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Culture
07
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www.russiatoday.ru/guests/detail/592 RT Guest: Dmitry Glukhovsky
Prominent Russian writers express
Literature Russian writers have predicted Putin’s conversion to Taoism, the return of the
pessimism about the future of Russia
and the world. Some of their readers
Oprichnik guards of Ivan the Terrible and Europe’s conversion to Islam by Muslim immigrants
perceive the dark expectations
as presentiment of an impending
Doomsday, while others simply see a
literary trend, psychologically rooted
in rapidly increasing social, political
and technological changes. Centuries
ago, it took several generations for the
world to change. Today, the world can
Doomsday?
be turned upside down several times
within a single generation. Utopian
or dystopian predictions are often
reflections on present problems in
Russian fiction: Orwellian warnings
society. Presented here are
four works of Russian fiction that look
to the future. from four bestselling novels
corruptible justice. The president is tee has emerged and seized power.
Day of the Oprichnik 2008
also visited by a wise salmon with Not wanting to cede power to the
whom he discusses existential prob- president, they arrest Putin and con-
lems and a more pragmatic subject - fine him to an underground bunker.
the succession of power. While George W. Bush prepares to
Meanwhile, Boris Berezovsky’s men send Marines to Russia - ostensibly
VLADIMIR SOROKIN SERGEI DORENKO plan his assassination. Another ty- for a rescue and peacekeeping mis-
52, author of The Norm, The Queue, Blue Lard and many other 48, television presenter coon, Roman Abramovich, secretly sion - the KGB destroys its archives.
bestselling works, all controversial Prediction made in 2005 for 2008 makes a plan to establish a Russian National Bolsheviks (a radical left-
Prediction made in 2006 for 2028 Salvation Committee, which would wing political party) seize the Kremlin,
Prediction restore Putin to the presidency soon and tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky is
Prediction Guards, the Oprichnina, notori- Shortly before the 2008 presidential after the election. appointed Prime Minister.
After the monarchy is re-estab- ous for their atrocities and election, Vladimir Putin converts to All plots crumble as Putin flees to
lished in Russia, it erects a rep- recruited from petty nobility. The Taoism and Chinese masters settle China to seek advice from Wang Lip- Grounds for Prediction
lica of the Great Wall of China Oprichniks dash around in their in his country residence, a pagoda at ing, a Tao patriarch. Chechen terror- As the 2008 presidential election ap-
to isolate itself from the West. Chinese-made red Mercedes. Novo-Ogarevo. During meditation ists use the occasion to seize Ob- proaches, the Russian public is tense,
The country is split in half from Executions and floggings are sessions pervaded by intoxication ninsk, a power plant close to Moscow. even though it is clear who the next
east to west by the Great held in public, while commoners from incense, he holds conversations As the city is thrown into panic, Putin president will be. Conjectures now pro-
Route, a ten-lane highway with and aristocrats alike hang from with the King of Hell, Yanlo Wang, rushes back, but only too late. By ceed into the possible turns the situa-
an underground speed railway. city arches. Oprichniks have be- who personifies irrevocable and in- then, the Russian Salvation Commit- tion may take during his presidency.
China has become the world’s come ideological supervisors
leading manufacturer, and its and insatiable racketeers of
commodities travel along the businesses, with interests in the
Route constantly. Great Route. They speak a jar-
The Lenin Mausoleum has gon that parodies the Russian
been demolished and the red- language of Tsar Ivan’s time.
brick Kremlin painted white. For example, the television is
Lubyanka Square, which, dur- referred to as the “news chest.”
ing Soviet times, contained a
statue of Felix Dzerzhinsky (the Grounds for Prediction
founder of the Bolshevik secret Sorokin, the brilliant social crit-
police), now boasts a monu- ic, is far less alarmed by con-
ment to Malyuta Skuratov, a sumerism than by contempo-
ruthless torturer and right-hand rary Russia’s quest for ethnic
man of Tsar Ivan the Terrible in identity, which, according to
the 16th century. him, is permeated by the three
Russia has revived the heinous Ps: petroleum exports, piety
ways of Ivan the Terrible and re- and paternalism tinged with
established Tsar Ivan’s Life- monarchist nostalgia. NIKOLAY KOROLEV_RBTH
ALEXEY BOYCOV_RIA-NOVOSTI
ers tend mushroom farms, breed pigs
and engage in commerce. However,
warfare becomes a favorite pastime.
The metro soon divides into tiny city-
stations, known as “metropolita-
nates,” each with a political system of
its own. Instead of joining hands for
survival and fighting rats, bellicose
mutants and abject poverty, the sta-
tions wage war on each other. Coali-
tions come and go, as recent allies
become sworn enemies.
Grounds for Prediction
ALEXEY PAVLISHAK_ITAR-TASS Glukohvsky states: “I do not think
another cold war is far off. Every
news story reads like a dystopian
The Mosque of Notre Dame
Grounds for Prediction thriller about World War Three. Con-
Tolerant of Muslim religion and cus- frontation gets tougher with every
toms, Europe is being flooded by passing day. Russia is reluctant to
de Paris
Muslim immigrants. Chudinova meet the West halfway, and its for-
comments on this trend: “Europe eign policy is becoming increasingly
has given up its Christian ideals and independent.”
YELENA CHUDINOVA The Notre Dame de Paris becomes now recedes under Muslim advanc- He remarks that it is “no wonder
48, Orthodox Christian, writer a mosque and Sharia courts are es. My book shows where this may
JULIA RUBCOVA_RIA-NOVOSTI
[that] the West is becoming para-
Prediction made in 2005 for 2048 used to administer merciless justice. lead.” noid, as are Russians. The West
A Frenchman is stoned to death in “This is nothing new. Take Ancient
Prediction front of the Arc de Triomphe for clan- Rome: Romans were skeptical
Metro 2033
wants to deploy its missile defense
system in Poland. Russia strikes
Although the Western world has wel- destine production of wine. about everything. They enjoyed the back by threatening to quit the CFE
comed Muslim immigrants, they now Greece manages to preserve Chris- same comforts we do today, even treaty. Russia talks of military threats
rise against their adoptive countries to tianity at the expense of humiliating greater, perhaps. They were post- DMITRY GLUKHOVSKY nonstop and alleges that America
trample Christian Europe, renaming it tributes paid to Muslim Europe. Po- modernist, just as we are today. 30, Kremlin reporter, foreign affairs specialist, former war correspondent has resumed the arms race. Ameri-
Eurabia and outlawing Christianity. land, the pillar of Catholicism, leaves Their literature was refined to the ut- Prediction made in 2005 for 2033 can television says the Putin regime
As most European countries are vio- the European Union and hosts Rus- most. Then barbarians came and is becoming unmanageable.”
lently converted to Islam, ethnic Eu- sian military bases while Russia pre- stabbed all those liberal-minded Prediction in the metro, whose formidable He concludes that “mutual trust is
ropeans huddle together in ghettos. serves its Orthodox traditions. sybaritic highbrows right in their The world has just suffered a nucle- doors keep radiation and aggressive dwindling. It’s hard to say who is to
bathtubs. Barbarians always attack ar war; contamination and radiation mutants out. blame. A nuclear conflict was hardly
when civilized people become too destroy all surface life on earth. All The few surviving engineers con- possible during the 1970s and
Material prepared by comfortable and, therefore, indiffer- who stay above ground face death struct underground water filtering sta- 1980s. Now, there is a far greater
Anna Starobinets, Moscow (first published in the magazine Russky Reporter) ent to the world.” or mutation. Muscovites take refuge tions and power plants. Metro dwell- chance of that happening.”
-
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