More than once I've heard people saying that Lithuanian SF doesn't exist at all, and the books by our SF writers aren't worth paying any attention to. I'm not one who tend to propose my opinion to others, so therefore you won't find any ratings here in this article. A right to publish someone's own opinion must be earned at first, I think. In addition, we've been too long in the medium of the official ratings, so that after having escaped from other people's dictate, we were incapable of presenting information without demonstrating our own taste, annoyance or fascination any more. Of course an emotional article is more interesting to read (and is better used by the gutter press). However, I'm not a henchman of this kind of readers with such an orientation and workup of subconsciousness. Having said this, I will introduce an overview of Lithuanian SF without answering the question of how good or bad the books mentioned here really are. Read and think for yourself.
Justas Piliponis (1907-1947) is thought to be originator of Lithuanian SF. On some book covers his surname is spelled "Pilyponis". J. Piliponis worked in the forest. This gifted and productive writer finished only 6 years of school, however he knew several foreign languages. He learned from books and from his life.
Justas Pilyponis
"Skull in a Greenish Suitcase", part 1
The first stories written by J. Piliponis signed by his surname or by his penname Justas Gesiulis, appeared in magazine "Saltinis" (The Spring) in 1927. The first book, called "A Trip around Lithuania in 80 days" by the young writer, was published following year. The story in this book was certainly influenced by Jules Verne's works. The landlord of the writer's rooms remembers that J. Piliponis wrote as a machine without even stopping to take a breath. In one evening he conceived the subject of a novel, and in one or two weeks he wrote the whole work.
Justas Pilyponis
"Skull in a Greenish Suitcase", part 2
J. Piliponis wrote 16 titles, 28 volumes on the whole. The last one was published in 1939, when the author was only 32 years old. Productivity and unwillingness to work the text up influenced the quality of his works. The last circumstance, or maybe even book topics, caused him not to be recognised as a writer in Lithuania of those times (in Soviet times he was completely forgotten and recalled only in period of Revival). His novels went from hand to hand. Intriguing subjects, exotic lands and unbelievable events in Lithuania, minimal descriptions of nature and action surroundings, brave and noble heroes, traitors and villains - absolute cowards... All of this charmed wide circles of readers. "From my Marsh", "Skull in a Greenish Suitcase", "Island of White Devils", "Plunderer of the Four Jewels", "A Vampire From the Briachi Castle" - books of such and similar titles, were created by this master of our adventure literature.
Justas Pilyponis "SOS
Airforce Squadron 123"
In 1930, the company "Dirva" released the first part of Justas Piliponis' book "The Second World Flood". The second one showed up in 1934. It begins with a wide panorama of the future. A new mighty world tribe called Arakizes is described. It descended from a mixture of the black and yellow races. Arakizes distinguished themselves as an unusually cruel, courageous and temperamental nation. They were split into many separate tribes which fought among themselves, and at the end of the 35th century only, the black Arakizes of Asia and Africa signed up a "Golden Peace", which was later joined by Arakizes of America and Australia. This peace lasted for two centuries. Often white people held high posts in black countries, led the armies, etc. For example, an Independent Empire of the Great Asia was ruled by Lafajetas, whose roots were French-Lithuanian. At the end of 37th century, Lafajetas conceived to accomplish a World Coup. He sent an army consisting of 150 million people to enslave the white people. After crossing Urals they overtook the white army near the Caspian Sea and marched ahead to Europe unhindered. They destroyed everything and killed everybody in their way. When Lafajetas wanted to revoke the army, the enraged warriors didn't obey and exterminated the white race completely, with the help of Arakizes of Africa. Conflicts also flared up in the other parts of the world, and the war became world-wide.
Justas
Pilyponis "The Club of Men Dissatisfied with Wives"
In such a background of global events the action of the novel begins. On the island of Madagascar a riot rises against a fierce emperor of Africa Don Anastazis, who intends to designate an old and cruel general to be a ruler instead of Island governor Cartempo who was high respected by people. The emperor took such an action in order to force a marriage between him and Cartempo's prettiest daughter Jane. Cartempo did not obey Anastazis will. The Emperor of Africa then sent the army. Cartempo's general aide Sanchai offered people, risen in rebellion to support Cartempo, to go to Africa and propagate revolutionary ideas. People began to demand freedom and equality in Africa. A merciless fight flared up between the Emperor and the rebellion armies. The war spread everywhere: on the ground, in the air, in and under water and even under ground. Annihilating "radiating lamps" were used, which didn't affect the water only. The people and Cartempo's army were victorious and the Emperor of Africa Anastazis was dethroned. However the newly elected kind-hearted emperor Cartempo left Anastazis and his officers alive.
