After a collapse of state publishing in 1987-1989, the industry was in the very beginning of reconstruction. Since then, it has come through two major depressions - because of the slow printing process, and the conservative views of publishers. All good traditions of publishing SF (high-quality translations, well-known old book lines, connections between authors and publishers) were lost in the collapse. The first depression was in 1990-91. Up to this point, there were too many huge state publishing houses that couldn't work without state loans. In time, some of them were privatized, many became jointly-held stock companies, or went bankrupt. And countless new publishing houses were started.
These new publishers may be divided into two categories. First: publishers who laundered money for criminal businesses and hidden Party accounts. They published very many books, very quickly, because the main purpose was to circulate cash as fast as possible. The second category is small lone wolves, created often just to publish one or two books before vanishing without a trace; of course, no loans were returned, or taxes paid.
And there were two companies organized by SF writers: Text Publishing Co. in Moscow, and Terra Fantastica Publishing House in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg). They published books very carefully, dealt with authors' rights correctly (as far as they could, in this new Wild West of business), and tried to publish Russian fiction. All this made their books too expensive, and almost noncompetitive on the market.
At that time, typical printings were not less than 50,000 copies - and all those printings were sold! Bestsellers amounted to millions of copies in several editions. The most popular books were translated American and English mystery novels (James Hadley Chase, Alastair McLean, Carter Brown), fantasy novels (Michael Moorcock, Roger Zelazny, Piers Anthony), and SF novels (Philip Jose Farmer, Philip K Dick, Frank Herbert, Robert Heinlein, Robert Silverberg, Harry Harrison). The greatest hit was Tolkien: there are six different translations of Lord of the Rings! You will notice that almost all the names are from the 1960s. A hell of a lot of translations were done as samizdat in the '70s and '80s and circulated in typewritten copies. The translators were amateurs, and translation quality was terrible. (All translations were anonymous, of course.) But in those days, only in samizdat could you read Foundation and Dune, Dorsal and Lord Valentine's Castle. It was dangerous to copy Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, but even this was copied, and I know that dozens of samizdat men were terrorized by the KGB and imprisoned for this. The same punishment went for the Strugatskys's Ugly Swans and Bulgakov's Dog's Heart - anti-Soviet agitation!
So when the new publishers decided they wanted to publish SF or fantasy, they simply took something from samizdat and printed 100,000 copies - without any stylistic or even grammatical corrections! Sometimes they used not the first or second, but eighth carbon copy. For example, the mention of Tenniel's illustrations for Lewis Carroll's "Alice" books, mentioned in a Zelazny "Amber" novel, becomes something by someone named "Teppunel" on one of the pirate editions. Yet this translation of the "Amber" series became the most popular translation here! Poor Zelazny....
Finally, competition in the publishing business led to some changes. New translations appeared. Covers became better. Literary agencies began to operate. But then the second depression struck. In 1993-1994 too many books were published. Only 10,000 to 15,000 copies from 50,000-copy printings sold. But publishers could not halt the printing process, and many of them went bankrupt with millions of books printed but not sold.
Now we have a relatively normal situation. The average print run is 20,000-25,000. Many books appear in legal translations, no longer written by domestic ghostwriters under foreign pseudonyms. Piracy has become more complicated - for example, there are no less than ten sequels to Gone With the Wind on the stands, not to mention original novels in Jeffrey Lord's "Richard Blade" series, and original novelizations of Alien and Indiana Jones movies.
And it is very important that original Russian SF and fantasy can now be published and sold, as well as translated works.
MARCHING RUSSIANS
Besides the countless editions of Strugatsky and Kir Bulychev novels and collections (their books never stay on the stands for long), very few original Russian speculative fiction was published in 1991-1994. There were some very good and important books by interesting authors (Andrei Lazarchuk, Andrei Stolyarov, the late Sergey Kazmenko, etc.), but they did not form a continual stream. It seemed that Russian SF failed in competition with translations. But this was an illusion. Russian authors gathered their forces and prepared for battle.
