Red Star: The First Bolshevik Utopia by Alexander - Monoskop

262 Pages·2013·9.99 MB·English

by  Alexander Bogdanov

dlexander l)ogtlanov
RED R
1 (
REDSTdR
Soviet History, Politics,
Society, and Thought
James Michael Holquist and
Alexander Rabinowitch,
general editors
ADVISORY BOARD
Katerina Clark Gail W. Lapidus
Stephen F. Cohen Moshe Lewin
Murray Feshbach Sidney Monas
Loren Graham S. Frederick Starr

REDSTdR
Toe first l)olsoevil) Utopia
alexander l)ogdanov
Red Star
Engineer Menni
A Martian Stranded on Earth
EDITED BY
Loren R. Graham and Richard Stites
TRANSLATED BY
Charles Rougle
INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS
BLOOMINGTON AND INDIANAPOLIS
This book is a publication of
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© 1984 by Indiana University Press
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any fonn or by any
means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording,
or by any infonnation storage and retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publisher. The Association of American University Presses'
Resolution on Pennissions constitutes the only exception to this prohibition.
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
American National Standard for Infonnation Sciences--Pennanence of
Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984.
Manufactured in the United States of America
Cataloging infonnation is available from the Library of Congress.
IJbrary of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Bogdanov, A. (Aleksandr), 1873-1928.
Red star.
(Soviet history, politics, society, and thought)
Contents: Red star-Engineer Menni-Martian stranded on
Earth.
1. Bogdanov, A. (Aleksandr), 1873-1928-Translations,
English. I. Graham, Loren R. II. Stites, Richard. III. Rougle,
Charles, 1946- IV. Title. V. Series.
PG3467.M29A27 1984 897.1'33 83-48637
ISBN 978-0-253-17350-8
ISBN 978-0-253-20317-5 (pbk.)
5 6 789 12 11 10 09 08 07
CONTENTS
Preface ix
Fantasy and Revolution: Alexander Bogdanov and the Origins of
Bolshevik Science Fiction I Richard Stites 1
RED STAR: A Utopia 17
ENGINEER MENNI: A Novel of Fantasy 141
A MARTIAN STRANDED ON EARTH: A Poem 235
Bogdanov's Inner Message I Loren R. Graham 241
Selected Bibliography 255
Preface
The 6rst edition of Red Star appeared in st. Petersburg in 19oB. It
was reissued in Petrograd and in Moscow in 1918, and again in Moscow in
1~~. ~tage version was produced by Proletcult theater in 1920. In
1~, after Bogdanovs death, it was pubUshed as a supplement to Around
the World. It was not again reissued in the Soviet Union for almost fifty
years, until 1979, when it was anthologized in a slightly expurgated ver
sion in the collection The Eternal Sun: RwBlon Social Utopia and Science
Fiction. It appeared in a German translation in 1~3, and this was re
printed in 197~. An E'l)eranto edition came out in Leipzig in 1~,
celebrating, no doubt, the Esperantists' admiration of uniUngual utopias.
The 6~nglish translation recently appeared in Pre-Revolutionary Rus
lion Science Fiction: An Anthology (1g8~), edited by Leland Fetzer.
There were at least six editions of Engineer Menn; between 1913 and
19~3, and it was reissued also by Around the World in 1~. The present
translations are of the original 19oB and 1913 editions. Chronologically,
Engineer Mennl comes 6rst as a historical novel about the social revolu
tion on Mars long before Leonid's voyage of 1905-06. We have placed
Red Star first, however, because it was written first and because this
order makes for better reading. As a writer, Bogdanov was no master of
style, and so we have given preference to clarity over literalness of trans
lation, without omitting or violating anything essential. For the Martian
place names, we have used the standard classical tenninology still em
ployed by astronomers (and used by Bogdanov in Russian translation).
The illustrations for Red Star are taken from the 1~3 Moscow edition.
The editors and translator wish to thank the follOwing people for
reading and commenting on our work: in Philadelphia, Mark Adams; in
New York, Abraham Ascher and Kenneth Jensen; in Leeds, Moira
Donald; in Washington, D.C., Murray Feshbach; in Helsinki, Ben HeU
man, Eugene Holman, Pekka Pesonen, and I1mari Susiluoto; in Thrku,
Kurt Johansson; in Berkeley, Louise McReynolds; in Freiburg, Thomas
Markowsky; in Montreal, Darko SUvin. Charles RougJe and Richard
Stites thank each other for what Bogdanov would have called our "com-
x RED STAR
radely exchange of labor" in Helsinki in the summer of 1982. Loren
Graham and Richard Stites thank each other for joining together our once
independent projects. We all thank Janet Rabinowitch of Indiana Univer
sity Press for her stubborn faith in our work.
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