Justas Pilyponis
"A Mysterious Visitor from India"
At that time terrible cataclysms starts on the Earth: long-sleeping volcanoes wake up, the Earth's crust tears up, and the whole continent of North America is submerged. Hot geysers begin to spurt on the North Pole, Arctic glaciers starts moving southwards, and evergreen lands is covered with ice. After such a sudden fall in temperature complete destruction awaited the population.
Sanchai offered to dig an enormous well to the entrails of the Earth using the powerful "radiating lamp". Having such underground tunnels laid out he wanted to warm the Earth climate up with the fire from inside the Earth. Cartempo agrees to the project, and the work gets under way. Don Anastazis hadn't lost his hope to regain the throne and prepares an overtaking, together with his faithful brothers in arms. During the armed conflict with conspirators, the big "lamp" comes uncontrolled and falls down to the entrails of the Earth. Two heroes (one of them is Lithuanian) decides to go down through the well in a special apparatus to a hollow (!) Earth and take the "lamp". The trip inside the Earth is the most interesting part of the novel. At that time, rebels occupy the well and the Emperor lets water into it. The well had to blow, and open the way for molten lava and fire. "Africa had to die" - such were the last words of the second part of the novel.
It's a pity, but J. Piliponis didn't finish "The Second World War".
In 1934 a novel by Ignas Seinius "Siegfried Immerselbe Rejuvenates Himself" shows up. Ignas Seinius - real name Jurkunas (1889-1959), - is the first famous styliser and experimenter of Lithuanian prose language. He started his first works as an impressionist and a modernist writer: the novel "The Hump-back" (1913), tales "Waves are Storming" (1913-1914) and "Summer Feast" (1914, unfinished), and book of short stories and sketches called "Night Lights" (1914). I. Seinius co-operated actively in the literary publications "Rainbow", "The First Bar". After the First World War he moved to work as a diplomat and represented the Lithuanian government in Denmark, Finland and Sweden. Later, he came back to literature. The most significant work in this period of his creative path is the "Siegfried Immerselbe Rejuvenates Himself".
In this novel, the writer pictures a Faust story in the 20th century. The hero of the Immerselbe novel is a German professor of anthropology, a furious ideologist of national socialism and an ideological leader of rasist politics. He learns about the Italian professor Gonzano's human rejuvenation and starts off to Italy. The professor's assistant Peter Inketoni offers Immerselbe to apply a new method of rejuvenation - to inject hormones of a young Jewish girl. After such an experiment, not only the appearance of the patient changes 30 years, but also his way of thinking: the ideologist of racism realises that all nations are equal, and that the "law for all true and constant progress is competition" - not fight as he thought earlier. The German government, after learning about metamorphosis of its ideologist, prohibits him to return to his motherland, until he becomes a real Aryan again. Immerselbe stays in Italy and writes a work called "Foundation for a New Mankind", and becomes fascinated by the daughter of the US millionaire Salome who travels around Europe. However, their hot love doesn't end in marriage. The work by Immerselbe is published in all the World, although in Germany his books are burnt...
I. Seinius neither details nor explains scientifically how that rejuvenation works, he just needed this element as a literary means of seeking to unveil the political face of Europe of those times.
The same year, 1934, one more SF novel showed up - "Cursed Love Souls", written by the Tomdyks brothers. this was the penname chosen by the brothers Alfonsas Burcikas (1906) and Jonas Burcikas (1912) who lived in Riga, Latvia. They released more than ten books: novels, tales and short stories. The first novel "Book Spreader Tragedy" showed up in a Lithuanians' press in Riga. Their first separate book was a tale collection "Luck and Pain" published in 1931.
The hero of the novel "Cursed Love Souls", a doctor Tomas Velzhas, invents a "feelings coffin", in which the man is killed and after some time resurrected. With this apparatus the scientist wanted to make sure that the life after death exists. He abandoned his earlier research in cancer, after the death of his beloved fiancee (she poisoned herself after shooting her rival), and immersed himself into the fields of religion, mysticism and spiritism. Experiments on other people didn't satisfy him, because the resurrected didn't remember and couldn't tell anything about "the other world". T. Velzhas decides to put himself into his "coffin".
