It so happened that, in the USSR, in modern Russia, few people know that there were not only religions glorifying the Lord God, but also religions cursing him. Religions that believe that the one whom Christians consider the very personification of good is in fact a rare bastard, a complete scoundrel who created the initially disfigured world. A world in which all living things are doomed to sufferings lasting billions of years. Or even our world did not create, but who usurped power in it, and it was this usurpation that led to the fact that our world became initially disfigured.
Perhaps the brightest such religion was Gnosticism, and, again, in the USSR and the Russian Federation, few people know that in the XIII century, in all seriousness there was a question - what kind of Europe, Christian or Gnostic. Gnosticism became the state religion in Languedoc and the County of Toulouse and spread rapidly throughout Europe. The Catholic Church managed to stop it only by the fact that the Gnostic regions were literally drowned in blood. And, nevertheless, wars with the Gnostics and their uprisings went on for more than a hundred years, namely from 1209 to 1321. In any case, it is officially believed that the last Qatar (a representative of the European Gnostic Church) was burned at the stake in 1321., this is also a very significant detail - the Cathars were almost always offered life in exchange for adopting Christianity, but they almost always preferred a fire.
Also, I think it makes sense to note - the Gnostics believed that in the image of Jesus Christ, in fact, Satan came to Earth.
It would seem, what relation do theomachic religions have to Soviet science fiction? However, one day I was surprised to realize that they have, and then I proved it.
The first time I thought about this was when I was a child, when I read the story of the Strugatsky brothers "A billion years before the end of the world." I remember reading it in the Znaniya Sila magazine for 1976-1977.
The Strugatsky brothers
I was immediately dumbfounded by the plot. Leningrad scientists, both familiar and unfamiliar with each other, conduct research, and in various fields, and suddenly something (or someone?) Begins to interfere with them, and the more they persist in further research, the greater the opposition. In their life, a lot of both extremely negative and extremely positive events begin to occur, the purpose of which is one - to prevent them from continuing their research.
By combining efforts and studying these events, they come to the conclusion that they are opposed by nature itself, the universe itself. In the center is the question: why do not supercivilizations arise ?! And the answer turns out to be simple - there is a certain law of nature that does not allow the mind to develop too much.
Promotional video:
There was, of course, something to think about. After all, it turned out that nature is a kind of intelligent force hostile to man, humanity, reason, life in general. And, by the way, the opposing one is not at all embarrassed in means. There is a lot of tragedy in the story.
Around the same period, I read the first part of their novel "The Snail on the Slope", it was then published in the collection "The Hellenic Secret". This book interested me even more. I remember at that moment, I was most interested in where the action takes place, then not yet a novel, but a story. A certain mysterious forest in which events unfold, definitely not terrestrial, but the names of some characters are clearly terrestrial. The main character's name is Candide and his acquaintances Karl and Valentine are also mentioned.
In the end, I came to the conclusion that the actions are taking place in a colony of earthlings on another planet, but there are no less questions.
When I was young, in the early 90s, I came across the full version of The Snail. She confused everything even more. There, besides the forest, there is also some incredibly powerful bureaucratic system that opposes the second main character - Peretz. Moreover, the city in which the action of the second part takes place, and which directly borders on the forest, and does not come close to resembling a colony on another planet.
Quite recently, I learned that The Snail on the Slope was originally conceived as a story called Trouble, and the forest was on Pandora. That is, as a child, I, after all, was right. But, most importantly, it is in "Anxiety", not "Shadowed, on the fence." It directly says that on Pandora, earthlings faced the actions of some incredibly powerful, or rather irresistible force, and they, in fact, are nothing in front of this force. It is clear that even there it is not said that this power is the Lord God, “Anxiety” was also written in the USSR, but the conclusion is that in “A Billion Years Until the End of the World”, that in “Snail on the Slope”, that in “Anxiety” is the same. No matter how powerful this force, the duty of both man and mankind to study it and find real methods of counteracting it! No more, no less.
The conclusion is one hundred percent gnostic.
The essence of this religion is precisely in the fact that there is a certain secret knowledge - gnosis, having studied which man and humanity will become equal in power to those whom Christians call the Lord God and the Archangels accompanying him, well, or the Archon and his Aeons, as the Gnostics say. And then, man and humanity will be able to ask them for their deeds, and ask them with all the severity and severity.
However, you can say a lot about this, for example, remembering the story "Burdened by Evil", where the Strugatskys are much more frank, but this makes no sense, since the Strugatskys managed to admit that of all the worldviews developed by mankind, Gnosticism is closest to them. That is why I began a series of my articles on the topic of fighting against God, propagandized in Soviet science fiction, and propagandized in secret, with them. But the main question here is not this, but something else. The Strugatskys are far from the only ones, it can be said without exaggeration that most Soviet science fiction writers, and not only science fiction writers, write more than enough about this. Soviet science fiction, it is not clear why, is literally permeated with the theme - higher forces really exist, and these are otherworldly forces and they definitely do not wish us well, but they can and should learn to resist on equal terms.
Perhaps this idea was most accurately indicated in the novel "The Razor's Blade" by the founder of classical Soviet fiction and the actual teacher of the Strugatskikh Ivan Efremov, he wrote: "Nature can get the best, create perfection only through battle, murder, death of children and the weak, that is, through suffering, - increasing it as the complexity and improvement of living beings. This is the primary, original principle of all natural historical evolution, and it is initially flawed. Therefore, the concept of original sin, from ancient times brought down on a woman, must be transferred to the wrong structure of the world and life, and if there was a creator of all that exists, then this is his sin. For a thinking being could not help thinking about alleviating suffering, and not increasing it, no matter what goal was set, because all goals are nothing before a billion years of suffering. "And in his next novel "The Hour of the Bull", on the basis of this very thesis, he created the so-called "concept of inferno", the concept of the world disfigured by the original evolutionary perversion. As well as introduced the term "Arrow of Ahriman" into this novel.
Ivan Efremov
But his student - Oles Berdnik, in the novel "The Star Corsair" explained in detail who Ahriman is. With him, Ahriman is precisely the one whom Christians consider to be the Lord God.
Oles Berdnik
By the way, at one time, I was greatly surprised how the Star Corsair was published in the USSR.
Cover of the Ukrainian edition of the book "Star Corsair"
The most difficult thing here is that this topic has not been studied at all. I think the Buzinovskys spouses came closest to understanding it, in their books "Seven Seals of Woland", "Secret of Woland" and "Ro". They came to the conclusion that many Soviet writers were members of the Disc secret society, and it was the Disc paradigm that they secretly propagated in their works. With which I completely agree. As well as they noticed a lot in this paradigm, in particular, it is non-materialistic, based on the concept of reincarnation and proceeds from the fact that space and time are six-dimensional. With which I also completely agree. But they missed the element of fighting against God. Namely, he seems to be in charge.
Andrey Kozlovich