And the battle began. Suddenly publishers found that there were too many foreign titles, and customers were becoming bored with them. Conan, Tolkien, and Amber books were still popular, but most other books had almost no demand. It became clear that it would be far more productive to pay for domestic authors. The first breakthrough was in 1993, when the huge (600,000 words!) two-volume set Kol'tso T'my [Ring of Darkness] by Nick Perumov was published - a "free sequel to the Lord of the Rings trilogy," as was mentioned on the dust jackets. This fantasy adventure of Folko the Hobbit in Middle Earth 300 years after the end of War of the Ring immediately became a bestseller. Perumov got a reputation as a first-rate Russian fantasy writer, but also the hatred of Tolkien fans for "going too far from Tolkien's word and spirit," and the book received a fee of $300 from the publisher. Yes, $300! The next scandal involved Yelena Hayetslkaya, who was forced to publish her fantasy novel Mech I Raduga [Sword and Rainbow] in 1993 as a translation from English under the "foreign" pseudonym "Medline Simons." The book became extremely popular, but Hayetskaya was still unable to publish her new works under her own name. Worst of all, fans found an English fantasy writer with a name close to her pseudonym, and attributed the novel to her.
Publishers' disappointment reached its worst point in the fall of 1994. Then the slow and hard resurrection of Russian SF and fantasy began.
In the beginning of 1995, Vyacheslav Rybakov published in St. Petersburg's Lan' Publishing Co., the hardcover omnibus of novels Ochag na Bashne [Fire on the Tower] and Gravilyot 'Tsarevich' [Spaceship 'Czarevich' - the latter for the first time in book form. Almost simultaneously, Floks Publishing Co. (Nizhny Novgorod) published Svyatoslav Loginov's very important first novel Mnogorukiy Bog Dalaina [Many-Hand Dalain God], a high-rate speculative fantasy. Both Gravilyot 'Tsarevich' and Mnogorukiy Bog Dalaina already won awards as the best books of the year.
Then the renaissance began. Several general publishing companies launched SF lines. First was the Lokid Publishing Co. of Moscow, which contacted the best modem Russian SF authors and bought a handful of nice titles for their Modem Russian SF line. The first three have already been published. Eduard Gevorkyan's Vremena Negodyayev [Times of Bad Guys] is an adventure novel about a post-holocaust Russia devastated by a pandemic. The hero tries to restore a Muscovite state the same way Moscow's High Princes of the 14th century tried.
Gevorkyan concentrates on the problem if the 'medievalization" of the people's thought processes, which does not seem to me to be a distant problem for modern society. Lokid also published a collection of novellas, stories by Yevgeny Lukin, Tam, za Aheronom [Beyond the Acheron,] including many stories co-written with his late wife Lubov Lukina, as well as his recebt solo novellas, the title work (a satirical adventure of Don Juan escaped from Hell in a woman's body to the Russia of perestroika times), and "Amoeba"(the story of a man who suddenly begans to multiply himself by dividing like an amoeba).
The third book in the Lokid line is Sergei Ivanov's Vetry Imperil [Winds of the Empire], an SF adventure novel about an other-world planetary Empire, with a very unconventional superhero. Lokid also plans to publish books by Andrei Lazarchuk, Sergei Lukianenko, Mikhail Uspensky, Kir Bulychev, Leonid Kudryavtsev, and others. In spite Of publishing very good literature, so far this line has had only modest reader responses, because of amazingly poor covers and interior illustrations.
Parallel Publishing in Nizhny Novgorod mcenq issued the first books of the Crystal Sphere 1ine, beginning with Padenle S ZernH [The Fall From the Earth] by Alexander Tyurin, a huge omnibus of 4 "Russian cyberpunk" novels: Karnenny vek [The Stone Age], Konechnaya ostanovka: Merkuria[Mercury- the Final Stop], and Sverkhnedochelovek" [SuperUnterMan), all but the first previously published, plus novella "Podvig razvedchikall [Heroic Deed of a Spy]. Tyurin's stylistically unequal but inventive prose hardly compares with Gibson's classic cyberpunk, but it is absolutely original for Russian speculative fiction. Tyurin mixes traditiong of high-tech cyberpunk and hard-boiled space ad. venture SF.
Soon, this line also plans to publish the first collection by Alexander Gromov (he writes hard SF inn the manner of C.J. Cherryh), and new fantasy novel Put'Mecha [Way of the Sword] by the Ukrainian writing team of Dmitry Gromov and Oleg Ladyzhensky, who work under the pseudonym "H.L Oldie."
The new wave of classic-style fantasy is represented by Nick Perumov and Mariya Semyonov. Azbuka Publishing in St. Petursburg published three(!) large heroic fantasy novels in Peramov's "Hyorvard Chronicles" series, based on the Nordic myths, and Semyonova made a hit with her Volkodav [Wolfdog] slavonic historical fantasy novel.