The dead hero of the book finds himself on a seashore of a strange planet. He feels light and is dressed in white. Luscious vegetation surrounds him. The doctor walks towards the hills, and has to hide from beasts of prey in caves. Later he meets a company of men in black. Talking to one girl, he learns that he is on Hell, a planet that is ten times bigger than the Earth, where sinners suffer eternally. The men in black turns out to be the angels banished from the Paradise, for rising against God. The doctor meets his lover and her rival. All three of them travel on horses to an underground city, where they meet the martyrs Lenin, Pontius Pilate and another big sinners. They fail to reach the city, because Velzhas wakes up in his laboratory. He doesn't remember anything...
In 1933 two small-size books appear in Kaunas, which could be described as criminal or detective SF. The first, "Smile of a Skull", was written by Matas Mateika and the second, "Tiger of Kaunas", by J. N. Visakis.
The book "Smile of a Skull" tells about measures taken by a the famous American-Lithuanian detective Matas Mateika and his young assistant Jonas Vairas to unmask a mysterious incident in the outskirts of Kaunas. As usual in a detective story, two dead bodies are found in the beginning. Investigating the circumstances of a crime M. Mateika and J. Vairas find a farmstead in a forest, where an evil scientist and his assistants is testing an apparatus which turns radio waves into lethal blue rays. The professor intends to attach this apparatus to a radio transmitter and exterminate the whole mankind. The detectives sneak into the maniac's laboratory, but are captured and almost killed by the blue rays. They are rescued by Clara - an assistant of the professor who doesn't want millions of people to die because of some insane scientist. In a last instant, the detectives succeed in preventing the professor's evil intents.
The "Tiger of Kaunas" by J. N. Visakis tells about five robbers using a sleeping gas, protecting themselves with the masks reminding of tiger snouts.
Lithuanian SF of the post-war years had to take their cues from the Soviet standards. However, in late sixties works called "closely aimed" prevailed in Soviet SF. They pictured the near future, the achievements of Soviet science and its use to help the national economy. For livening up the subject they used a plot of spy-mania: foreign agents seek to pry secrets out of Soviet scientists, but their intents are always prevented by the effective state security. This political add-on of a book played an educational role forced by apologists of partocracy, because SF, as all of the life in the Soviet Union, was heavily ideologised. As a rule, in the "closely aimed" SF future, inventions and gigantic projects of the reorganisation of nature were narrated just like a boring educational lecture.
A typical representative of such SF in Lithuania was the Russian Igor Adabashev, who lived in Vilnius for a while. A few SF books written by him were published in Lithuanian, such as the tale collection "Seizure of MR" (1957) and the novel "The Warm Baltic" (1959). Paradoxically the action almost always takes place in Lithuania in his books, something that rarely happens in later works of other Lithuanian SF writers.
Compositions by J. Cesnulevicius also remind of "close aimed" SF. In 1956 his work "Future Flat" appeared, something I would call a "prognostic vision". The author describes a visit of two spouses to an experimental flat, which is operated by photo-sensors, semiconductors and ultrasonic sensors. According to the author, people would live such flats in the near future. Unfortunately, the former Soviet Union didn't solve the problem of automated homes, nor of the flats themselves. The same ideas are carried on in another J. Cesnulevicius' picture called "Restored Youth", which was published in the same magazine in 1957. The author writes about a 70 year old woman being rejuvenated some 40 years, by a special preparation called "M". The work prognoses that rejuvenation soon will be possible, and used in a production-line fashion.
Of course, not all of the works by Lithuanian SF writers in the late sixties and early seventies were prognostic. For example, S. Sliuzinskas in his tale "Event in Luizitania" (1957) tells a story which took place in a capitalistic world. In the country of Luizitania a ruler of a large concern, Ev Abercinger, commits suicide. There were empty ampoules and a squirt found near a pale and glassy, dead body. The cause of death wouldn't have been found if detective Stein hadn't found the diary of the deceased. It turned out that a doctor Olfern visited Abercinger, and offered to turn him invisible. A scientist gave Abercinger 12 ampoules with his "glass potion". Those ampoules had to be strictly used one per month, however wishing to be invisible sooner and having done with his rivals, Abercinger injected all of the ampoules at once.
