Klimawandelfiktion im Spätsozialismus

Abstract

Climate change fiction in late socialism

This article examines fictional representations of climate change in late Soviet culture and traces the emergence of a cultural awareness of the dangers of climate change in late Soviet fiction. Building on recent research on Soviet climate change research, it centers around exemplary analyses of Ilʹja Ėrenburg’s “Thaw” (1954), Vladimir Rjabcev’s film adaptation of Aleksandr Beljaev’s “The Air Seller” (1961), Anatolij Gladilin’s “Forecast for tomorrow” (1972) and Ričard Viktorov’s “Through hardships to the stars” (1980). These case studies are taken to show what knowledge of the causes and consequences of climate change the works conveyed and how their representations related to contemporary research. In this way, the preconditions and particularities of late Soviet climate change fiction come into view, which can contribute to a better understanding of current ways of perceiving climate change in Russia.