Fantastic weapons in Soviet science fiction of the early-mid-twentieth century
"Hyperboloid engineer Garin" Alexei Tolstoy
stories about weapons. The first Soviet novel, in which a truly fantastic weapon operated, was ... well, of course - the famous "Hyperboloid of Engineer Garin" by Alexei Tolstoy. This was not his first novel in the USSR and not the first combat fantasy in the USSR in general. In 1924, Marietta Shaginyan's novel "Mess-Mend" was published, which shows the struggle of fascism with Soviet Russia, the latter is supported by American workers. But there was nothing special. And then immediately the struggle for power over the world and the all-destroying weapon - a hyperboloid. By the way, this novel had as many as six versions: the first in 1925 (magazine), the second also appeared in magazines in 1927 (the ending was changed), the third - in 1934 (lengths were shortened), 1936 - a children's version, "adult scenes" were removed , the 1937 version and the 1939 version, which everyone today mostly reads. Interestingly, in the first versions, Garin sent airships to Siberia for the mined Manz radium, and the beam of the hyperboloid was called infrared. On the basis of radium, Garin dreamed of creating a hydrogen engine of 100 horsepower the size of a cigarette box and a weapon, next to which the hyperboloid would seem like a child's toy. He considered all this in the novel superfluous, leading away from the main thing. But in the novel, another superweapon appeared: a beam revolver (a pocket hyperboloid).
"Hyperboloid engineer Garin"
The finished hyperboloid device. Take and do...
So all ray pistols, shotguns, bazookas, ray-throwers and blasters spewing a visible incinerating ray are all children of Tolstoy's hyperboloid. The heat ray throwers come from Wells' novel. And, given that there are more in the literature, it should be noted that it is our Soviet author (the “red count”, as many called him in the 30s) who will receive the laurels of the creator of the most massive and popular beam weapon.
And what types are shown in the 1965 film? Every face is a cliche, but what a quality
In 1965, the novel was made into a simply wonderful film. In the 70s they tried to shoot a new film, in four episodes, but it would be better if they didn’t do this, this craft looks so miserable compared to the masterful work of 1965 ...
For example, I really like Zoya Monrose in this film. This is exactly how it should have been! By the way, her job at Rolling is a typical performance of the duties of a public relations specialist. For the first time in Russia, this was described!
Just as global and, perhaps, even more fantastic was Alexander Belyaev's novel "Struggle on the Air", first published in 1927. One of the few novels that describes the war of the future between the US and the USSR, as well as the future itself, in which people eat pills and are deprived of their hair, and wars are fought with destroyer beam weapons. In general, here you have Wells with his Morlocks and Eloi, and the “death rays”, which many were fond of at that time, in a word, there is a lot of everything.
A. Belyaev. Broadcast fight. Cover of the 1928 edition
In 1991, 65 science fiction ideas were counted in the novel by A. Belyaev, and so 36 have been fully or partially realized by this time! This is a very high figure for a single piece. On top of everything else, this is also a novel about getting into the future. True, he gets there in delirium ...
American imperialists in an illustration by V. Aleksandrovsky for a 1928 edition. However, all other heroes are no better.
Another beam generator appeared in the USSR in 1939 in the novel Miracle Generator by writer Yuri Dolgushin. In it, however, it was not about burning rays, but about biotic, controlling life processes in the body, with the help of which it was even possible to resurrect the dead. Well, in the capitalist West, respectively, "Gross generators" were put on planes to kill with "death rays."
Already in 1936, Alexander Kazantsev made his debut in Soviet science fiction, eventually becoming its true master. Kazantsev was able to very accurately perceive all the trends of his time, all the aesthetic and ideological attitudes of the era, so his novels perfectly corresponded to the “party line” and therefore were printed in huge editions. Having created many interesting and original books, he had, however, a strange manner of rewriting his novels, modernizing them in accordance with the changes taking place in society. So, having created the wonderful story “Grandchildren of Mars” (“Planet of Storms”), in one of the later editions he transferred its action to ... the distant future, to another star system, and in addition to astronauts from the Union of Communist Republics, a robot and Kern from ... The Socialist States of America, whose coat of arms is a crossed hammer and an ear of corn.
So, the novel “Northern Mall”, which appeared in 1952, in 1956 he reworks into the novel “Polar Dream”, in 1964 - into the novel “The Ice Returns”, and in 1970 - into the novel “Underwater Sun”.
