abridged edition, the question remained, what was it that was cut out of the novel. And at about the same time, the full version was reissued. I just reread the novel. But about the cut fragments at the end of the review.

So, we see a utopia on Mars, the description of which corresponds to the ideas of a century ago (ancient Mars (see Burroughs and "Aelita"), young Venus). In the description of the Martian spacecraft - eteroneph - you can feel the spirit of Julvern. Utopias are often criticized for the fact that the depicted "ideal" society is static. In Bogdanov's work, Martian mankind is in a continuous struggle with nature - some problems have been solved, others are maturing. And in this I see a similarity with the work of Efremov. The Red Star seems to me to be somewhat of a predecessor to the Andromeda Nebula. What are the similarities? Mars is inhabited by humanoids (not octopuses, not angelic beings, not living clouds). The directness of speech of the Martians (in the form of which there is something from the ufological gray). Public education of children. Or is this evidence of the common basis of both authors - Marxism? Another moment of the book that struck me was that Starney's speech seemed to predict the fate of "socialism in a single country." The volume of the novel is small, the language is uncomplicated. This is probably due to the fact that the book was intended for the broad masses (yes, there were masters of fine literature in the era of the Silver Age, who are still very difficult to understand).

Bolshevik fantasy through and through. It is even surprising that the Soviet government did not canonize Bogdanov as the patriarch of science fiction. Perhaps because the literary author failed to create original characters, his characters are just chips moving according to the main idea. The idea of the domination of the communist system.

"Red Star" is a pure utopia. Mars there is conditional, a kind of city of the Sun, in which the inhabitants defeated the atavism of property and became collective cogs. Inhabitants are inanimate, they march through life. And the only debate is whether to destroy the Earth or not to destroy it.

The novel is a good illustration of the illusion of a communist future. Precisely an illusory future, an never-attainable horizon. For it is contrary to human (and Martian) nature. The idea of real communists - “We will destroy the whole world of violence. He who is not with us is against us. ”And society is a complete thicket for free people - this is a carrot suspended in front of the muzzle of a donkey.

Well, who, tell me, by the attraction of the soul will be engaged in sewage disposal - they want to create everything, and it is possible to clean up waste products for the glory of an idea only for a short time. And without competition, struggle, rivalry, stagnation will come, and then decay. And communism is not about competition. You have to keep up.

But as evidence of the time, the beginning of the twentieth century, the "Red Star" is a curious cast of the era, showing the worldview of a certain part of the masses.

Score: 7