Dedicated to heroes of the Soviet Space

Translator's notes.

By 1984, Soviet Union was well underway to "1984" (at least it was obvious to people who cared to think about things like that). With the Orwellian framework already understood and accepted as given, this book takes the next logical step (while paying homage to the original in subtle ways - compare "Room 329" and "Room 101") and continues to beat the idea silly: in a society where there are thoughtcriminals, it is natural, even imperative, to expect thoughtheroes. This line of reasoning appeared so convincing to me that I did not suspect anything wrong with the first-person perspective belonging to someone clearly marching to his death until the narrator's mission was at an apparent end, but there were still some pages left in the book. Thus, realizing the nature of the final meta-jump - that the only reason for and sole consequence of that heroism was supposed to take hold for a brief moment inside the unwitting hero's head, with the remaining universe enriched by this very fact and nothing else, regardless of absence of any physical manifestation of his deed - left me with a feeling of utter delight. To try and share that feeling was the main impetus for starting this project.

Psychometrists usually divide intelligence tests into two categories, one of them being "culture-fair" (that is, without obvious references to objects, events and ultimately a language which would clearly belong to a specific culture) and the other, naturally, opposite. Chemistry exam is culture-fair, because chemistry is the same everywhere; "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire" is culture-unfair, because a non-American would find himself at a distinct disadvantage when facing a question about the 1968 World Series. In this sense, Pelevin's prose is unfair to the extreme. It is not only uniquely Russian, utilizing the abundant capacity of the language, of both civilized and obscene variety (unlike the wastepaper dominating the modern Russian literary landscape); no, it's also inextricably Soviet, in fact post-Soviet, processed-and-condensed-Soviet. Pelevin explicitly counts on the reader's knowing chuckle as popular culture icons and images, pounded since early childhood into anyone who experienced the ultimate brain-laundering (washing is too mild a word) of the Communist education-indoctrination system, are turned inside out.

What I am trying to accomplish here is to get myself off the hook as a translator. To my taste, there are entirely too many notes accompanying the text. At the same time as I am offering my profound apologies for their proliferation, my defense is that it was necessary to eliminate the home-field advantage the fabled "Soviet people", and especially Muscovites, have over Pelevin's books. I was sorely tempted to provide more - for example, note that the kamikaze pilot's memoirs are probably "A Japanese Pilot's Own Story Of The Suicide Squadrons" by Kuwahara Yasuo, or explain how Ahnenerbe is related to the skulls on the shelf or what an immelman turn is, but I think I resisted the urge admirably, only limiting myself to the readily recognizable realities (if one is permitted to use the word in the context of this book) of Soviet life. Well, almost.

On the other hand, the original text in several places contained references to more specific Russian pop-culture artifacts, mostly in form of lines from popular songs. Where these lines did not disrupt the fabric of narration or contribute to it in a significant manner, I allowed myself to omit them entirely. This decision is the obverse side of the desire stated in the previous paragraph, as I do not see the point of providing a rhymed snippet that would be a starting point of an association for a Russian - only to chase it perforce with the elaborate comment in an attempt to explain what exactly the association is and what it's related to. Factoids are one thing; saddling the reader with my own memories and mental connections is quite another. This is not my book; I am just a translator.

Another popular Soviet patriotic song (about pilots, no less) goes something like "We were born to turn a fairytale into reality", which was readily stood on its head by irreverent dissidents by substituting "Kafka" for the "fairytale" (the Russian words sound very similar). I don't have any doubt that this line, good enough by itself to describe the entire plot of this book, crossed Pelevin's mind when he was writing "Omon Ra". Kafka holds the patent on the calm interweaving of absurd reasoning and events into what seems to be otherwise sane environment until it is blown sky-high by that same reasoning - which also happens to be a distinguishing feature of almost every sentence Pelevin ever wrote. In fact, his "Life of Insects" is openly borrowing and expanding the "stranger-turned-into-bug" motif - characters of that book are people and insects (mosquitoes, ants, dragonflies, dung beetles and so on) at the same time, or at least travel between their avatars seamlessly.

