A. N. Strugatsky (1925 - 1991) - Russian SF author. Worked together with his brother B.N. Strugatsky.

Arkady Natanovich Strugatsky was born on August 28, 1925 in the city of Batumi and later lived in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg). His father was an art critic, his mother a teacher.

From the beginning of the Great Patriotic War (as WWII is known in Russia), Arkady has worked constructing fortifications, later - in a grenade factory. In late January 1942 he, together with his father, was rescued from Leningrad which was by then blockaded by the Germans. His survival was truly a miracle, as he was the sole survivor among his entire train car. When they reached Vologda, Arkady's father died. At last, Arkady found himself in the city of Chkalov (now Orenburg). In the town of Tashla (near Orenburg), he worked in a milk warehouse, it was also there that he was drafted into the Army. He was trained in the artillery school in Aktyubinsk.

Before the graduation, in the spring of 1943, he was posted to Moscow, to the Military Institute of Foreign Languages, from which he graduated in 1949 with the title "Interpreter from English and Japanese languages." Later he worked as an instructor in the School of Military Interpreters in Kansk, then served as a Divisional Interpreter in the Far East. He was demobilized in 1955 and moved to Moscow at that time. There he started to work in the "Digest Magazine," later he worked as an editor in two Publishing Houses, Detgiz and Gospolitizdat.

It was since 1955 that he wrote systematically, although even earlier, while still in the Army, he started to write short stories and to translate foreign literature. His first published work came out in 1956 (a novel "Bikini Ashes," together with L.S. Petrov). After that he moved to science fiction. Almost all of his works he wrote with his brother, Boris Natanovich Strugatsky. In 1958, they published their first books ("From the Outside," "Spontaneous Reflex," and others), and soon after that, in 1959, their first big novel "The Country of Crimson Clouds" came out. To date, they published 25 novels, plus some short stories, scripts, plays and essays. (The first complete works of brothers Strugatsky were published by a Moscow publishing house "Text" in early 90's.)

A.N. Strugatsky was also the editor of some anthologies of Russian and foreign SF ("On June the 31-th," "Science Fiction, issue 2," 1965). He also edited other SF books, such as "The Crew of Mekong" by E. Voyskunsky and I. Lukodyanov, "Steps into Unknown" by S. Gansovky, some issues of the "World of Adventures" series. He translated to Russian several Japanese and American SF authors (K. Abe, A. Norton, A. Asimov, H. Klement, and others), and works of the medieval Japanese literature ("Legend of Yesinutse," "A Peony Lantern" etc.). Together with his brother, participated in the creation and production of a number of SF movies: "Stalker" (director A.Tarkovsky), "A Murder Case" (director G.Kromanov), "Days of Eclipse" (director A.Sokurov), "Hard to be a God" (director Peter Fleischmann,Germany).

He was a member of editorial boards of various SF books and periodicals: "The World of Adventures," "Library of the Modern SF," "Knowledge Is Power," and since 1985 - "Ural Stalker." Led a Council on SF Fan Clubs of the Readers Society of Russia, was the member of the Council of SF Club Association of Russia, and later served as its chairman.

A number of times he was elected to serve on the boards of the prose section of the Moscow branch of the Russian Writer's Guild, the Council on SF and Adventure Literature in the same organization, and the Council on SF and Adventure Literature of the USSR Writers' Guild.

Arkady Natanovich Strugatsky died on October 12, 1991.

Please use our Guestbook for comments (c) 1996, 1997, 1998 Design, layout by Alexandr Usov and Dmitriy Vatolin (c) 1998 Graphics by Alex Andreev (c) 1998 English translation by Alexandr Usov (c) 2000 Proof-reading by Eugene Zabokritski This page was created in January 1997 and greatly enhanced in April 1997 and January 1998 Public use of any material from this page without express permission from the authors or publishers is PROHIBITED