Fyodor Berezin – The Ukraine’s Dale Brown

I first heard about this fellow while browsing the TV Tropes page discussing alternate history. After stumbling my way through his English wiki page, I’ve learned that he’s a former Soviet officer, lives in Donetsk, and has been writing military-themed sci-fi since about 1998.

As for his relevance to alternate history, he’s written several books (part of his “Red Stars” series, I believe) that depict a Weapons of Choice-style confrontation between the present-day American navy and a Soviet fleet from a timeline where Stalin managed to conquer Europe before Hitler could start Barbarossa. I believe ekranoplans appear at some point, so it’s all good.

Still, it is nice to see that, despite their differences, both the East and the West can enjoy a good, mindless nationalist smash-up.
 
I first heard about this fellow while browsing the TV Tropes page discussing alternate history. After stumbling my way through his English wiki page, I’ve learned that he’s a former Soviet officer, lives in Donetsk, and has been writing military-themed sci-fi since about 1998.

As for his relevance to alternate history, he’s written several books (part of his “Red Stars” series, I believe) that depict a Weapons of Choice-style confrontation between the present-day American navy and a Soviet fleet from a timeline where Stalin managed to conquer Europe before Hitler could start Barbarossa. I believe ekranoplans appear at some point, so it’s all good.

Still, it is nice to see that, despite their differences, both the East and the West can enjoy a good, mindless nationalist smash-up.
Are his books translated into English Ivan?
 
Are his books translated into English Ivan?
No, as near as I can tell. I get the impression that his work isn't the sort of stuff that would sell well outside the CIS/Eastern Europe area.

On a related note, it appears that in the Ukraine, the STALKER games have spawned a companion library about as big as the one we have for Halo.
 
Oh there are now a lot of nationalist themed booked with an alternate history hook coming out of Russia. It is nowhere near the popularity of the "Russian lads who are ex-Special Forces smash People with Brown Skin and their crypto-American masters" genre, but it definitely has a place in the strange new world of Russian books.

Due to the relatively high price of hardcover books as a commercial good in Russia, most of the military based fiction is soft-cover or comes in the thriving online book download market. There are a dozens the Pirate Bay (*sniffle*) style sites that trade Russian stories and books. The worst are translated into English, but most are not.

Russian alternate history can be divided into two very broad categories:

1) Soviet Union averted. This genre starts off my either merrily killing Lenin early on, or creates a strong Tsar capable of squashing Bolshies: most common latter scenario Nicholas II abdicates early in his life to his uncle Konstantin - who has been described in various monarchist circles as being the right kind of right winger with enough military respect, and usually described by contemporary liberal democrats as an efficient sociopath with just liberal tendecies to confuse and bewilder the intelligensia.

It assumes that without the key figure of Lenin to jettison all ideology of Bolsheviks and reduce Marxism to three words: Bread, Peace, and Land, the Bolsheviks would be just a debate club with enough hardcore presence in a few unions to make themselves a nuisance that is easily put down. Stalin usually makes a guest appearance in these stories and gets whacked early on in his life too, just for the fun of it.

Konstantin usually squashes everything in his path and sets up a well run military dictatorship with monarchist overtones.

Soviet Union averted encompasses a very broad nationalist theme. But about half of the books quickly veer off into rank anti-Semitism and creation of proto-fascist Russian nationalist organizations that alternatively smash Hitler in the face when he gets all invady and stuff (yes, yes, it assumes that the Nazi seizure of power still takes place - despite the removal of Bolshevik threat in Russia that spurred on its creation in OTL), ally with Hitler to create an anti-Western democracy axis, or whomp on Poland, or teach those uppity Ukrainians a thing or two about being independent.

Some enterprising authors combine three of the four themes.

Generally this anti-Semitic Nationalist propaganda glories in the unique Russian spirit and talks of how Soviet Union was a blemish upon its Slavic soul.

The remaining half of the books on the Soviet Union averted fall into three subcategories:

1A) Without Soviet Union, Russia is weak and becomes a plaything of Western powers or Hitler marches on it (yes, Hitler is always there, because when half of your country's buildings were destroyed in a War - you tend to remember that war very well, even if you are four or five generations removed from it). Not very popular because it is too defeatist.

1B) Russia becomes a strong fascist tyranny, and a natural ally of Franco and Hitler (they are always there, just accept 'em), and loses her soul in the process. This veers between "well, at least the Soviets are gone" and "it can always get worse." A moralistic tale, this subgenre does not do well. The only ones who pull it off with any kind of popularity are the guys who write the moral stuff in between "bayonets in the guts," "tanks driving over your comrade's dogs as the bones are squished and pop below the treads," and "peasant girls get raped" set pieces of military-sadistic-fetish style of science fiction.

