Hello, friends. Welcome to another episode of our easy-to-understand Russian-language podcast. Today we will talk with Yulia. Yulia, hello. Hello. And today Yulia and I will discuss literature. Many people have asked me to talk about literature, about books that are interesting and, most importantly, accessible to my listeners. And today I want to talk with Yulia about a series of books by one writer, which will be, well, understandable, which can be read, I think that most of our listeners, well, or at least many of our listeners

will definitely understand this series of books. And today we want to talk about the author who wrote this series of books, what these books are about, and why these books might be interesting to you, and why they can help you improve your Russian and learn more about Russia, and perhaps even about the Soviet Union, but also about Russia. Same. Let's get started. Julia, how are you? I'm fine. And you? Fine. Who do we want to talk about today? We want to talk about a writer named Kir Bulychev. Cyrus Seriously? Wait, I know Keira Knightley.

Ah, and here Kir is the only one. Wait, king, in my opinion, there was some kind of Babylonian tier, or, in short, there was some kind of, yes, from somewhere in ancient times. And this is probably a pseudonym. This is a pseudonym. What was his real name? His name was Igor Mozheiko. Mozheiko or Mozheiko. Yeah. Igor Mozheiko. Sounds like a Ukrainian surname. Yes. He may have had Ukrainian roots, but he was born in Moscow. Yes.

Let's tell you a little about who this is. He was born in Moscow. You said when he was born, what years he lived and worked. This is a Soviet writer. I don't remember exactly when he was born, but I know that his main books were written in the seventies, eighties, or something like the nineties. Yes. He died in 2003. Yes. So, the series we're going to talk about today was written in the seventies and eighties of the 20th century, right? That is, this is the period of the Soviet Union, precisely the

period of stagnation, yes, as they call it. Yes. Fine. Is there anything interesting about his biography that would be interesting to know? Ah, well, in general he wrote quite a lot of science fiction books. That is, this is a science fiction writer. He had several different series, but the most famous series was the story about the girl Alice. Yes. And about the girl from the future. It is this series that we want to talk about today.

Interestingly, his daughter's name was Alice. And he named the heroine of his books after his daughter. And in the book, Alice's father's name was Igor. That is, in essence, he named his father after himself. Yeah. That is, he is normal. Listen, a quick question: is Yandex's Alice related to this Alice? In case our listeners aren't aware, Yandex has this feature. This is a column. Is this the name of a column or is this the name of a testicle? Yes, well, that was originally the name of a smart speaker, but now they call it Alice. AI. Yeah. That is, Alice is originally a Yandex thing. That was the name of the smart speaker. The column here means, well

, how to say, a loudspeaker, yes, the thing with which you listen to music. You connect via Bluetooth to your phone and listen to music. But the Yandex smart speaker simply works as a standalone device. Plus, it has had a built-in voice assistant for many years. Yes. And you can, for example, say: "Alice, turn on some rap" or "Alice, I want to listen to some rock." Or Alice, what's the weather like? This is a smart speaker that has different functions. And now you're saying that Alice is already the name of an AI. As I understand it, this is an AI that is built into this speaker. They're just working on improving it now so that Alice can,

well, on par with the GPT chat, provide, uh, information, give some answers. Well, I have mail from Yandex, and Alice is already built into the mail. So, basically, you could say it's like Dmini Jiminy, yeah. And I don't know, to be honest, how to pronounce Jiminy. Dmay J Dmay, I don't know. Maini. Attention, yes. Well, I don't know, Jiminy, it's just easier to talk like that. Maybe they say it differently somehow. I mean about the Russian language, of course. Although I do n't know how to say it in English. I think the name is stupid in general. Well, it's impossible to read.

Jimayniy. Yes, in Russian it would be khimini. In Russian it would be Jiminy. In Spanish I meant, sorry, in Spanish. Yes, everything is mixed up. So, do you think the name of the column and Yandex's artificial intelligence is connected to Kir Buluchev's books? I'm pretty sure they intended this association. Yes. Because, after all, the character of Alice is quite well known. Yes. And in the Soviet Union, a film was made based on one of the books , which was called "Guest from the Future." Wait, but there were cartoons? The mystery of the third plane. That too, right? But Guests from the Future was a popular film in the Soviet Union. And it seems to me that Alice's

column, well, she still refers us to this, because it is something from the future, some kind of new technology. It's clear that Yandex doesn't directly say that we're using a character's name, but it seems to me that they intended this association. Cool. Well, yes, probably, at least for me, even for a person who hasn't read this series, but I have seen, uh, cartoons, by the way, I did n't like them as a child. Do you know why? Because, [clears throat] I don't

know, I somehow didn't really like the atmosphere in this cartoon. She scared me somehow. And I remember, by the way, yes, there were several cartoons, and by the way, often Soviet ones, that really scared me. That is, there was also the cartoon Treasure Island based on Jules Vert. No, not according to Zhulyuverny. Treasure Island. Wait, Lew, I forgot who wrote Treasure Island. Let's Google it right now. So, treasure island, huh? Treasure Island. Such a cartoon. Yeah. Here. Robert Stevenson.