But especially went to his first novel "The Burning Island", which appeared in 1941. This novel changed literally from year to year, from edition to edition. For example, a 1941 novel describes hunting with homing bullets that find game on their own. And how can you not remember the movie saga "The Fifth Element" and his Zorg ZF-1, right?! But in subsequent versions of the novel, arrows fired from a bow are already homing!
Here it was what a hunt was with a bow and homing arrows. Burning Island novel, 1966 edition.
"Flaming Island", 1966 edition
Therefore, it is not surprising that in the novel there are also land-based super cruisers on tracks characteristic of science fiction of the 30s, majestically tilting on the hills, and ... atomic bombs, steam-powered aircraft, radio-controlled jet fighters, and "air torpedoes" with a network stretched between them . Two things, however, remained unchanged - electromagnetic superguns capable of throwing projectiles from continent to continent, and the original root cause of all the unrest and misfortune in the novel - the violet gas of the island of Arenida, which is the catalyst for the combustion of nitrogen in oxygen. The "Fire Cloud" is trying to create a certain Irish revolutionary in the novel and use it to burn England. But the discovery falls into the hands of the enemy of the world, Welt, and only Soviet electromagnetic guns, shooting at the island of Arenida in the Pacific Ocean, save the whole world from suffocation. More like a weapon, by the way, is nowhere to be found!
The land cruiser from the novel Burning Island
As for predictions, then ... remotely controlled UAVs, including those operating in tandem with fighters, appear today right before our eyes, but so far they have not dominated manned vehicles in the air. Well, as for tracked supertanks, then ... in the cinema they occupied their niche and eventually turned into mobile cities devouring each other. They also met in the novels of foreign authors, in particular, the story of Robert Hanlein "If This Continues" (1940), where each of tanks, storming the palace of the Prophet, has a proper name and is just such a huge monster.
Again, in our USSR (although there are a lot of such weapons in the works of foreign authors), advanced “novelties” in the field of atomic weapons also appeared.
"Return love" 1966 Mikhail Emtsev, Eremey Parnov
I personally really like the night attack on a US base somewhere in Asia described in this work. Here you have bullets with a white belt that turn a person into dust, and napalm, and a molecular disintegrator, from which, for some reason, ultrasonic borroins were stolen (what it is, the text does not specify!) ...
And this is very well written:
And, of course, in the enumeration of all those who invented fantastic weapons in their sci-fi works, one cannot fail to name Anatoly Dneprov (Anatoly Petrovich Mitskevich). He had a number of sf works that castigated capitalism in all its manifestations, but the story "The Clay God" (1963) is especially strong. It describes an attempt by former Nazis to create the perfect soldier. They manage to replace carbon with silicon in the human body. A person thus converted is invulnerable to bullets, withstands high temperatures, but is unable to speak, thinks with great difficulty, and can only drink water with alkali. Unreliable employees of the institute are also turned into organosilicon people so that they do not spill the beans. But the main character manages to replace alkali with water in the water supply, which is used by the "converted", and organosilicon people die, turning into motionless statues. Their creator also perishes. To him, the protagonist replaced the water with a harmful elixir that causes the replacement of carbon with silicon, and he very soon turned into a piece of clay - the "clay god". Unfortunately, the writer drank himself, interfered with alcohol with tranquilizers and died "of the heart."
A very unusual weapon, again, only our author was able to come up with this, was a talking (!) Fish with a mine on its head, named Mac, with which it was possible to communicate at the level of a trained dog.
repeated poor Mac, not understanding how he would eventually have to pay for this.
First, the story "The Blue Whale Submarine" by Alexander Mirer was published in 1968 in Pionerskaya Pravda, then it was published as a separate edition.
Interestingly, in 1967, Robert Merle's novel The Rational Animal was published in France, where intelligent dolphins who have learned to speak become weapons. It is unlikely that Mirer could get acquainted with the French edition in such a short time, and in Russian it was released only in 1969. Most likely, the idea of using marine animals as weapons was just in the air at that time ... Based on Merle's novel, the film "Day of the Dolphin" was shot in 1973, but it is much weaker than the original book.
Well, in general ... in general, our science fiction writers are great. What only in the field of weapons could not come up with. All sorts of ups and downs and adventures are not only no worse than those of Western authors, but in some cases they were more original, and, which is especially important in science fiction literature, more scientific...
To be continued ...
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