Monday starts on Saturday

Monday begins on Saturday ( Russian Понедельник начинается в субботу ) is a 1965 published science fiction - novel by Strugatsky Brothers . It is often counted as part of the fantastic .

The novel is set in a fictional city in Northern Russia , where top secret research into magic takes place. The novel is a satire on Soviet scientific institutions: it deals with the uneducated administration, a publicity-addicted professor and non-functioning research equipment. There is an idealistic view of work ethic in the novel , which is reflected by the title: There are no weekends with true scientists .

The "Scientific Research Institute for Magic and Wizardry" (NIITschaWo, closely resembles the Russian word "nitschewo" = "not bad", "doesn't matter") is located in a fictional Russian city Solowetz in northern Russia. The institute is a place where everyone must work hard and willingly, as the loss of honesty is punished by hair growth on the ears. The hair-eared people are despised, but in a typical Soviet manner, many of them stay in the institute anyway - because despite everything, life is good there.

The tale of the Troika , which describes the worst features of the Soviet bureaucracy, is a follow-up novel in which many characters return.

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The novel is written from the perspective of a young programmer , Alexander Ivanowitsch Priwalow (colloquially: Sascha) from Leningrad . On his journey through Karelia he picks up two hitchhikers . After they find out that he is a programmer, they persuade him to stay in Solowetz and to work with them in the "Scientific Research Institute for Magic and Wizardry" ( NIITschaWo ).

The book contains many references to well-known Russian folk tales and children's stories (characters like Baba Yaga , the learned cat from Pushkin's Ruslan and Lyudmila , Smej Gorynytsch ) as well as to mythology ( jinns , Cain , etc.). These people and concepts are described either as objects of scientific research or as members of the institute. For example, Merlin is described as an incompetent show-off who heads the Institute's Prophecy and Prediction division. The technical maintenance department is led by Zebaoth Baalowitsch Odin , who is described as the most powerful magician in the universe; the vivarium, on the other hand, is run by Alfred, a vampire .

The novel is remarkable for its original characters. Cristóbal Josevitsch Junta, for example, used to be a Grand Inquisitor and is now head of the Department for the Meaning of Life. He's also a gifted taxidermist . According to rumors, he has in his collection a stuffed SS-Standartenführer , a former friend who was also a gifted taxidermist. Cristóbal Josevich was rumored to be just as good, only faster. Fyodor Simeonowitsch Kivrin , the head of the Linear Happiness Department, is a tall stuttering man, unwavering optimist, budding programmer, fan of Alder Stanley Gardner, and a kind of mentor for Privalov. Modest Matwejewitsch Kamnojedow (his last name means “ loach ”) is an archetype of an administrative bureaucrat for whom the work ethic “Monday begins on Saturday” is completely alien. On New Year's Eve he orders Priwalov to turn off the electricity everywhere and lock all doors; However, he finds out that all employees are still at the institute to continue with the research. Viktor Kornejew , an archetypal ruffian, allegedly lets his double work in his place in the laboratory, but Privalov finds out that it is Kornejew himself - because doubles can neither sing nor express emotions.

Much of the plot revolves around the laboratory of Professor Amwrosij Ambroisowitsch Wybegallo (roughly: something that leaks out). The experiments of this professor are spectacular and popular, but have no scientific value. On New Year's Eve, in his search for the “ideal person”, he breeds a “model of a completely satisfied person” who can immediately satisfy all of his needs. The model (“cadaver” according to Institut jargon ) then tries to devour the whole universe , but is stopped by Roman Ojra-Ojra , who destroys it with the help of a thrown genie bottle . Wybegallo is based in many ways on Trofim Lysenko , a charlatan who set the science of the USSR back years.

The last part of the book reveals the secret of Janus Poluhektowitsch Newstrujew , the director of the institute, who is a man in two people: A-Janus and U-Janus. The fact that it is twofold is widely accepted, but never questioned. The protagonists find out that U-Janus is a future version of A-Janus, who travels back through time in a special way: at every midnight he travels back to the previous day instead of the next. This construct is known as "discrete counterotion".

Genre affiliation

Although the events of the novel belong to the realm of fantasy rather than science fiction (since they are not explained), the work is traditionally classified as science fiction for the following reasons: The fantasy genre did not exist in the Soviet Union , rare exceptions were made by Publishers declared as sci-fi; the Strugazki brothers have written many books that are clearly science fiction works; the underlying philosophy is scientific. Occasionally, especially in English usage, this book is referred to as "Russian Harry Potter" because the magic in this book is very similar to that in Harry Potter's world.

Soviet censorship

In contrast to the Troika fairy tale , “Monday” was only explicitly censored in one place. In the original version there is a two-line poem:

Вот по дороге едет ЗиМ
И им я буду задавим.

(German, literal translation):
Here a SiM drives across the street
and I am run over by him.

The car brand SiM ( Sawod imeni Molotowa ) stands for Molotow-Werk, an early nickname of Gorkowski Avtomobilny Sawod . After Khrushchev's de-Stalinization , the names of Stalin and those of the politicians under him (including Molotov ) were largely banned from official language. Therefore, SiM was not allowed to be used. On the other hand, SiS (Stalin-Werk) has just been renamed to SiL (Likhachev-Werk), and so the poem in all Russian editions before 1990 goes like this:

Вот по дороге едет ЗиЛ
И им я буду задавим.
( Here a SiL drives across the street
and I'm run over by it. )

Furthermore, the Russian text differs from the one originally published in the authors' last correction (which was made in the late 1980s). So originally u. a. several references to Cristóbal Junta's participation in the Spanish Civil War . Other passages that were included in the text are rather uncritical and do not seem to be due to censorship.

Translations

• The first German translation was made in 1974 by Hermann Buchner (German title: "Montag begins am Saturday", ISBN 3-518-38952-1 ). This translation contains many errors and abbreviations.
• A translation created by Helga Gutsche in the GDR was published in 1990 (together with Das Märchen von der Troika , German title: “Monday begins on Saturday”, ISBN 3-353-00624-9 ). The quality of the translation is considered to be considerably better than that of the Buchner version. Both translations are out of print. In January 2014, the Gutsche translation was republished as part of "Collected Works" Volume 6 ( ISBN 978-3453312142 ).

Allusions

• The Russian name for the institute, NIITschaWo ( Russian “НИИЧаВо” ) sounds like the word “nitschewo” ( Russian “ничего” = nothing ). Buchner's German translation translates it as NITSCHAWO (Natural Science Institute for Magic and Welfare). In the project: Ponedelnik , an unofficial translation project, the name of the institute was translated as NEVERALZ (Scientific Institute for Research into Magic and General Wizardry).
• The fictional place Solowetz alludes to the Solowezki Islands with all their historical and mythological associations.
• “A-Janus and U-Janus” alludes to both the god Ianus and the doctrine of two natures (“one in two persons”). In Russian, the allusion is even more concise, because the word "Lizo" ( Russian "лицо" ) means both "face" and "person".
• Wybegallo, with his pseudo- rural demeanor and ideas alludes to Trofim Lysenko .
• All of Wybegallo's French-language sayings are quotations from Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace .
• Wybegallo's "Ideal Man" is a spoof of the "New Soviet Man".

Web links

• monday begins saturday , review by Michael André Werner

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Boris Strugazki: Comments on the Past (Russian)
2. ↑ Before and after the 'fairy tale' ... (Russian)