Social fiction

Social fiction (also called political fiction) is sub-genre of science fiction focused on possible development of societies (most often set in near future or a fictional country), very often dominated by totalitarian governments. The term generally refers to fiction in Europe (particularly Eastern Europe) and the Soviet Union written in reaction to communist rule and the domination of the Soviet Union. It is related to the subgenre usually referred to in the West as social science fiction.

Social fiction written during the lifetime of USSR

Social fiction was very popular during the Cold War as a satire of the communist rule, on both sides of the Iron Curtain. It began with We, written by Yevgeny Zamyatin in 1921. While the most famous Western social dystopias alluding to the Soviet Union (Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, Huxley's Brave New World) were written in 1930s and 1940s, in Poland the genre was most common in the 1980s among Polish science-fiction writers like Janusz A. Zajdel (Limes Inferior, Paradyzja) or Edmund Wnuk-Lipinski (Apostezjon trilogy).

Related Topics:
Cold War - Iron Curtain - We - Yevgeny Zamyatin - Dystopia - Soviet Union - Orwell - Nineteen Eighty-Four - Huxley - Brave New World - 1930s - 1940s - Poland - 1980s - Janusz A. Zajdel - Edmund Wnuk-Lipinski

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In Soviet Union the genre was represented with the works of bros. Strugatsky, Bulgakov, Evgeny Shvarts (The Dragon). Since it was impossible to criticize the state ideology in the Soviet Union(outside GULAG), they wrote books, passing (hardly) censorship, but anticommunist for thoughtful readers. Though their works are much deeper than simple anticommunism.

Related Topics:
Bros. Strugatsky - Bulgakov - Evgeny Shvarts

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