The Aelita Award is an award for science fiction writers founded by the Union of Writers of Russia (formerly the Union of RSFSR Writers) and "Uralsky Sledopyt Magazine" in 1981. It was named after the classic Russian science fiction novel Aelita. The prize is awarded during the Aelita, a Soviet/Russian science fiction fandom convention.

In 1989, the Start Award was created as a runner-up award to the Aelita.

A number of other awards are or have been given in conjunction with the Aëlita ceremony. These include:

The Ivan Yefremov Memorial Award, named in honor of science fiction writer and paleontologist Ivan Yefremov (1908–1972) and recognizes great contributions to the development of Soviet science fiction studies.

The Vitaly Bugrov Memorial Award is given in honor of science fiction writer, editor and critic Vitaly Bugrov (1938–1994) for great contributions to the writing of story collections and nonfiction works. He was also instrumental in the founding of the Aëlita Award.

The Order of the Knights of Science Fiction & Fantasy is given for great contributions to Russian fandom.

The Europe-Asia Award is given for writers who reflect or represent Ekaterinburg and the Urals in their writing.

The Order of Kindness & Light is given for writers who promote in their works ideas of humaneness, kindness and a positive attitude towards humanity. The Master of Science Fiction & Fantasy Award is like the Grand Master Award given by the Science Fiction Writers of America (SFWA).

The Velikoye Koltso (Great Ring) Award was established by Boris Zavgorodny and was re-established by the Alkor Fan Club. It is given by Soviet fandom for their favorite novel, and physically resembles the American Hugo Award.

Aelita Award winners 1981 – (tie) Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, Alexander Kazantsev 1982 – Zinovi Yuriev 1983 – Vladislav Krapivin 1984 – Sergej Snegow 1985 – Sergey Pavlov 1986 – Viktor Kolupaev 1987 – Olga Larionova 1988 – Viktor Kolupaev 1989 – Sever Gansovsky 1990 – Oleg Korabelnikov 1991 – Vladimir Mikhailov 1992 – Sergei Drugal 1993 – Vasily Zvyagintsev 1994 – Gennadiy Prashkevich 1995 – No award given. 1997 – Kir Bulychov 1998 – Eugeniy Gulyakovskiy 1999 – Sergey Lukyanenko 2000 – Vadim Shefner 2001 – Marina and Sergey Dyachenko 2002 – Evgeny Lukin 2003 – Vladimir Savchenko 2004 – Vasili Golovachov 2006 – Alexander Gromov 2007 – No award given. 2008 – Svyatoslav Loginov 2009 – Vladimir Vasilyev 2010 – Andrey Lazarchuk 2011 – H. L. Oldie 2012 – Pavel Amnuel 2013 – Roman Zlotnikov 2014 – Isay Davydov for I Will Return in a Thousand Years 2015 – Vyacheslav Rybakov 2016 – Evgeny Filenko 2017 – Andrei Belyanin 2018 – Vadim Panov 2019 – Oleg Divov 2020 – Michael Swanwick 2021 – Alan Dean Foster 2022 – Sergei Abramov

Start Award winners 1989 – Boris Shtern 1990 – Andrei Stolyarov 1991 – Vyacheslav Rybakov 1992 – Alexander Tyurin & Alexander Shchiogolev 1993 – Sergei Lukyanenko 1994 – Andrei Shcherbak-Zhukov 1995 – No award given. 1996 – No award given. 1997 – Andrei Valentinov 1998 – Mikhail Tyrin 1999 – Andrey Plekhanov 2000 – Natalya R'azanova 2001 – Victor Burtsev 2002 – Leonid Kaganov 2003 – Vitaly Kaplan 2004 – Alexei Ivanov 2005 – Lora Andronova 2006 – Irina Olovyannaya 2007 – No award given. 2008 – Sergey Paliy 2009 – No award given. 2010 – Ilya Te 2011 – Vitaliy Aboyan 2012 – No award given. 2013 – Alexei Vert 2014 – No award given. 2015 – Nikita Averin 2016 – No award given. 2017 – Nataliya Yankovich 2018 – Nikolay Chepurin 2019 – Igor Samoilov 2020 – Leon Smith 2021 – Max Maksimov 2022 – Petr Novichkov

Award discontinued?

Ivan Yefremov Memorial Award winners 1987 – Georgi Gurevich 1988 – (tie) Dmitri Bilenkin & Vitaly Bugrov 1989 – Georgii Grechko 1990 – Viktor Babenko 1991 – Igor Khalymbahdza 1992 – Andrei Balabukha 1993 – 1994 – 1995 – 1996 – 1997 – Evgeniya Sterligova 1998 – Alexander Kashirin 1999 – Alexander Sidorovich 2000 – Nina Berkova 2001 – Vladimir Borisov 2002 – Bella Kl'ueva 2003 – Dmitriy Vatolin 2004 – 2005 – 2006 – 2007 – 2008 – 2009 – 2010 – 2011 – 2012 – Andrey Sinitsin

Award discontinued?

Vitaly Bugrov Memorial Award winners 1997 – Vladimir Gakov 1998 – Sergei Kazantsev 1999 – Yevgeny Kharitonov 2000 – Vladimir Gopman 2001 – Alexander Royfe 2002 – Dmitriy Baykalov 2003 – Eugeny Permyakov 2004 – 2005 – 2006 – 2007 – 2008 – 2009 – 2010 – 2011 – 2012 – Sergei Chekmaev

Award discontinued?

References The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, Peter Nicholls & John Clute, eds. London: Granada, 1979. Reginald's Science Fiction & Fantasy Awards, by Daryl F. Mallett & Robert Reginald. San Bernardino, CA: The Borgo Press, 1991, 1993, 2013.