Explaining in detail what the "Maresyev Academy" means, then dropping Matrosov's name in the same context and waiting a couple of pages until exploring what that entails, while interspersing the veiled reference to Korchagin in-between is calculated to make the reader pat himself on the shoulder for "getting it" - a pleasant experience, to be sure, no doubt accounting in large part for popularity of Pelevin's books among the remains of the Soviet self-described "intelligentsia". Pelevin's books allow us all to perceive ourselves as part of the "cultural elite" (to be fair, there are also usually deeper layers than this simple example). Even while self-consciously catching myself at being thus baited, I still can't help but enjoy the resulting buzz, probably similar to one the consumer of detective stories experiences when he figures out "who done it" just before the oh-so-smart police inspector does. I must admit that this device Pelevin, once convinced of its effectiveness, is prone to overusing. "Omon Ra" may be considered as the first part of a trilogy (so far), with the remaining books being "Buddha's Little Finger" and "Generation П" aka "Babylon" (and to a lesser extent "Golden Arrow" - as kind of an accompanying apocrypha) - but to a large degree these are actually the same book, only becoming bigger and more elaborate (and switching time periods from late Soviet to early Soviet to post-Soviet to openly inconsequential). Not surprisingly, however, one-joke (all right, one-and-a-half-joke) setups work better in small formats, and that's why I pay more respect to his rasskazy, short stories ("Omon Ra" is a povest, traditional Russian genre that is a "small novel", or a "long short story", if you will) - the best of which are utterly untranslatable exactly because of their concentrated nature.

Consistent, if not increasing with time, virtuosity in handling of the language, coupled with playful pop-Zen detachment (or determined alienation) from the "coarse reality" are hallmarks of almost all Pelevin's oeuvres, and can be regarded as heralding a new style, or at least direction, in Russian literature. There is a famous Russian quote stating that "Pushkin is our everything". Continuing the analogy, Pelevin is our Buddhism, existentialism and "new age", all rolled into one. This does not mean that his books are as good or as destined for eternity as "Library of Babylon", "The Trial" or "The Plague" - but this is not their point. To learn quantum mechanics, one rarely goes and dusts up the 1910s volumes of "Physical Review" with original Einstein's articles (even though that actually might do a lot of good). There are instead modern textbooks that digest, rearrange, enhance and generally make them more fit (from the textbook author's point of view) for human consumption. In the same vein, Pelevin "improves" on Borges, Castaneda, Cortazar and Camus (not to mention Kafka) for the post-Communist Russia. Even as I recognize the innate limitations of the approach, I cannot but acknowledge the masterful treatment it receives. My hope is that my work will allow you to do the same.

Notes:

^[1] OMON - Russian abbreviation for a Special Forces Detachment, a crack police squad.

^[2] The Communist Party, of course - since there was only one, the one word "Party" was sufficient. Party membership was an essential requirement for advancing the career beyond mid-level management - or junior officer rank.

^[3] An obvious play on the Karamazov name, but sounding quite a bit uglier to the Russian ear - "Krivo" means "crooked", and "mazov" is derived from "mazat'", "to miss completely" or "to smear" . In addition, a notorious article in the Communist Youth daily, printed in 1982 and attacking a popular Soviet rock group, thus declaring an open season on the Russian rock scene and its culture in general, was signed "N. Krivomazov".

^[4] OVIR - Russian abbreviation for a local office of Interior Ministry formally charged with adjudicating cases for exit visas for Soviet citizens, as well as registering entry of foreigners into the country.

^[5] Author refers to the "Space Conquerors" monument in the northern part of Moscow, near the Ostankino TV tower (which is, incidentally,  much higher). Space Exploration museum is located in its base.

^[6] A permanent exposition grounds built in grand style shortly after the WWII to showcase the great state of the Soviet economy. Separate buildings - "pavilions" - were dedicated to different branches of the industry. Referred to later is the "Cosmos" pavilion, housing something similar to the Smithsonian's space collection.

^[7] Radio programs of various short-wave Western stations based in Europe and broadcasting (usually in Russian) to USSR, usually referred to as "golosa" - "voices" or "enemy voices", after the "Voice of America".

^[8] Informal short from Dimitry.

^[9] In Russia dinner usually takes place in the early afternoon, while supper, also quite substantial, happens in the evening.

^[10] Russian letters standing for USSR; should be quite familiar in this form to the reader.

^[11] Referring to the science fiction novel "Aelita", concerned with a Mars expedition in just such a vehicle. Naturally, the characters find an oppressive capitalist society there, too, and assist in overthrowing it.