Stevenson, yes. Stevenson. Stephen. Oh, yeah. And so, there was such a Soviet cartoon. By the way, he appeared at the same time as me, in 1988. Maybe that's why he scared me. But there really was some strange drawing of the characters there. That is, the characters were drawn in a strange way. And it always scared me. And for some reason, from Alice there was also some kind of strange character, disgusting, greenish. No, something like that, well, okay, I don't remember. But he scared me. But I think I wanted to say something else. It wasn't just that it scared me. And I wanted to say that I only watched the

cartoon. I haven't read the books, but I still had an association with Alice. Well, I think that was the plan. OK. Fine. Let's talk about the book series itself then. Yes. And then we'll talk about why we recommend these books at all, why our listeners should read them. Please tell us about this series, and about Buluchev's books in general. Yes. But the action in the Alice books takes place at the end of the 21st century. That is, this is conditionally the year 1980, the

end of the 21st century. 2080. Okay. Yes. That is, some years that have not yet arrived even now. And for a writer at that time it was 100 years ahead. Yes. And he depicts the world as he thinks the world should look in 100 years. That is, various aircraft are used there to move around the city. Yes. Screens are used to communicate with each other and have video conversations. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Although we know, yes, that this already exists now. We're all talking via video now.

Well, wait. When you said screens, my first association was with 1984, with Orwell there. Well, no, in the books, the book about Alice, they are more for children and teenagers. There is no scary dystopian world there. Rather, this is how the world should look, according to a 20th- century science fiction writer. Wait, is this some real world? This is Moscow, right? The action takes place Well, that is, Alice is from Moscow. Ah, okay. So this is Moscow in 100 years, right? So, Moscow 2008, right? Poluchev, moreover, believed that people

in 100 years would be very conscientious, they would not fight, they would take care of nature, they would devote a lot of time to science. Well, everything is still ahead, Julia. We still believe in this socialist ideal of a bright socialist future. Yes. And there, as far as I remember, there is practically nothing about the political system. Yes. But there are references to victorious communism, because, for example, on Earth, as far as I remember, money is not used.

Yeah. Well, I wonder if this was necessary so that the books would pass censorship or if it was part of his beliefs, we will probably never know. We probably won't know, yeah. But besides Earth, yes, at the end of the 21st century, there is a lot about space travel. Yes. Because Buluchev assumed that in 100 years not only the solar system, but also other galaxies would be very well studied, that people would fly to other planets, just as we now fly to different countries.

Okay, wait. Our galaxy is the Milky Way, the solar system, yes, it is a system within the Milky Way, but there are already a lot of galaxies discovered there, people fly freely wherever they want. There are, of course, some wilder planets, more dangerous planets. There are space pirates who do all sorts of bad things. But many plots are built on the fact that Alice and her friends fly to another planet, well, to do something there. There are capitalist planets there. Well, something like this, so that there would be a direct hint that, well, look, this is a decaying capitalist planet. I don't remember, maybe there were such plots, I

just didn't remember them, because I read them as a child, and I paid a little attention to other things then. Well, that's clear. But maybe, maybe, it is there. Maybe. Fine. That is, as far as I understand so far, Alisa is a girl who lives in Moscow, and this is a common thing. Flights to other planets, other galaxies, and so on. But at the same time she lives in Moscow. And it's interesting what they say there about the Moscow of the future; there's some description of Moscow, I don't know, of the