Except those mentioned above, one or two SF works by K. Antanaviciute, A. Breivyte, A. Cizas, J. Dirinskis, J. Dovydaitis, D. Jotka, A. Kratulis, P. Naraskevicius, K. Paulius, R. Planitas, V. Smilgys, R. Tarabilda and K. Valius appeared in periodicals of that time. In a publication named "For a Soviet Education" in 1962 a fragment of a novel written by J. Burauskas called "KPI-1 in Cosmos" was published (the whole novel wasn't printed). The first work in post-war Lithuania, a tale by V. Smilgys called "A Trip to the Moon", appeared in 1955. Apart from the works mentioned, there were also SF humorous tales by Jonas Bulota, Juozas Bulota and Albinas Luksa published.
The first Lithuanian SF book published in post-war years, was a little tale collection by Vladas Minius called "Ready to Stars" (1964). V. Minius (1924) is a surgeon, who not only has written brochures of special literature, but also books for the popularisation of science. In his SF works he also pictures the future of his humane science. For example, he describes a complicated operation, in which bones of a musician who has his hands maimed in a car crash are replaced by new ones, whereupon the violinist can play again ("Virtuoso Fingers"). He discusses problems of regeneration ("For the Hearts to Pulsate Rhythmically"), discloses methods of hardening the body of a man who would be adapted for research of inclement planets ("Ready to Stars"), tells about a doctor Arthur Merveil, who makes an ape clever with the help of apparatus designed by himself ("Cerebrostimulator AM") and so on.
This was the way how Lithuanians started their way into SF in a gradually sovietised Lithuania. Not only did the scanty harvest of the first post-war years result in a severe political climate and economic disorder, but also in a requirement of all of the SF works till the middle of the sixties to be translated into Russian and sent to Moscow for censoring before they were published anywhere.
Our SF writers could only orient themselves towards Russian SF, which was not so differentiated and followed science popularisation trend only. Translated literature wasn't published, and one could only dream about acquiring books in foreign languages.
The real boom began in 1968, when stories by V. Norbutas, V. Mikalionis, and later by R. Kalonaitis appeared in magazines, one after another. This lasted for about 10 years. During this period two books by V. Norbutas, and the first ones by B. Balasevicius and K. Paulauskas were published, and periodicals published one or two SF stories each by the following writers: G. Barciauskas, V. Bartuska, J. Birzulis, D. Deimantaite, J. Dundulyte, L. Francaite, V. Greblikas, A. Grebliunas, S. Janusonis, S. Kondrotas, V. Kvedaras, E. Lekevicius, R. Ozolas, A. Salasevicius and J. Vaina.
This growth in activity of SF writers of Lithuania was no doubt induced by a general rise of the level of SF in the Soviet Union. In Russian SF in the sixties quite a number of gifted writers appeared, such as the Strugatskij brothers, and the circle of topics and problems widened (There was a social protest against regime-SF and not without a reason. There was a special department of the KGB analysing SF looking for anti-Soviet elements). Publishing houses in the country began to publish books of native and foreign writers. That, no doubt, also affected our SF masters. If we take a look into the later evolution of Lithuanian SF literature, we would clearly see synchronous peaks and troughs in Russian and Lithuanian SF, with Lithuanian SF lagging behind by 2-3 years. It's understandable, because politics of publishing was ultimately dictated by the empire in "the strong centre". Chrustyev's period of "thaw" was soon replaced with Brezhnev's conservative power pressure, which led that bulky country into the abyss...
One of our most remarkable creators of SF is Vytautas Norbutas, who was born in Rietavas in 1939. He studied Lithuanian language and literature, worked in various newspaper editorial offices. In 1970 his story "Equation of Immortality" was published, and a story collection called "Scorpio Sign" in 1972. Later V. Norbutas had a car crash and was hospitalised for a long time. His unhappy life broke in 1991. After the author's death, an SF grotesque called "Samarians" appeared.
In "Equation Of Immortality" the 26th century is pictured. Mankind has reached a high level of scientific and technological development. Expeditions fly to the stars and the depths of the ocean are examined. Some pages of the book let us meet aggressive messengers of mechanical civilisations on Earth, as well as an artificial man with an inferiority complex, as well as other characters. A hero of one story is a scientist named Ginas Laukaitis, who solves the problem of Immortality. The researcher invents a device which shrinks a man a billions of times. During the experiment he finds himself in a world of atoms, and after experiencing a number of adventures, he successfully returns.