^[12] German Democratic Republic, East Germany.

^[13] The name of the youth organization for children of approximately middle school age, essentially scouts with the Communist twist. Membership was more or less mandatory. Symbols of"young pioneers" included a badge and red neckerchief (to be worn to school daily), as well as the horn and drum mentioned here.

^[14] The salute resembled the military one, except the hand drawn a little higher, diagonally bisecting the face with tips of the fingers slightly above the head, not touching it.

^[15] This WWI cruiser is purported to have given the signal for the October 1917 Bolshevik coup by firing a blank from its anchored position in the Neva river in St. Petersburg (where it is still on display).

^[16] The military draft was (and still is)  mandatory for every male age 18, with a 2 year (3 in the Navy) tour of duty as a private (crewman). Young males with enough sense to try to avoid it would fake (often successfully) psychiatric disorders. Top-rank universities provide deferment, while training the students so that they attain the junior officer (ensign) rank upon graduation and are not required to enter active duty.

^[17] Cheap cigarettes with recessed paper filters, loosely filled with second-grade tobacco.

^[18] A. Maresyev, historical figure and main character in B. Polevoy's novel "Story Of The Real Man". His plane shot down over German-occupied territory in the summer of 1942, and he himself wounded in both legs, he managed to crawl back over 18 days back to Russian positions. Later, with legs amputated below the knees, he taught himself to fly airplanes again on prosthetics and insisted on being reinstated as pilot. He is still alive (now 85 years old). The book is required reading in the school Russian Literature curriculum.

^[19] This means it was awarded the Order of the Red Banner.

^[20] Soviet institutions of higher education relied (and still do) on entrance exams, not standardized tests, to evaluate applicants, who have to be physically present on site over a certain time in summer to pass them.

^[21] The seeming incongruity of a senior officer asking permission from one of lesser rank is explained on the next page: while the lieutenant-colonel is Air Force, the major is KGB, and therefore is above all other officers in the Academy when it comes to policy decisions or "state secrets". See also next note.

^[22] More precisely "political officers", Party bosses (formally bearing officer ranks) attached to every sufficiently large military unit.

^[23] Every fall thousands of civilians (especially college students) as well as military personnel were required to help the agricultural communities in their area with the harvest for several weeks - usually vegetables (most often potatoes, hence the expression) around Moscow, but it could be fruit or cotton, depending on the climate.

^[24] The standard response required of pioneers when addressed with "Be ready for struggle in the name of Lenin and the Communist Party!"

^[25] Hammer and sickle - symbols of the Soviet Union,  present on its flag and state seal (coat of arms).

^[26] "Truth", the official daily of the Communist Party

^[27] Shoulder patch insignia; top officers starting from general/admiral and up had the state seal (globe bordered by wheat stooks - hence the broom analogy) in gold at the bottom of the gold-tone patch, with large stars (two of them in this case) above it denoting the rank.

^[28] Described is the last reel of  "Andrey Rublyov", the film by Soviet director A. Tarkovsky, which has the camera panning silently over icons (religious paintings on wood) created by Rublyov, a genius XIV century Russian painter.

^[29] This is in fact a meta-reference, Pelevin's specialty: usually the "first department" at any state enterprise is the more or less official name of the KGB officer(s) assigned to monitor political conformity and handling of "state secrets"; what would the "first department" of the KGB itself do?

^[30] Referring to a dramatic moment in the "Story Of The Real Man": Maresyev is dancing "Kalinka", a rather acrobatic Russian solo dance, at an officers' party; when a general approaches him afterwards to commend his performance, he reveals the prosthetic legs, thereby prompting the astonished general to cast aside doubts about Maresyev's abilities and consider restoring his flying privileges.

^[31] A. Matrosov, a historical WWII figure. With his detachment pinned down by a German machine gunner in a fortified concrete firing position,  he managed to sneak on it and then threw himself onto the slot, thereby interrupting the fire long enough for others to get closer and destroy the position with hand grenades. Came to symbolize the heroism of the Soviet soldiers.

^[32] A large department store in the center of Moscow, on Lubyanka square, right next to the headquarters of CheKa/NKVD/MGB/KGB. Both of those late XIX - early XX century buildings occupy an entire city block.