Soviet Union. The Soviet Union of the future, yes. Soviet Union of the future. There are some separate inserts about them going to some laboratory where they do, well, some kind of research, right? That is, they do this within the framework of the school curriculum. They have all sorts of different tasks. That is, well, probably, probably, he was trying to show a more, how to say, educational system, where it's project-based, yes, where they don't just sit at their desks in school, but they actively study, they are given various missions so that they fly to another planet, study something there. Or there's a series about time travel, where they're sent to different

historical periods during history lessons. Yes. Well, probably in some such context. Moscow is not described there in great detail, as far as I remember. Okay, got it. That is, Alice studies at school, she does not sit in lessons, but she travels in time and space. And this is how she learns. Yes. Recently you and I watched Dune, re-watched the first part, and watched the second. Now we are waiting for the third part. As we know, science fiction often contains a lot of technical, perhaps not very necessary, words and terms. Or am I

wrong? You are certainly right, but the Alice series in particular is aimed at, as they used to say in the Soviet Union, a children's and adolescent audience. Yes. Ah, and that's why there are quite, well, in my opinion, interesting plots, although I read it a long time ago. Yes. But at the same time, they are written in a fairly simple language, because if you write for teenagers, well, you won't write some very complex, firstly, I don't know, use complex words, some terms and so on, but, at least, Boluchev doesn't have that. His are quite simple. That is, there is no, eh, well, there may be some made-up names

there, yes, there is, for example, milophone. This is a mind reading device. But otherwise the books are written in fairly simple language. Yes. That's exactly why we decided to talk about this right? Because we would like to recommend you read them. And there are several reasons for this. Come on, let's talk about these reasons. Well, the first reason is that it's, uh, good Russian language practice, because, on the one hand, it's not an adapted text, yes, it's not written specifically for those who are studying Russian, but at the same time,

it's not complex literature, yes, which requires a very high level of proficiency in Russian or a lot of effort in order to read, right? That is, this is not classical Russian literature. Am I right in thinking that the books about Alice are simple, both in terms of vocabulary and in terms of the intricacy of the plot. That is, the plot is more linear, it is easier to follow the plot. Yes, absolutely so. But at the same time, these plots, well, they are quite exciting, that is, they are interesting enough that you want to follow this plot. That is, they keep, keep, keep in, well, not in tension, they keep attention.

They hold attention, yes. They hold, I meant in they hold books, they hold your attention, yes, because they are adventure, fantasy books. Yes. Fine. Is there any other reason? Oh, yeah. That is, as we said, these books are about how the Soviet people imagined the Soviet Union in 100 years. But besides this, there is a book called "100 Years Ahead". 100 years ahead, right? Yeah. A play on words, huh? We usually say 100 years ago. It was 100 years ago. I mean, it was 100 years ago, so long ago, and here it's like 100 years in the future. That is, it will happen in 100 years.

In 100 years. What a long time. Yes. It was based on this book that a film called "Guests from the Future" was made. guest. Yeah. And that's precisely why it might be particularly interesting, because in this book, Alice from the end of the 21st century finds herself in the Soviet Union at the end of the seventies. Ah, and there the realities are shown very well. Well, it's not reality, of course, but the Soviet school, the pioneers, yes, that is, how schoolchildren in the Soviet Union lived, what their

world looked like, what interested them, and this can be especially interesting. Yes. It's clear. Is there a name for this episode about Alice? No. Ali, well, Alisa Selezneva. Oh, that's her last name, right? Alisa Selezneva. Fine. That is, there are books where Alice travels through different worlds, to different, I don't know, she moves around, moves around on different planets. There 's a book where Alice from the future arrives in the Soviet Union, and it describes the basics of, well, just life, yes, the everyday life of a Soviet schoolchild. Yes.

And this, friends, may be doubly interesting for you if you want to know a little more about what the Soviet Union looked like. It's clear that it's probably a little embellished, right? Well, I think so. That is, Buluchev didn't have the goal of, I don't know, pursuing some kind of exposé policy, showing the downsides of the Soviet Union, or anything else, there's nothing of that sort there at all, but it's more like, well, just some kind of sketch from life. Yes.

Without what? Yes. Without politics, without any of the problems that existed. Yes. Cool. To be honest, I've already become interested because I want to look at the Soviet Union through the eyes of the future. And all this is in some interesting plot that keeps you engaged and written in an understandable language, which I think is cool. Tell me, who do you think this book would be suitable for? only for those who love science fiction. Most likely, yes.

You don't like science fiction at all. Well, science fiction can be very different. And never really liked science fiction, did I? That is, there are just some kind of complicated stories about, uh, a flight on a spaceship, where , I don't know, the structure of this ship is described in detail, how, I don't know, they moved around the galaxy in some kind of special spacesuits. Ah, yes, I guess I wasn't a fan of that genre. I liked these books. My mother liked these books. She read them to me, and she also liked everything very much.

