Authors

Discussion

My paper examines the hybridization of Russian nationalist and communist visions of the future in the late Soviet period. Examining the politics of utopian science fiction, the main forum for imagining and popularizing detailed visions of the future, I trace one evolving theme – the changing “national” character of the imagined utopia. The inter-penetration of nationalist and communist futurities   took place against the backdrop of the silent reassertion of Russian nationalism in Soviet culture and politics in the “long 1970s.” In this period, covert Russian nationalists were able to capture most editorial positions at the main science fiction publishing house, “Molodaia gvardiia,” and push utopian descriptions in new directions. Under full communism, people now increasingly spoke Russian (rather than a constructed international language), looked Russian (rather than exhibiting ethno-racial convergence), lived in Russia, especially Siberia (rather than more exotic locations), and remembered their unique cultural heritage (rather than embracing a cosmopolitical identity). Ultimately, I argue, the Soviet communist Party looked upon the rise of a hybridized nationalist-communist future imaginary with mixed feelings – at once benefitting from this newfound current of legitimation, but also worried about its ideologically destabilizing character. The paper will conclude by examining current reception of this body of science fiction in Russia, and speculating about its influence on contemporary Russian nationalist utopian imaginings of the future.