^[33] Probably abbreviation of "Senior Cosmonaut Academy" in Russian.

^[34] Obvious allusion to P. Korchagin, a fictional main character in A. Ostrovsky's book "Thus The Steel Was Tempered", set in the early years after the Revolution. Becomes blind and paraplegic due to illness but continues his heroic work as a Party representative at some grandiose steel mill project.

^[35] In fact, an official abbreviation for Baikal-Amur Railroad Camp, one of the largest labor camps in the USSR

^[36] Literally "Lunar Rover". There in fact was a Lunokhod, even two of them, deposited successfully on the Moon surface by the Soviet "Luna" series spacecraft on 11/17/1970 and 1/15/1973, (see, for example, http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap990109.html and compare with latter description here). I will leave the word untranslated, since it plays a significant part in the narration and can be perceived as similar to "sputnik" - which even my word processor recognizes as valid.

^[37] The slaps are part of the "Kalinka" routine.

^[38] "Flight", generic Russian cigarettes.

^[39] A centrally located subway station, with exits to the Lubyanka (formerly Dzerzhinsky) square.

^[40] An urban legend asserts that there is a vast top secret city under the central part of Moscow, and the sewers and tunnels of the subway are but a small part of the "real" network of tunnels and access corridors, stretching in some places far beyond the boundaries of the city itself. According to the legend, the hub of this network, a giant multi-level underground "building", is located under the KGB headquarters.

^[41] A collective name for peoples of the Baltic republics (now independent): Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

^[42] One of Pelevin's short stories, "Blue Lantern", for which he was awarded in 1993 the Russian Booker Prize (Best Russian-Language Book of the Year), describes an evening of Zen-like scary stories in a pioneer camp.

^[43] "Sveiks" - "Safe" (Latvian).

^[44] From "VLADImir LENin"; this name was not uncommon. There was a short period in which it was fashionable to give children unpronounceable names "with a meaning", usually clumsy patriotic abbreviations.

^[45] An archetypal Russian leisure activity; compare to American habit of eating popcorn.

^[46] Literally "priest's wife", from Russian "pop". Russian Orthodox priests are not sworn to celibacy. ("Pop" is to "priest" as "cop" is to "policeman").

^[47] A crucial battle (1223) lost by Russians, first confrontation with Mongol forces under Genghis Khan, precursor to the subsequent almost century-and-a-half (1236-1380) occupation of Russian duchies by the Golden Horde.

^[48] Soviet WWII ace pilot. Colonel, thrice Hero of the Soviet Union. 48 dogfight victories flying Bell Cobra; 11 more in MiG-3. Shot down four times. Famous for his use of ramming of the enemy aircraft.

^[49] "bears" (Russian)

^[50] The Hero of the Soviet Union award, the highest military honor, has the form of a star.

^[51] A centrally distributed information and entertainment program, with news briefs on the hour, capable of being received almost anywhere in the USSR at multiple locations on both AM and FM dials.

^[52] Snippets of classic Russian poetry, often with the word "Moon" replacing the actual subject of the sentence. In succession: Nabokov; Pushkin; Pushkin again; Gumilev; Blok; Pasternak; Yesenin.

^[53] Parodying an oft-quoted Lenin's utterance; the original phrase concerned the place of cinema among arts.

^[54] A brief, but accurate explication of the communist theory - that confluence of "objective" (certain level of dissatisfaction and political maturity of the "working masses") and "subjective" (presence of a suitable leader, for example) circumstances would inevitably lead to a revolutionary shift in "socioeconomic formation" (defined as specific relationship of people to the means of production)

^[55] Actually "Socialism And The Uprising"; second work exists but has nothing to do with Moon, of course.

^[56] This is in fact one of the theories by Gurdzhiev, a renowned spiritualist of Russian descent. In true Orwellian fashion, the same person could easily be regarded first as a prominent scientist and then as a bourgeois falsificator, though rarely in the same speech ("Oceania had always been at war with Eurasia").

^[57] Meaning the so-called "non-disclosure note" in which person acknowledged being barred from discussing the details and the very fact of his encounter with KGB officials; demanded, and given, customarily at the end of such encounters.

^[58] The following text (the content of the recording) had been published by Pelevin as a separate short story under the title "Lunokhod".

