Soviet science fiction is a term generally applied to describe the majority of sci-fi works which were created not only in the Soviet Union but also in most countries of the former Eastern bloc, in the twentieth century.

Its proponents claim it to be more realistic socially and drawing more on the social sciences than the so called 'hard sciences', as for example Arthur C. Clarke and other 'hard science fiction' writers do.

Locating the story and setting in the future was at the time an intelligent way to critize the situation and everyday life of the Communist regime, in order to overcome censorship and partly also to project the dream of a true 'communist' society into the future. Even Nikolai Bukharin, one of the Soviet leaders before Lenin's new deal, wrote science fiction novels, where he projected the future communist society onto Mars.

The Brothers Strugatsky together with Stanislaw Lem are the best examples of Soviet science fiction, though Lem certainly wouldn't like to be classified as such and would surely suffer a heart attack if confronted with the idea.

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