Moscow 2042 by Vladimir Voinovich
**Moscow 2042 Overview**
"Moscow 2042" is a satirical novel by Vladimir Voinovich that presents a dystopian view of a future Moscow, set in the year 2042. The story follows Vitaly Nikitich Kartsev, a Russian émigré writer who, after being criticized for his skepticism towards science fiction, decides to travel to the future. His journey is influenced by various parties, including a CIA operative and wealthy individuals seeking nuclear plans, reflecting geopolitical tensions of the era. Upon arrival in a meticulously controlled communist Moscow, Kartsev discovers a society that has devolved into absurdity, where essentials like food are traded for human waste, and propaganda is printed on toilet paper.
Within this future, the Christian church has been co-opted by the Communist Party, worshiping a state leader while a faction of dissenters known as Simites arises, led by the revived Sim Simych Karnavalov. The narrative critiques the extreme bureaucratic and ideological constraints of a fully realized communist state, ultimately leading to its collapse and the rise of a czarist autocracy. Through Kartsev's return to 1982, Voinovich explores themes of freedom, governance, and the potential for reform, positioning the novel as both a reflection on Soviet history and a speculative commentary on future possibilities.
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Moscow 2042 by Vladimir Voinovich
Excerpted from an article in Magill’s Survey of World Literature, Revised Edition
First published:Moscorep, 1986 (English translation, 1987)
Type of work: Novel
The Work
Moscow 2042 begins in a Munich beer garden in 1982. The central character is a Russian émigré writer, Vitaly Nikitich Kartsev, who bears a strong resemblance to Voinovich himself. In conversation with a German acquaintance, Rudi Mittelbrechenmacher, Kartsev is faulted for his indifference to science fiction and his unwillingness to accept the possibility of time travel, which his friend Rudi assures him is a reality. Kartsev responds by going to a travel agency to seek passage to Moscow in the twenty-first century. His success in making the necessary arrangements means that Kartsev will have direct experience from which science fiction may be written.
When Kartsev’s projected travel becomes known, he is approached by various people who have an interest in future Moscow. John, an operative from the Central Intelligence Agency, poses as a New Times magazine representative and offers to pay the cost of Kartsev’s expensive trip in exchange for the story he will bring back. Wealthy representatives of a Middle Eastern government abduct Kartsev and offer him money if he will return with plans for a nuclear bomb. Then, before his departure in time, Kartsev is persuaded to fly to Toronto to meet another émigré writer, Sim Simych Karnavalov (Alexandr Solzhenitsyn). Karnavalov wants Kartsev to carry into the future a floppy disk containing the completed “slabs” of a very large work, here called The Greater Zone. Kartsev is also given a letter to present to the future leaders of the Soviet Union, which he discards while taking the floppy disk along with him.
Upon his return to Germany, Kartsev boards a time-travel craft and flies forward to 2042. He arrives in Moscow to discover that he has been rehabilitated, is now regarded as a classic writer, and is about to be honored by a jubilee in celebration of his one-hundredth birthday. As Kartsev becomes acquainted with Moscow-in-the-future, Voinovich’s novel turns into a dystopian speculation on Soviet communism after another sixty years of refinement.
Moscow is now a fully realized communist center, surrounded by three Rings of Hostility, the most hostile being the most remote, the capitalist enemy. Within Moscow, life is utterly regimented and largely absurd. Recycling has been perfected so far that to secure food (primary matter), residents must turn in secondary matter (human feces). Pravda is printed on toilet paper. The Christian church, reformed to eliminate God, has been integrated into the Communist Party structure and worships the Genialissimo, the isolated leader of the state. The chief threat to this system comes from Simites, twenty-first century followers of Sim Simych Karnavalov. Kartsev displeases the Communist Party when he refuses to delete Sim from Moscow 2042 after he has returned to 1982, but the moment for eliminating Sim has already passed. Sim Karnavalov had himself frozen and deposited in a Swiss bank in the twentieth century. Toward the novel’s end he is revived and enters the future, which leads to a Simite uprising, the collapse of communist Moscow, and the establishment of a militantly reactionary czarist autocracy under the direction of Karnavalov, who believes he has Romanov blood in his veins. Kartsev is allowed to return to 1982, where he hopes, as author of Moscow 2042, to encourage reforms that make life “a little easier on people.”
Bibliography
Fishman, Boris. “Laughter in the Dark.” The Nation 279, no. 4 (August 2-9, 2004): 46.
Fletcher, M. D. “Voinovich’s Consumer Satire in 2042.” International Fiction Review 16 (Summer, 1989): 106-108.
Glad, John, ed. Conversations in Exile. Translated by Richard Robin and Joanna Robin. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1993.
Kaufus, Ken. “Le Femme Nikita.” The New York Times Book Review, August 8, 2004, p. 6.
Nemzer, Andrei. “That’s Not Why They’re Interesting.” Current Digest of the Post-Soviet Press 54, no. 29 (August 14, 2002): 14.
Porter, Robert. “Animal Magic in Solzhenitsyn, Rasputin, and Voinovich.” Modern Language Review 82 (July, 1987): 675-684.
Porter, Robert. Four Contemporary Russian Writers. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1989.
Solotaroff, Theodore. Review of The Life and Extraordinary Adventures of Private Ivan Chonkin, by Vladimir Voinovich. The New York Times Book Review, January 23, 1977.