

This novel follows Anton, who is an undercover operative from the future planet Earth, during his mission on some alien planet, which is inhabited by human beings, whose society has yet to advance beyond the Middle Ages. “Hard to Be a God” is a novel set in the “Noon Universe” and was released in the year 1973. Boris also established the “Bronze Snail” literary prize.Īfter Arkady’s death, Boris penned two novels and published them under a pseudonym. Starting in 1972, he acted as the head of the Leningrad seminar for young speculative fiction writers, which would subsequently become known as the “Boris Strugatsky Seminar”. In 1964, Boris became a member of the writers’ union of the USSR, and became a full time writer in 1966. In 1960 he took part in an astronomical and geodetic expedition in the Caucasus.

After he graduated in the year 1955, he worked as a computer engineer and astronomer at the Pulkovo Observatory. In 1950, he graduated from high school and applied to the physics department at Leningrad State University, however studied astronomy instead. Besides his own writing, he translated Japanese novels and short stories, as well as some English works with Boris.īoris was born April 14, 1933, and stayed with his mom in Leningrad during the siege of the city during World War II. In 1964 Arkady became a member of the Union of Soviet Writers. Starting in 1958, he began collaborating with his brother Boris, which lasted until Octowhen Arkady died at the age of 66. Starting that year, he started working as a writer and editor. Until 1955, he worked as a teacher and interpreter for the military. In 1943, he was drafted into the Soviet Army, training first at the artillery school in Aktyubinsk and later at the Military Institute of Foreign Languages in Moscow, which he graduated from in 1949 as an interpreter of Japanese and English. In January of 1942, Arkady and his dad were evacuated from the Siege of Leningrad, however Arkady was the sole survivor in his train car, since his dad died upon reaching Vologda. Other adaptations of their work include “Dead Mountaineer’s Hotel” (1979), “The Sorcerers” (1982, and based off “Monday Begins on Saturday”), and “The Ugly Swans (2006).“Hard to Be a God” was adapted twice, once in 1989 and again in 2013.Īrkady was born Augin Batumi to a Jewish art critic father and a Russian Orthodox teacher mom, but the family would later move to Leningrad. Andrei Tarkovsky adapted the book for the screen into a movie called “Stalker”, released in 1979. Their best known novel was translated into English as “Roadside Picnic”. Their early work was influenced by Stanislaw Lem and Ivan Yefremov, but later would develop their own, unique style of science fiction writing. Arkady and Boris Strugatsky were Soviet Russian science fiction writers that collaborated throughout most of their careers.
