The Strugatsky Brothers, whose biographies were quite different, are talented science fiction writers who managed to tell the readers what the Soviet Union was not supposed to say about. Their biography began in the first half of the twentieth century. Then the Strugatsky lived in Leningrad. The brothers have eight years of difference. But, despite this, Strugatsky was always a close family. The brothers, who were separated from life, invariably came back again. So, what is the biography of these wonderful playwrights, prose writers, real geniuses of Soviet science fiction? How did they create books to become the most famous Russian science fiction writers, both in the near and far abroad? Why are they called practically the fathers of scientific Fiction, especially Soviet and, subsequently, Russian? Why their work is difficult to overestimate, and even harder to imagine the world of science fiction without the Strugatsky brothers.
The elder brother is Arkady Natragovich Strugatsky. He was born on August 28, 1925 in the city of Batumi. Soon his parents moved to Leningrad, where they stayed for the rest of their lives. The parents of the Strugatsky brothers were educated and intelligent people. My father was an art critic, and my mother was a teacher. When the war began, Arkady was already a teenager, so he worked on the construction of fortifications, which were supposed to protect the city from the German invaders. Then the guy gave his duty to his Motherland in a grenade workshop. In 1942, when Leningrad was in blockade, Arkady managed to evacuate with his father, but the car got a discharge and he only survived among all who were there. Of course, for a guy it was a blow, but at that time there was no time to cry and worry. He buried his father in the city of Vologda. Then he went to Chkalov (modern Orenburg), and then ended up in Tashle. There he worked at the milk reception station, and in 1943 was drafted into the army. Arkady finished the Aktobe art school, but did not get to the front. The guy was very lucky, because instead of fighting, in the spring of 1943 he was sent to Moscow, where he had to study at the Military Institute of Foreign Languages. This fellow graduated in 1949. He was an interpreter from English and Japanese. Then he became a teacher at the Cannes School of Military Translators. Due to his specialty, the eldest of the Strugatsky brothers had to travel a lot. He managed to serve as a military interpreter in the Far East and was demobilized only in 1955. Since that time Arcadia started writing. In addition to creating novels and novels, co-authored with his brother, he also worked in the "Abstract Journal", and then became editor in Detgiz and Gospolitizdat. Unfortunately, Arcady Strugatsky lived only sixty-six years. For such a talented writer this is a short enough period for which it is impossible to realize all the ideas and themes that come to mind. Of course, Arkady, along with his brother, created many unique stories, which have been read by several generations. But, nevertheless, it is worth noting that we would have even more wonderful examples of science fiction if life of Arkady Natanovich Strugatsky did not end on October 12, 1991.
But his younger brother, Boris Natugovich Strugatsky, lives and lives to this day. Boris was born on April 15, 1933. Parents of brothers at that time already lived in Leningrad, so Boris could consider himself a native inhabitant of this city. He, like his brother, was evacuated from besieged Leningrad, but only by another train, together with his mother. As a child, he managed to see the most terrible winter of the besieged Leningrad. After the war ended, he returned to his hometown. There he enrolled at the Leningrad State University in the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics and received a diploma in astronomy. At one time, Boris worked at the Pulkovo Observatory. But, after the brother returned from the Far East, the Strugatsky sent to the background their careers and began to actively engage in creativity. Therefore, already in 1960, Boris was a member of the Writers' Union. By the way, the brothers not only wrote their stories and novels, but also translated American science fiction. Here only under translations they signed not as Strugatsky, but as S. Pobedin and S. Vitin. To date, Boris Strugatsky is the head of the seminar of young science fiction writers at the St. Petersburg Writers' Organization. He gives the younger generation their knowledge and skills in this area of literature, so that modern science fiction writers can create as strong and interesting works as they used to create with a scared brother.
By the way, the success to Strugatsky came pretty quickly. Already in 1960, such works as "Six Matches" (1959), "Testing the TFR" (1960), "Particular Assumptions" (1960) were noted. Strugatsky's special feature was the profound psychology of the characters. Earlier Soviet science fiction writers did not really think about creating full-fledged characters with their own problems and experiences. And the Strugatskys endowed them with feelings and emotions, gave an opportunity to explain why they are doing this and what they like or do not like about their world. In addition, the Strugatsky began to predict the world of the future, which also did not reflect the Soviet science fiction, in contrast to foreign ones. They wrote such masterpieces as "Picnic on the Roadside" and "Inhabited Island". These somewhat anti-utopian books can be safely called masterpieces. And the Strugatsky brothers are rightfully called the kings of science fiction.