A way of realising immortality is introduced in one story: microrockets with proper particles are sent into the human body, to restore the atoms of deteriorated cells. A man renewed in such a way time after time, could live thousands of years. The author also discusses possible consequences of such immortality in the book. Will it lead to an infinite number of people on Earth, and will people have to fight for a morsel of bread? Will science, art and culture degrade? And where yet an unforeseeable influence on a human way of thinking and feeling? V. Norbutas ends the book optimistically: "... If people became immortal, science would speed up (...). The process of learning elementary things wouldn't stop people. The new generations would consider their own ideas. They wouldn't have to care about half-solved problems, because such problems wouldn't exist anymore..."
Such a optimistic sound of "Equation of Immortality" could be explained by a submission to the political situation. The book states: "The future has to be bright!". Maybe the writer didn't want to stand out from the whole Soviet SF, which, according to analysers, can be and is only optimistic? V. Norbutas himself told the author of these lines that those presumptions were without the slightest grounds, and noticed that editors of the publishing house vulgarised this optimism and lifted to the skies. In any case, I think that a pessimistic book wouldn't be published in those times. As far as I know, works of some of our SF writers were worked up before publishing, so they would conform to the requirements of the ideologists of the Communist party.
The hero of the story "Scorpio Sign", Veksford Hoxberry travels in time to 16th century with the help of the fantovisor, created by professor Samuel Bretweit, and finds himself to be the dramatist Benjamin Johnson. The fantovisor catches peoples thoughts, which, according to the author, doesn't vanish into space. It picks them out and passes them on to live neurons, and strengthens visual and acoustic impulses. The hero of the story experiences the pains of life and creation suffered by the dramatist who died long ago.
The story "Flame of the Pacific Ocean" tells about a bathyscaph "Mermaid" which breaks and disappears after a collision with the biomass of the ocean depths, which sucks out its iron and phosphorus. It happened 200 years ago, that is in 1989.
The heroes of the "Legend, which wasn't recollected by anybody", Medgid and Nasamura, fly with an airliner and spreads antidotes in a desert of Middle Asia, to counter a poison that came from artefacts dug up by archaeologists. A storm begins and an accident happens to the airliner. People starts getting controlled by hallucinations. Nasamura goes out into the raging desert and dies. Medgid sees a crystal planet far away, with living beings having a high level of knowledge, who decides to sow a life in the universe...
In the "Psychochrone" Anele Shalchiute from the 19th century finds a lost thing looking like a flower blossom. It turns out to be a vortex of projective synchronous time, and she finds herself in prehistoric Mexico. Among the native Olmecs she finds Albenstein, an organic droid sent from the future, who forged the Olmec stone heads. Future scientists fear that such circumstances may create a historical disaster.
In the story "The Last Day in Surdoworld" the author describes strange amorphic beings who came and flew close to the Earth. They communicate among themselves by changing hues of their bodies. While observing the Earth inhabitants they realise, that this was their former home...
In 1991, after Lithuania regained its independence, and the state publishing monopoly disappeared, the grotesque "Samarians", which had elements defying the socialist way of living, could finally be released.
At the annual national SF conventions, the Lituanicons it has become a tradition to present the best SF writer of the year with a premium named after Vytautas Norbutas. The first laureate of this premium was Kazys Paulauskas.
No doubt Kazys Paulauskas can be described as the most eminent of Lithuanian SF writers. He was born in 1934 and wrote his first poem only 8 years of age. After graduating from Vilnius Pedagogical Institute he worked as a young communist in the communist party, but later did pedagogical work. He was a headmaster of a school, taught English and a philosophy course. He first intended to write his philosophy dissertation, but later chose the life of a writer.
A fascination in astronomy and Stanislav Lem's works prompted him to create SF. The first SF story, "Dorado" written by K. Paulauskas, appeared in 1971.
"Dorado" is a photonic starship in the 24th century, flying to the Crab nebula. The ship's receivers detect mysterious signals coming from one star system. A pilot on duty wakes up the members of the expedition who sleep in a state of anabiosis, and the starship approaches the unknown planet. There they find deserted cities, see strange visions and at the end they find a robot, left behind by a civilisation that moved away. It tells people the history of a planet.
In the story "Ship of Argonauts" the Earth pictured some 60 thousands into the future! Our planet is reorganised into a Daison sphere surrounding the sun. Three astronauts return to this sophisticated astro-engineered building from an intergalactic trip, and they don't feel at home for some time. This story discusses the problem for our contemporaries of adaptation to such a changed world.