^[59] Leon (Lev) Trotsky, a Russian revolutionary, was killed in 1940 while in exile in Mexico City with a pickaxe blow to the head by a fanatical Stalinist.

^[60] Near this Kazakhstan town the Soviet space launch site was located.

^[61] A popular saying attributed to M. Gorky: "Everything that is good in me I owe to books".

^[62] A rambling futuro-philosophical science fiction novel by Soviet writer A. Efremov. Described below are some of the more dramatic scenes from the book.

^[63] All Soviet holidays were tied to specific dates, so in order to give people a three-day weekend when the holiday fell on Tuesday it was customary to work on Saturday and take Monday off instead.

^[64] A woolen, helmet-like cap with a sharp peak and ear flaps named after S. Budyonny, famous cavalry commander.

^[65] Lines from a popular song "Little Apple". See also the first sentence of  second paragraph in the next chapter, where two more lines from it are related in prose (the song actually mentions its own title, but referring to another song with the same name, one that was popular much earlier - around WWI.)

^[66] S. Kovpak, cavalry commander in the Red Army since the early days of the Revolution; during WWII conducted guerilla raids with his battalion against insurgent Ukrainian forces in Carpathian Mountains.

^[67] "Husky" (Russian), the name of the dog which officially was the first animal to have been launched into space (in fact, probably the first animal to have been successfully launched and brought back).

^[68] Informal name for the various incarnations of secret police. What is meant here is that the dogs were guarding prisoners in the Northern labor camps; the special branch of the armed forces charged with such guard duty fell under control of MVD - the Ministry of the Interior, parent organization of KGB.

^[69] A vast brick-paved square in the city center just outside Kremlin wall; about a mile from Lubyanka.

^[70] The entire paragraph is a tongue-in-cheek self-reference to Pelevin's own short story "Reconstructor".

^[71] Interred in and close to the Kremlin wall are the remains of Party and military leaders.

^[72] A large red/pink granite and marble structure in the middle of the Red Square against the wall, housing mummified body of Lenin, open for public viewing, and flanked by honor guards (at least it was at the time). Its top also served as stands for highest government officials during state parades and other events.

^[73] Described is a complete clockwise panorama of the Red Square.

^[74] "Let's ride!", the phrase attributed to the first cosmonaut Y. Gagarin on liftoff. Repeated religiously by all commanders of Soviet space missions since, for luck.

^[75] An established formula of social stratification in the Soviet society.

^[76] An official central government (formally not Party) daily.

^[77] Knowing English, the language of the "likely enemy", could easily land a person in trouble as being politically unreliable or worse - planning treason, which explains the morale officer's interest.

^[78] At the time, a 3-4 months' salary for mid-level technical job - that is, a significant sum.

^[79] Meaning on the black market in Western goods, concentrated mainly in big cities.

^[80] Blue field on top of yellow field. Was the official flag of the Ukraine in 1919-1921, under Chairman S. Petlyura; readopted in 1991 as the flag of the independent Ukrainian republic.

^[81] "Luna-17" (not "B") was the actual name of the Soviet spacecraft that delivered Lunokhod-1 to the Moon.

^[82] First name is made to sound typically Ukrainian, second one -  typically Georgian.

^[83] Make of a handgun issued to senior officers.

^[84] Literally "Minor Intercept".

^[85] "Working Midday" -daily program of the "Mayak" network, featuring musical numbers "by workers' request". The inane texts imitate the syrupy nature of the program quite accurately.

^[86] Mocking the "People's Artist of the USSR" title, the highest form of government recognition for an artist.

^[87] "Time", the nightly news program on Channel 1 (of 2) of the state television.

^[88] "Whitey" and "Arrow" - names of two dogs that (together) followed Laika into space.

^[89] Wordplay: while "Salyut"  ("Firework") is the real name of the old Soviet space station (shaped like a bottle), it is also the brand of cheap wine, and "Agdam" is unequivocally the brand of Armenian brandy. Actual cargo ships were called "Progress", and there was a "T" series of them.

^[90] The first name of the first cosmonaut is typically Armenian, while his last name is typically Azerbaijani. The second cosmonaut is the amalgam of last names of noted Soviet poets - one Kazakh, one Lithuanian.

^[91] The lines on the Moscow subway map are marked with different colors; the "Lenin Library" station (also in the city center, across from Kremlin) is indeed on the red line.