Small Krasnoyarsk publishing house Grotesk produced a very special book, Leonid Kudryavtsm's collection Chernaya Stena [The Black Wall], with the impressive stories in his "Road of the Worlds" series. The writing is somewhat reminiscent of the best works of Robert Sheckley, yet completely original.
And now, almost all the largest Russian publishing companies are declaring they plan to launch Russian SF and fantasy lines. Centeropolygraph of Moscow began three book lines: The Classic Library of Science Fiction & Adventures, The Worlds of Fantasy, and The Kings of Fantastic. And AST and Eksmo (both also from Moscow) declared they'll launch new lines this year. So Russian speculative fiction seems to be heading along a new Glory Road.... 1995 ALEXANDER BELYAEV AWARDS
The winners of the 1995 Alexander Belyayev Awards were announced December 12,11995 in the Alexander Pushkin Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia. Best Original Book of Speculative Fiction (tieY Vyacheslav Rybakov, Gravilyiot "Tsesarevich" [Spaceship Isesarevich]; Svyatoslav LoginOv, Mnogorakly Bog Dalaina [Many-Hand Dalain God]. Best Translation, Foreign Speculative Fiction: Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn, Tatyana Usova trans. Best Original Educational Book (tie): Genrih Altshuller & IgorVyortkin, Kak Slat! Genium [How To Become a Genius]; Sergey Ryazantsev, Filosofiya Smerti [Philosophy of Death]. Best Publisher Poligon Publishing Co., for the Library of Military History line. Life Achievement: Vitaly Bugrov (posthumous award- Serge Barros THE RUSSIAN MENTALITY by Kir Bulychev [Trans. by John Costello] A Review of: EntsiklopedUa Fantastiki: kto, est' kto, Vladimir Gakov, ed. (Minsk, IKO Galaksias. [ul. Zhudro 85, Minsk Belarus 220128], ISBN 985-6269-01-06, pp). 10,000 copies. No price listed (because of inflation Russian book prices are negotiable). Entsiklopedija Fantastiki:kto est' kto [The SF Encyclopedia: Who's Who]
The Russian publishing world has witnessed an astonishing event, of considerable import, as I understand it, for our colleagues in the US as well: the country's first Encyclopedia of Science Fiction
Not to put too fine a point on it, but the Encyclopedia was published not in Russia but in Belarus, formerly the Soviet Republic of Byelorussia and at present a quasi-independent state with a communist government. But the initiator, creator, primary author of the Encyclopedia, Vladimir Gakov (in reality Mikhail Kovalchuk), known in the for his articles and research in American SF, and visitor to your country on numerous occasions over last 20 years, lives in Moscow.
One must recognize that the publication of an Encyclopedia of more than 600 pages in large format with color illustrations is an extraordinary event our country, and normally possible only to an enormous collective of people working for an enormous publishing house. But not in this case: the publication is the result of the efforts and energy of one man.
This is not the complete encyclopedia, merely first volume, with two more promised for the future The first volume is a "Who's Who" in world although it excludes critics, artists, directors, publishers - the whole ecosystem as it were who make possible and in turn feed off the phenomenon and is limited to authors. The present volume is in fact "Guidebook to SF Writers". It should be noted that the authors in question number 1300. I am not quite certain as to the basis of inclusion in the list for Apuleius isn't here, but Ariosto made it, with Cyrano de Bergerac and Balzac. Howevery one knows that what is necessary in an encyclopedia is not those names which are known to everyone and included in all guide books, but specific persons about whom one can learn precisely from this guidebook.
The articles are primarily by Gakov, who dug through numerous American and other western sources to obtain the data on a thousand American and British writers, with lists of their most important works (titles in both Russian translation and in English originals), as well as awards and short notes on their contributions to SF.
Opening the volume at random to page 203, and beginning to turn the pages, one meets (in Russian alphabetical order): David Friedman Gerrold, Mark Geston, Richard Jeffries, Peter George, Dennis Jones, Langdon Jones, Raymond Jones.... Philip Dick, Peter Dickinson, Gordon Dickson, Samuel Delany, Thomas Disch, Gardner Dozois ... and so on. Each of the authors has no less than half a page devoted to their work, and most of them include black and white photographs. Covers from the books of no less than half the authors have been reproduced as well.
It is important to stress that, at the moment, such a guide will not be a mere diversion for our readers, translators, publishers, and fans in general. The number of American books finding their way to our markets and being published hourly is so great that a significant portion of the authors mentioned in the guide are already known to readers, and any additional information about them is useful and necessary. Along with the titles of works, the guidebook provides dates of first publication, prizes won, and movies derived from the works.
