Братья Стругацкие : феномен прогрессорства в мире Полудня

Abstract

The author of the present article deals with the phenomenon of so called "progressorism", frequently appearing in the books of Arkady and Boris Strugatsky. These Soviet writers have set many of their stories and novels into a fictional universe commonly known as The World of Noon, in which communist concepts and principles were victorious and the humankind, highly developed both morally and technically, starts exploring the galaxy. The term "progressors" refers to earthlings, who secretly strive to facilitate progress of less advanced civilizations. This article reveals that Strugatsky brothers view the very idea of "progressorism" as extremely problematical, since influencing any society's natural development too often causes more harm than good – both to the affected society and to the "progressors" themselves. The author also finds many parallels of "progressorism" in the real world, e.g. activities of modern "missionaries" in the Third World countries.