The third story by K. Paulauskas is "Sons of the Sun", an adventure book. Its hero is called Gvidonas de Monforas, a scientist of 16th century, who escapes from persecution by the inquisition by getting on an English warship, the crew of which must disclose the mystery of disappearing ships. They get overtaken by a storm and the scientist finds himself in the open sea. Thanks to a lucky coincidence, he notices the "Santa Monica" sailing by. De Monforas clambers up on the ship, but they soon suffer a pirate assault. The hero is saved by aliens from cosmos... A roundabout of adventures gain speed as the European from the 16th century is flown to the moon, then landed into a city of the Inca empire Machu Picchu, where, after experiencing various events, once again depart with the "star people".
In the fourth book, the "Deim Effect" (1986) we find more scientific reasoning about possible marconic universes, than we find adventures. The author writes about an unsuccessful experiment carried out by physicists. These future scientists tries to open possibilities for subspacial flights to other galaxies. The problems arising from contacts with alien beings are also discussed in this story.
Banguolis Balasevicius could also be described as one of the most eminent SF creators. B. Balasevicius (1944) is a professional writer, translator, a member of the writers' union. In 1967 he graduated from Technical College of Forestry in Kaunas, and in 1975 from Maxim Gorky's Institute of Literature in Moscow. He worked in the publishing house "Vaga" for a long time, and later in the editorial offices of several newspapers. Besides SF books, he has also written two books of popular science.
The first book by B. Balasevicius is called "Agent and Robot". The hero of the story, Alan Jokewist is a prisoner No. 431475, sentenced to imprisonment for 200 years. However, he accepts an offer from a company dealing with space colonisation to analyse three planets. He is guided by a homorobot. On the first planet Alan finds alamins, which look like Earth inhabitants. They have capsules fixed in their heads which create an illusion of a satisfied and lucky life. These obedient inhabitants are controlled by people living in closed institutes. On the second planet the agent finds a very expensive metal, but on this planet are intelligent ditramps. He enters into telepathic contact with them. He knows that the company, wishing to profit by the metal will exterminate the natives and conceives to counterfeit the data of his research.
In his second book, "Earthly Stories" (1979) he publishes eight SF stories. A laconic style of narration stands out through this collection , which is characteristic of the later works of this author. The writer doesn't try to overload his work with science, or with his own created terms, fancy ideas of science or of pseudo-science. He likes to look into an usual, or an everyday fictional situation with a slight, often hidden irony. Let's take "A Deal", from the collection mentioned. It pictures a contact between a taiga hunter with an alien suffering a spaceship crash. The alien asks for "a powder". In traditional Soviet SF, declaring interplanetary humanity, the hunter would help the alien without question (the hero in a story by K. Simak "A Death in the House" acts similarly), however B. Balasevicius' hero makes it understood that he could hardly survive till spring without "powder" and shoots his "space brother" down.
The writer likes to discuss the "What if?"-situation. In the story "False Millionaire", the author describes the beggar Jim Bronder living in USA, who suddenly becomes a millionaire. The experiment is carried out by a student of the Institute of Past Reorganisation. What if a beggar becomes very wealthy? Will he distribute his wealth to other poor people? Will he enlarge his capital? The new millionaire, however, hires builders and digs out a big shaft 3 kilometres wide on a hill near the city, where he suffered from humiliation for so many years. For this they had to remove the whole settlement.
Fear of death is a constant satellite of a man. What if we would stop to be afraid of death? B. Balasevicius discusses this question in a story called "Programmed Death" in his book "We're not the Robots" published in 1983. In this story people leave a copy of their organism before going into space. If an astronaut dies, he is recreated after that copy. The hero of the story, Raigardas, travels to research a mystery planet in the Unicorn Epsilon. Colonists disappear one after another on this planet. Raigardas succeeds in clearing up the mystery: People die because they want to die and the "fog" on the planet - an anastetiser, removes people like sweepings. People took their lives very lightly, because they knew they would be created anew.
Not only does B. Balasevicius use known SF subjects, but also motives of fairy-tales and legends. We can find the old Lithuanian legend about Kastytis and Jurate translated into SF language in a story called "Baltic Legend". In one of the writer's works, Jurate is a person on duty in an Earth post of the United Worlds, who was prohibited to poke into peoples lives. When Kastytis dies, Jurate, the alien stays on Earth to bring up their kid.
