Semiotics of ‘the new Soviet man’ concept in the works of the Strugatsky brothers: from the “Noon Universe” to the “Doomed City”
- DOI
- 10.5922/2225-5346-2025-3-12
- Pages
- 189-204
Abstract
The article attempts to reconstruct the genesis of the concept of the ‘new Soviet man’ within the framework of communist ideology. An interdisciplinary research perspective enables an analysis of the development of the concept of the ‘Soviet man’ at the intersection of linguistics and history, viewed through the lens of the literary texts by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky. As a result, the literary text is examined as a semiotic model of communication, in which the sender and the recipient of the text are linked through the narrative language and regarded as objects of historical analysis. The theme of the ‘new man’ constitutes the historiosophical core of the Strugatsky brothers’ oeuvre. Already in their early works, Arkady and Boris Strugatsky formulated the principal characteristics of the concept of the ‘Soviet man’ as a person of labour (action), a person of duty (sacrifice), and a person of science (enlightenment). This concept undergoes a significant transformation over the course of their literary work. The analysis of the semiosphere of the novel ”The Doomed City” (“Grad obrechennyi”, 1975) demonstrates that the Strugatskys succeeded in tracing the genesis of the ‘Soviet man’ through a symbolic system of images: from the revolutionary-destroyer of the 1920s, to the builder-creator of the 1930s; from the obedient executor—a cog in the state machine—of the 1940s and 1950s, to the individual of ‘developed socialism’ in the 1960s—1970s. This, in turn, allows for the identification of both the internal limitations of the ‘new Soviet man’ concept—above all, its dependence on ideology—and its transhistorical vitality and enduring appeal.