Note on Translations and Transliteration
The Library of Congress transliteration system is used in this book whenever unfamiliar Russian words are introduced, and whenever quotes are included in the original Russian. For the sake of easier reading, however, when Russian authors are named in the body of the text, I have chosen the most familiar English spelling (“Dostoevsky” rather than “Dostoevskii”); last names containing a Russian ë are rendered with the letters yo rather than e (“Fyodorov” rather than “Federov”). The “Works Cited” section and internal citations use the Library of Congress system for ease of bibliographic reference; thus, either of the brothers who wrote the most famous science fiction in the Soviet period are referred to in the text as “Strugatsky,” but their Russian-language publications would be listed in the citations under “Strugatskii.” Fictional characters’ names are rendered in a more “reader-friendly” fashion so that non-Russian speakers can better pronounce the names (“Lyuda” rather than “Liuda”).