V. Norbutas cares more about ideas of science and fiction, however B. Balasevicius in his works is clearly turned towards social problems. It could be seen in his last book, called "Over a River of Time" (1986). The biggest work in this book is the one named after a title of a book. A planet is pictured, where people-colonists establish a fascist regime and treat the natives cruelly. Ex-astronaut Liden after getting onto this planet announces himself to be the Father of the Planet and breaks off all the relations with Earth. Space scouts Raigardas and Vygimantas fly to meet Liden, willing to clear up the motives of such a behaviour. The scouts decide to help to the real, but enslaved masters of the planet, when they notice the inhumane order.
I'd like to note that Lithuanian SF, as all Soviet literature up until Gorbachev's time, performed a hidden duty of telling the "truth". SF could only talk about ecological, social and other problems, while the censorship looked for criticism of Soviet system in particular.
Once B. Balasevicius told that the best is to write SF for kids, and not to touch delicate problems. That's why the action in his, and in many others' works is moved into a far space, or into some unknown society which doesn't have any clear relations to reality. In B. Balasevicius' works Lithuanian themes are very rare. It can be most clearly found in the story "The Choice", which pictures a historian of the 21st century, Mr. Kauspedas who travels in time to Lithuania of 1886. The historian tries to persuade a chief of a rebellion squad, the gifted poet Visbaras, to go to the future. However Visbaras chooses to die together with his brothers in arms.
In 1982 the publishing house "Vaga" released the second book by V. Minius called "The Dark Light", containing six stories. They don't differ much from the stories in the collection "Ready to Stars". In this second book a turn towards the social problems can be felt.
The all masculine line of Lithuanian SF writers was broken by Loreta Latonaite. In 1983 the publishing house "Vaga" released a little collection of stories called "One Percent of Life". L. Latonaite (1934) is a physician, an oculist. In the story "One Percent of Life" she asks the question: can a rational homunculus Orinia grown up in a flask have human feelings? The story "Ship Destiny" pictures how passengers of spaceship, with the help of a mass telekinesis rescue themselves from an "absolute super gigantic corridor of vacuum" in which they find themselves during a flight from the Moon to the Earth. In the story "A Door to Nonentity" an electronic machine investigates the judge Chat, and determines that he has killed his wife, mother-in-law and a lawyer indirectly. The death penalty is administered to Chat in the form of euthanasia. In the story "Thoughts" we meet a professor who can read thoughts from the dead patients, using a special electrode. In 1990 the second story collection "Death of the Superman" by L. Latonaite appeared.
Some rather good SF works have been written by V. Mikailionis and R. Kalonaitis. Vaclovas Mikailionis (1939) is a philologist, cinema propagator and a translator. His poems and a prose have been published since 1961. From 1968 till 1975 his three SF stories and a tale called "Turangit" have appeared in magazines. A collection of Lithuanian SF stories which was released in 1988 was named after this last work. Turangit is a thing which a man can't live without. The heroes of the tale by V. Mikailionis are looking for it. They fly through the universe, using their thoughts, visit several planets, meet the people living there, but they don't find the turangit...
Romualdas Kalonaitis (1941) is an engineer, economist, and journalist. He has written several books in popular science. In 1988 his fairy-tale story "The Valiant Four in a Vanished Castle", the heroes travel through a labyrinth of logic rebuses. From 1973 till 1982 R. Kalonaitis published eight SF stories in various magazines. The author likes an interesting situation which intrigues the reader, which is solved like in a detective story. For example, "They Must Come Back" has a real cosmic detective. The head physician of a spaceship wants to steal some expansive cargo and injects a medicine to several members of a crew and suggests to them the idea to hatch a plot... In the story "The Dream of an Aviator" a disaster meets a plane during landing. The pilot Petronis remembers a Yoga exercise and gets control over the bestial fear of death, and his way of thinking turns into superconsciousness. Then an alien appear in a cockpit. It explains to Petronis that it's possible to move and think millions of times faster than usual, while in a state of superconsciousness. In this way, with the help of the aliens, the aviator saves the plane. The story "Side Effects" describes a scientific experiment during which people encounter their own conscience.
Beside the authors mentioned above, the rank of knights of Lithuanian SF was joined by R. Andzius, L. Bereniene, E. Bunka, J. Cvirka, V. Dapsauskas, G. Grigelevicius, A. Ivoncius, G. Jakavonis, G. Jankauskas, S. Jusionis, S. Kanisauskas, R. Kasparavicius, E. Liutkevicius, R. Maskoliunas, R. Miskinyte, M. Peleckis, E. Platovas, A. Praninskas, H. Rukas, G. Riume, R. Serelyte, T. Sinkariukas, E. Sirvinskaite, V. Totoraityte, T. Zaleskis, R. Zdanavicius etc.