As much as the Russian reader should be grateful to Vladimir Gakov and his co-authors for their full-blooded book, so should American writers be grateful; the book may be considered a 700- page advertisement aimed at potential Russian translators and publishers.
The remainder of the encyclopedia is-occupied by articles dealing with Russian and other authors. Unfortunately, here the authors abandon the basic principles of an encyclopedia and utilize a Russian, or perhaps one should rather say, Soviet mentality.
Always and everywhere, encyclopedias have been published with the intention of providing objective, serious utility for future generations. Even after 20 or 30 years, a young reader with no knowledge of the disputes and arguments of the time can turn to a library encyclopedia from the past generation and discover what Plato wrote or why Columbus reached America instead of India.
However, the Soviet Union invented a new type of encyclopedia, the Communist Encyclopedia, where the first order of business was not communication of facts, but their interpretation. Such an encyclopedia will write after John Steinbeck's date of birth: "Imperialism's great literary mercenary," and inform us that Hemingway was a "representative of decadent corruption," and that American SF is characterized primarily by the cult of violence, spreads anti-human views, and so forth and so on.
In Gakov's encyclopedia, where the Soviet tendency is overcome in regard to American and other western authors, it is regrettably retained in regard to authors from the former Soviet Union, to such an extent that one can largely consider the two works, the guide to American and Western writers and the guide to former Soviet writers, as two completely different books.
With the Communists' departure from power, a curious phenomenon occurred in many spheres of life - the pluses and minuses changed, but the absolute values remained intact. It is considered that, as a restrained, objective work, an encyclopedia cannot be used to settle accounts with one's enemies. Alas, the compilers were not interested in the contributions of an author to the general body of SF, but were burning with the desire to settle scores with transgressors and enemies.
Unlike in the US and the West in general, in past years in the countries of the former Soviet Union, the possibilities for publishing science fiction, something always viewed by the powers that were as suspect if not downright subversive, were limited. The feeding trough was small. It came, like everything else, from the State, and was intended for a predetermined, five-year planned number of snouts.
Consequently, the majority of chances for serious feeding were hogged by members of the Party, members of the Writers' Union, the children of members of the Central Committee of the Party, and people who expressed in print the glorious future of universal Communism. Not at all surprisingly, during those years, there were nasty struggles for opportunities to get printed and simply express one's own point of view, battles in which the quality of the writing played not the slightest role. Accusations spread like dust in articles, speeches, in denunciations and secret letters to the police, and the great majority of writers found themselves in hostile relationships with the government-approved writers, who circled their wagons around the Molodaja Gvardia [Young Guard) publishing house. In these battles, everyone chose the rules of the game that suited them best; some tried to adapt, obtaining membership in the Union of Writers, becoming Party members; others found different ecological niches....
It's now almost half a decade after the fall of the Imperium. Even if it were to be re-established again, it would never be the same as before. There are too many different publishing houses now for there to ever be a publishing monopoly again. Other criteria are in operation, common for everyone, so those who lined up at Molodaja Gvardia's feeding trough, those who joined the Writer's Union, those who wrote the future to order, and those who tried to huddle on the sidelines, all find themselves on a level playing field.
And now, in the Encyclopedia, yesterday's exhausting struggles are born again. Like a threatening fist at a rapidly retreating train, the authors of the guide book take on those authors who lived high on the hog under communism, forgetting that some of the compilers were making use of the advantages they had at the time under communism as well. 'Thus all the articles dealing with writers notoriously close to the former regime include such insults as "an odious figure," "almost a graphomaniacal novel," "aggressive xenophobia," "the plot is an ideological muddle" and so forth, in regard to at least a dozen writers, some known in the West, others not.
Once upon a time, Stalin decided to take on the composers and destroy Shostakovich. The article which led the campaign against Shostakovich was called "A Muddle In Place of Music". There is nothing new under the Soviet sun.
I found myself in conflict with the powers that were at Molodaja Gvardia as much as anyone else, cussed out and unmasked as an enemy of the system.... And I think that in an article or lecture, I might say something interesting about the arguments over ideas in SF, Russia's most au courant species of literature. But I consider it totally impermissible to use the pages of an encyclopedia for the settling of personal accounts, even if more or less justified and long overdue. It is simply embarrassing to see how some Russian writers so hate other Russian writers. -
Kir Bulychev, trans. by John Costello