Interns

The episodic novel Praktikanten (OT: Russian Стажеры , transcribed Stazhory ) is an early work by the Soviet science fiction authors Arkadi and Boris Strugazki . Published in 1962, the work is still completely permeated by the belief in technology and progress that was typical of the time and was particularly pronounced in the former Soviet Union. After the Golkonda atomic volcano and The Way to Amalthea , Praktikanten is the third and last novel by the Strugazki brothers to be assigned to the genre of hard science fiction . With all other works they turn to soft science fiction .

content

The young vacuum welder Jura is supposed to fly with a group of other young technicians to a space station near the planet Saturn , but for family reasons he misses the connection with his group. By a lucky coincidence, however, he got the opportunity to fly with Jurkowski, the general inspector of an international space control authority. On this flight through the planetary system, he experiences all sorts of adventures that allow him to mature in many ways.

Some of the adventures are tangible, such as a drive hunt for " Mars sails" on the planet Mars using grenades and flamethrowers or the explosive experiments on the asteroid Eunomia, which Jura is attending. In part - such as the portrayal of Jura’s feelings during an alarm exercise on the spaceship - it is about experiences that lead away from the technical fixation of other adventures towards questions of the internal, personal development of the intern, i.e. more of soft science fiction Passages. The last-mentioned experience, for example, shows the intern the sense of regulations. In this respect, this work is also a development novel .

On the planetoid Bamberga , Jura experiences a remnant of the dark world of capitalism : “Space pearls” are mined here in a radioactive environment, regardless of human life . The inspector general deposed the general manager of the company, but met the opposition of the majority of the blind workers, the majority of whom only fear a reduction in their earning potential.

But there are also black sheep in their own ranks. At the Dione observatory , the intern and general inspector uncover how the station manager Scherschen and his ally spread spiteful rumors for selfish reasons, instilling self-doubt in the young researchers and thus robbing them of their natural fun at work. Of course, the Inspector General ensures justice and sends the guilty back to earth.

In the last adventure of the book Jurkowski persuades the captain Bykow to allow him a trip with Mikhail Antonovich Krutikow as a pilot in a small spaceship to the Saturn rings. When he makes a sensational discovery there, he ignores all security regulations and Bykov's urgent requests to return, which he and Mikhail Antonovich Krutikov pay with their lives.

The world of the novel

The exact time of the novel is not given, but it is probably the early 21st century, as one of the older protagonists still remembers his first flight to Saturn in 1999. The victory of socialism is already evident, if not yet complete. There are still certain capitalist areas and niches such as the planetoid Bamberga, whose foreseeable demise is not doubted even by some of its inhabitants. The socialist areas, on the other hand, are obviously in transition to communism . Most of the population works enthusiastically and without looking for personal gain in their areas of interest. For them - and the law internship is one of them - it is clear that the fulfillment of a life consists of fulfilling work. The researchers on the asteroid Eunomia, for example, are so absorbed in their research that they take on the often inadequate food supply there or the confinement of their research station without complaint. It is so narrow that one of them even has to spend the night in the elevator - a fact that they try to hide from the Inspector General so that none of them have to leave the completely overcrowded station.

The negative image of this emerging “new, socialist man” is portrayed as the “philistine citizens” who are satisfied when they have a little entertainment and little work. These philistines are predominantly found in the capitalist areas, but also “still” in the socialist areas. The main characters are completely free of the scruples that are so characteristic of later works by the Strugazkis. For example, none of the people involved has any concerns about the planned extermination of the “Mars sails”, which are hindering research and almost nothing is known about their nature. At most, the comment is made that preventing the use of flamethrowers during their destruction has the advantage that something is left for the biologists - whereby the reader gets the impression that the point here is that the biologists can live out their research interests. A bigger difference to the scruples of the “hunter” in the later story of the same name by the Strugazkis, who suffers his whole life from the possibility that the “cattle” he killed on a strange planet could possibly have been an intelligent living being hardly conceivable. The fact that man is the pinnacle of evolution and is now storming to ever higher intellectual and technical heights of development is not put into perspective at any point. Even the discovery of the possibility that certain ruins on Mars etc. U. were built by extraterrestrial intelligent living beings, is mentioned rather in passing and is therefore not very sensational.

Classification in the overall work

Interns is connected through the people Alexeij Bykow, Mikhail Antonowitsch Krutikow and Wladimir Jurkowski with the previous novels Atomvulkan Golkonda and Der Weg zur Amalthea . Both Bykov and Iwan Shilin also appear in later works, for example Shilin in The Greedy Things of the Century . The early days of the Strugazki stories ended with interns. As mentioned above, the work takes place in a transitional period, the Strugazkis are now followed by the stories and novels of the “ World of Midday ”, in which there is no longer any trace of capitalism, but the inner contradictions and scruples of the people involved are increasing. “Interns” can also be viewed as a transitional work.

German editions

• Interns. Fantastic novel , translated from Russian by Aljonna Möckel and Erik Simon , Aufbau-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Berlin 1994. ISBN 3-7466-1026-5 (Aufbau-Taschenbuch, Vol. 1026)
• Interns , contained in The World of Noon , Volume 2: Captain Bykow . Golkonda, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-942396-23-3 (also contains Der Weg zur Amalthea ; first complete German edition; uncensored and unedited version reconstructed based on the manuscripts, completed by a deleted chapter; commentary by Boris Strugatzki, epilogue and comments by Erik Simon)

Individual evidence

1. ^ German: Arkadi and Boris Strugazki: Interns, 1st edition 1994, Berlin, construction of the paperback publishing house. ISBN 3-7466-1026-5
2. ↑ "The Hunter", story in the story volume Mittag, 22nd century by Arkadi and Boris Strugazki