1C) Russia becomes a liberal constitutional monarchy and surpasses America. The last part is crucial, as there has to be a note in there about how the despised American dollar is weak, and Russian ruble is strong. Of all the subgenres this one has the longest history. First appearing in emigre press in the '20s as a fevered dream, it came out roaring in early '90s, fell by the wayside, and then returned in the latter half of Yeltsin's reign of fun filled kleptocracy. It seeks to address the fundamental flaws of society it is written in: corruption is non-existent, food is cheap and plentiful, all are happy with their lot (except dirty foreigners and jealous Americans), and the government is stable. With the coming of Putin, these tales have fallen off as they are seen as too questioning and a bit too demanding of the gov't.

2) Soviet Union triumphant. This is one is all over the map. Some of it is just out right nostalgia pieces by unreconstructed Communists (but that group is dying in droves as they are all old men and women), and some is satire - naming current politicians as being Communist low ranking functionaries, while other focus on the theme of "We Beat America!" and some is just a series of brutal stories of how the government dehumanized the spirit of all people.

The fundamental problem of Russian alternate history is that it is not considered appropriate long form of fiction. Russian literature is weighed down by its own reputation. Anything that approaches the size of a novel is not allowed to be middle brow, it must either be high literature or low. This forces even the best of authors in Russian literature to make their books About Something, even if they just want to tell a story. If their books are not About Something Improtant, they are relegated to the same level of respect as romance novels in supermarket racks. So there can be no well written alternate history in Russia unless it is About Something, unless it moralizes, teaches and elucidates. And since Russian alternate history is not there, yet, it is relegated to low brow fiction - which scares off good writers and floods the market with the above mentioned badly done pulp (for the most part).

There is, however, a solution - short stories. Even respected Russian authors are allowed to write funny short stories and irrelevant, as long as it comes under 10,000 word format. This "rule" allows Russian authors to write alternate history short stories that are not About Something, and permits good authors to just write a story. Therefore, the best of Russian alternate history comes in the form of short stories.

One of the best that I had the pleasure to read is called the Arrows of Perun, which tells the story of a state of Russia where it walled itself off from the outside world in the early '90s, degenerated the technology to the level of spears and axes (although possesing a nuclear arsenal that is "hand" operated), and re-educate their children to ignore the outside world with an ideology that is horrific mishmash of Stalinism, Monarchism and Nationalism (sample lesson in a local school includes stories of how Joseph of Steel and Ivan of Terrible were good tsars and leaders, and how Nicholas the Second and Mikhail the Birthmarked were weak). The short story reveals through a touching love story (written in the kind of haunting prose that actually does not feel tacked on, unlike some of the examples I had to swallow in American fiction) that the state of Russia is actually a rump state in the outer fringe of Siberia and that the real Russia regards this hermit kingdom with disgust, which the fringe state mistakes for respect and fear of nuclear weapons. The love story ends badly - it is a Russian story after all - and it actually will make you feel something.
 
Excellent analysis, thank you.

Do you perhaps know of anything published in English that might be a good starting point?
 
Good analysis, Greg. It seems typical, really. Nations like to focus on themselves and do better, or say how this would lead to them doing worse.
Though Hitler likes to pop up in all nations' Alternate History (except German). He's like a thing that you orient yourself around in AH.
 
Looking back at the themes I covered, I realized I skipped one. It is very recent and I overlooked it:

Ancient Rus. Starting with 2003 and onwards, a steady stream of Russian alternate history has focused on the misadventures of Kievan Rus warriors and how their meddling changes modern Russian. To make life exciting, sometimes they drop in a modern day Special Forces Russian soldiers into Kievan Rus and have him whomp on the baddies and make Mother Russia more powerful.

A subset of this genre finds Russian Special Forces lads dropping in on Sparta, Ancient Rome, and Troy and doing various acts of Chuck Norrisque badassery. It combines the "Special Forces" genre and the alternative history.

Excellent analysis, thank you.

Do you perhaps know of anything published in English that might be a good starting point?
Sadly, I don't think any of it has been translated in English. Some Russian retailers in Europe and North America carry the books, but only in Russian. I will look around, however, and see if I can find something.
 
Excellent post, Greg. Really, just excellent.

I wonder if the current trends in Russian AH might also have something to with the fact that AH was one of the SF topics that was generally frowned upon back in the Soviet Union. IIRC, the feeling was that AH was discouraged by the critical authorities for its ability to make blatant criticisms of the regime. Additionally, it seems to me that if you believe that humanity is always moving towards socialism, then AH is kinda pointless, since all paths lead to the same destination. Still, I am inclined to agree more with your theory regarding the lack of middlebrow literature in Russia.

One thing I would like to know at some point, just in a general sense, is what the reaction in Russia to weird Western pastiches of the Soviet Union, the sort of things you see in the C&C: Red Alert series, or in comics like Atomika or The Red Star. I find them strange enough as it is, and I can't imagine how someone who’s lived with the real deal would react.
 
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