Clear. I have a feeling Sabrina will definitely be there too. In Moscow, my mother still has all these books at home. Yes. Waiting for Sabrina. Oh, and I think if you're a fan of some kind of complex science fiction, well, you'll probably find these plots pretty simple. Well, you just have to take into account that you're reading in a foreign language, right? This is exactly the plus, yes, that's why we recommend it. Basically, I think that if you want to read something

in Russian that's not too difficult, but at the same time something quite engaging, and, well, you basically read fiction, and you're not opposed to fictional plots and stories and worlds, then this should suit you. Yeah, I see. Well, yes. Look, it turns out that many people, for example, love Russian classics, but it's extremely difficult to read Russian classics in the original because there are so many outdated words and expressions. I recently started reading Pushkin's The Captain's Daughter. Well, how to read, reread. Naturally, I read it.

I really liked her at school. And I looked at her through the eyes of a person who, for example, is studying Russian. Yes. And I realized that literally in every phrase there is some old word that is no longer used in everyday speech. Yes. So reading Pushkin, well, it's probably in some ways similar to reading Shakespeare. Perhaps it is a little easier to read Pushkin, because he lived later, he is closer to us, he still speaks this language with us. As far as I understand, Shakespeare does not speak to us in the English we speak today. Okay, let's sum it up, friends. Do you like science fiction or not so much? If you don't have an aversion to the topic itself, you'll

probably get it, you'll probably like it. Here you need to keep in mind your level of language proficiency. If we draw an analogy with the European system, I think it would be somewhere between B1 and B2, and it would probably be better to have a B2 level in order to be able to read comfortably enough. But you can try if you have B1. If you enjoy reading in general, you'll probably enjoy it. And we especially recommend the book 100 Years Ahead. Yes. Yes, we recommend the book 100 Years Ahead, because, as we said, it is also about the Soviet Union. Do you need to give any other recommendations? What books would I Yes, read it.

Let's. This is the whole series about Alice. 100 years ago forward. This is also all a series about Alice. Yes, we are only talking about the Alice series. There are, it seems to me, 20 or even maybe more books, written in different periods. That is, for probably 20 years, Buluchev wrote some sequels at different points in his life Well, come on. Here is the first book 100 years ago. It's about Alice flying from the future to the Soviet Union, and it describes Soviet realities and Soviet life. My favorite book was The City Without Memory.

Yes, the plot is that Alice and her friends arrive on a planet that was once very developed 300 years ago. That is, it was significantly larger than the Earth at that time, but then something happened and the planet rolled back to the Middle Ages. Yes. And there, it seems to me, this world is shown very interestingly and the reasons why this happened are described. Well, I really liked it. flew to some planet, and the planet turned from a developed civilization into a medieval civilization. And it describes why. Yes, it's interesting. Well, let's have another third one.

Can I tell you the secret of Atlantis? This book is like, if we talked about a city without memory, then the secret of Atlantis is, well, like a prefix to the city without memory. And there the action takes place on Earth. Alice finds, well, Atlantis, a sunken city somewhere under the ocean, right? That is, in principle, this is not Buluchevsky's plot, but Alice somehow gets there and in this Atlantis she discovers people who a long time ago, several hundred years ago, flew in from another planet. Yes. And then, actually, well, the action takes place in Atlantis. She saves them from there, and they fly away to their planet, where they used to live. And this is the very

planet that was mentioned so often in the city Yeah. So Alice somehow ends up in Atlantis, where she meets, I don't know, people, right? Well, yes, they look like people, they are just people from another planet. OK. With people from another planet. And it turns out that this is precisely the planet that will then, yes, in the future, cease to be super-developed and will plunge into the Middle Ages. Well, these books are simply interconnected. But these were probably my favorite books. Yes. And there really are more than twenty there.

You can read their descriptions and see what resonates with you. Travel into space, travel through time or something else. Well, there was also a time difference. There was a time there. There were several books in the series. And they traveled to the dinosaurs. Well, generally speaking, yes. were transferred to different historical eras. There is something like that there too.

It was their history project. Well, this is a cool education system. I would like that And now, children, instead of reading, yes, open to page 394, and here we will now, children, move to the year 394 BC. And so, well, almost. Yeah, cool. Let's look at the Roman Empire. Super. Well, friends, these are our recommendations for today. Maybe you have some recommendations too. Please write about your recommendations. Visit russianwithmax.com, leave comments, and share your recommendations. Maybe you've already read something, uh, some book about Alice.

Write about this too. And as always, if you want transcripts, premium episodes, and tons of helpful resources for each episode to practice new vocabulary, pronunciation, speaking, and more, join our membership program. May the Russian language be with you. Hooray! Ciao-ciao! [bell]