Until now we only talked about works which could be described as science fiction. Usually we don't classify works very strictly. Often there's no type of story written with such a title, when published in the press. For example, in a book by B. Balasevicius called "Over the River of Time" it is not mentioned anywhere that the book deals with fictional things, neither in subtitle, nor in any word from the publisher. It's needless to speak about the word "science" or "fiction", as they are rarely used by us.
There are works in Lithuanian fiction which can't be ascribed to science fiction. They cannot even be ascribed to "fantasy", a really widespread title for such stories. It's rather a Lithuanian version of magical realism. The fictional elements (of a fairy-tale, a modern myth, but not a science fiction) in those works are used as a literary means which helps the author open questions he is concerned about, or to develop his thoughts, or to convey a mood. Often there's an allegoric and artificial fact of the story created, which is similar to our reality, but still not identical. This can be seen especially in works by Saulius Tomas Kondrotas.
Saulius Tomas Kondrotas (1953) is a philosopher who moved to the West illegally in 1986. In 1977 the first little story collection "A World Without Limits" showed up. Later, the novel "The Look of a Grass-Snake" (1981), a collection of tales and stories called "Stories of Various Times" (1982), a novel in two parts called "And the Looking From the Windows Will Frown" appeared. After the writer had left his motherland, his name was put on "the black lists". When the "thaw" began, works by S.T. Kondrotas were published and his books were released again.
In his stories we often encounter things without any motives or explanations. For example, in the story "The Old House", a house saturated with smells of solitude is described, in another one, "In a Fog is My Soul" a car crash is pictured, which was caused by a guy who ran next to a fast going car. We meet a girl, from whom a wind blows in all directions in a story "The Wind". The hero of the story "Mister Merzhenovich" remembers everything about the future only, and nothing about the past, and in the novel "And the Looking From the Windows Will Frown" we talk to a dead man, and so on... The hero of the tale "A Clan of Centaur's Emblem", Utenis, who's telling the story, tells how he intended to transfix his unfaithful wife with a spear when he found her making love to a servant. She was struck in horror, grovelling at his feet and begging for mercy, and then suddenly turned into a great lizard. Utenis, when he is later speared by his own son, revenging his mother, also turns into the same reptile... The culprit of all those tragedies is fear, which persecutes all the Palemon's clan which has run away from Rome to Lithuanian woods.
In the works written by Jurga Ivanauskaite (1961), a rather famous prose-writer nowadays, we can also find various unbelievable incidents, however here they, like in works by S.T. Kondrotas, just play an auxiliary role. J. Ivanauskaite's characters doesn't even try to understand why they suddenly begin to hear the thoughts of people around (in a story "It's about how..."), from where a naked Japanese girl without a shadow has appeared, but who was not seen by everyone ("Visions in a Yellow Light"), how a man could turn into a photo ("A Very Unpleasant Incident") and such. The author tries to express the despair of her lost generation ("When Shall Godot Come?"), a terrible fear of the future ("Concert No.1"), an emotional attitude of a few young hippies ("Years of Lilies of the Valley") and so on... All of these tales are gathered in the book "Years of Lilies of the Valley" (1985).
The Singing Revolution which began in 1989 and the restoration of Lithuanian Independence in 1991, abolished the State monopoly on publishing. Private and joint-stock publishing houses appeared. Many of the new authors hurried to use their services. However, even the older writers began to publish their works using their own financial means (for example, after the death of the author, V. Norbutas' wife released his fictional grotesque "Samaritans", which was rejected many times from publishing by the only (till that time) SF publishing house in Lithuania, the "Vyturys").
Many of the young writers have their works published in periodicals which has grown in number and variety. We can only regret that some of the publications cease to exist after encountering economical or other difficulties. It is too expensive to publish one's own book.
The political, economic and cultural changes that has happened in Lithuania, I think, will speed up the evolution of Lithuanian SF. It's already possible for us to get acquainted with our first works of SF (earlier they were stored in the special stocks of libraries, and were unreachable for an ordinary reader), and with foreign (not only Russian) SF. All of this makes a good foundation for a further SF evolution in Lithuania.
Translated by Mantvydas Dubinskas