Hard to Be a God by Boris Strugatsky
"Hard to Be a God" is a science fiction narrative that explores themes of power, historical intervention, and moral complexity through the lens of an alien world resembling Earth's feudal past. The story begins with a prologue featuring three children in a Soviet forest, which contrasts sharply with the main narrative set on the planet Arkanar. Here, the protagonist, Don Rumata, is part of a team from the Institute of Experimental History tasked with guiding the planet's development toward a socialist future. However, Arkanar's society is on the brink of a power struggle that threatens to shift from feudalism directly to fascism, led by the enigmatic Don Reba.
As Rumata navigates the tumultuous political landscape, he grapples with his role as a supposed "god" overseeing the progress of a society that resists the ideals he represents. The narrative delves into Rumata's personal crisis as he becomes emotionally entangled with the inhabitants, particularly with his mistress, Kyra, and the courageous figures around him. The climax unfolds with violent upheaval, highlighting the unpredictable nature of human beings and the difficulties of imposing ideological change. The death of Kyra acts as a catalyst for Rumata's violent retaliation, ultimately leading to his return to Earth, where he finds himself forever altered by his experiences. The story concludes with a poignant reflection, linking the initial innocence of the children in the woods to the complex realities of adulthood and the burdens of history.
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Hard to Be a God
First published:Trudno byt bogom (1964; English translation, 1973)
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Science fiction—alternate history
Time of work: An indeterminate time in the future
Locale: Earth and the kingdom of Arkanar, on an unnamed planet
The Plot
The prologue introduces three children, Anton, Pashka, and Anka, who are on an outing in a Soviet forest. The bucolic mood of the afternoon is dampened by two events: A game of William Tell with a real crossbow and discovery of the skeleton of a Nazi soldier chained to a machine gun.
Action shifts, for the main narrative, to Arkanar, a kingdom on a distant planet. Its inhabitants are Homo sapiens and are developing along a path analogous to human history on Earth. Don Rumata is one of a team of specialists from the Institute of Experimental History on Earth. The team is charged with guiding historical change on this world so as to ensure an eventual peaceful transition to the classless, socialist society that developed on Earth. Feudal Arkanar seems about to become capitalist, but a power struggle led by Don Reba (and not predicted by Marxist science) threatens to take this society directly from feudal tyranny to state fascism. Don Reba is an enigma, a nobody, a man with no qualities, even in evil. He is an Adolf Hitler without the historical dynamic that produced Hitler, for he has no capitalist backing, yet he thrives. Rumata is revealed to be Anton, just as his fellow don Hug is Pashka. The Marxist guides find it impossible to play god in Arkanar. Their enemy, a human nature that is fundamentally unregenerate, is not in textbooks.
Rumata is at the climax of social upheaval, which is his moment of personal crisis as well. The Arkanar society experiences a coup and a countercoup. First, Reba unleashes the Gray forces (sturmoviki, or storm troops), petty shopkeepers and paid thugs, against intellectuals and cultivated and enlightened members of the bourgeoisie. This Hitler scenario (complete with book burnings and a Night of the Long Knives), however, is only a front. In a Reba double-cross, hooded soldiers of the Holy Order sweep down on the Gray troops and institute a reign of terror under a militant theocracy. Rumata has spent much money spiriting away noted intellectuals and scientists in order to preserve what he sees as agents of human progress. He has befriended courageous people on the planet, among them Baron Pampa (a Russian folk figure of prodigious appetite and strength) and Arata the rebel. He takes a mistress, Kyra. Defending them, he becomes emotionally involved and increasingly unlike a god. He discovers that in his passion to bring about justice he is made of the same stuff as those he would judge. When Kyra is killed by a stray crossbow bolt in the final scene, Rumata goes berserk, using his superior weapons to kill monks and Reba. For this, he is repatriated to Earth to convalesce. An epilogue finds Anton, Anka, and Pashka again in the Soviet woods. Instead of finding a machine gunners skeleton, however, Anton returns to his friends with his hands stained by strawberries.