Yefremov School is a literary movement whose representatives, from the second half of the 1970s, gathered around the editorial board for fantasy literature of the publishing house Molodaya Gvardiya, headed by Yuri Medvedev in 1973-1978 and by Vladimir Shcherbakov (who always denied his connection with the "school") in 1978-1992.
In the first half of the 1970s, Soviet literature, both mainstream and fantasy, experienced a split rooted in cultural-ideological (Westerners — Pochvenniki), ideological (Scientism — New Age) and economic spheres: under the conditions of a planned economy, different groups of writers fought for the volume of publishing plans. Molodaya Gvardiya had a virtual monopoly on publishing fiction, and the publishing houses Detskaya Literatura and Znanie had unofficial quotas for publishing fiction. Under Medvedev's leadership, the so-called Yefremov School (the term appeared in the next decade) emerged, named in honour of the science fiction writer I. A. Yefremov, who died in 1972. Medvedev claimed to develop the themes of Yefremov's works, especially those related to ancient history and esotericism. Yefremov School was also the name of the All-Union Creative Association Of Young Fiction Writers of the publishing house Molodaya Gvardiya (existed in 1987-1991), which was opposed by its creators to the "fourth wave" of Soviet fiction associated with the work of Strugatsky.
In the second half of the 1980s, the Yefremov School united about 80% of Soviet science fiction writers, science fiction critics, bibliographers, and activists of amateur science fiction clubs. The literary production of the writers of the Yefremov School received mostly negative reviews from both Soviet and expatriate critics. Alexander Bushkov, Vasily Golovachev and Yuri Nikitin began their writing careers in the Shcherbakov editorial office of the Molodaya Gvardiya, and Vasily Zvyagintsev began his writing career in the All-Union Creative Association Of Young Fiction Writers.
History The Fantastic Literature Department of the Molodaya Gvardiya Publishing House in the 1970s In 1973, Sergei Zhemaitis, head of the fiction department of Molodaya Gvardiya, was replaced by , then a progressive writer who published in Tekhnika Molodezhi. However, his appointment coincided with a sharp change in the Soviet authorities' publishing policy. The peculiarity of this policy in the USSR in the 1950s-1980s was that reprints of authors and works of the "low" genre (science fiction and adventure) were not welcome — organisational and financial barriers prevented this. Under the conditions of the planned economy, reprints were reserved for classical authors. During the Khrushchev-Brezhnev era, fiction was considered as such: Alexei Tolstoy, Alexander Belyaev and later Alexander Grin.Поляков П. Б. Стругацкие: взгляд со стороны. Эволюция произведений при переиздании. [Strugatsky: an external view. The evolution of work after republishing] (in Russian). Омск: Частный издатель Дмитрий Сорокин, 2018. p. 301. By 1977, Ivan YefremovЕрёмина О. А., Смирнов Н. Н. Иван Ефремов. [Ivan Yefremov] (in Russian). М.: Молодая гвардия, 2013. P. 601. (Жизнь замечательных людей; iss. 1440). had officially joined the ranks of the classics. The way out was often the publication of new editions of books, in which Alexander Kazantsev, whose creative style involved constant revision of previous works, was very successful. Works of small and medium size could be republished in author's and collective collections. In addition, from the second half of the 1960s, a generational conflict began to emerge, which also had a thematic dimension: the confrontation between scientific and technological fiction and philosophical fiction. The representatives of the older generation (first and foremost A. Kazantsev) held positions in the Union of Soviet Writers, while the "young" writers (the most prominent of whom were the Strugatskys) had already gained a readership and consolidated themselves on the basis of the publishing house Molodaya Gvardiya. Writers who did not belong to any of the groups and had no patrons (e.g. Yu. Kotlyar) found themselves "on the sidelines" of publishing, but still had the opportunity to criticise in the press.Черняховская Ю. Братья Стругацкие: письма о будущем. [Strugatsky Brothers: letters about future] (in Russian). М.: Книжный мир, 2016. pp. 249—250.
There was also a personal factor. According to A. Pervushin, Yu. Medvedev's beliefs differed significantly from the Marxist-Leninist ideology (philosophical fiction was an expression of the communist project of the "thaw" period): he clearly followed the line of "neo-pagan esotericism and cosmism", later proclaiming himself the founder of the Yefremov School. According to Yu. Medvedev's doctrine, the Supreme Reason is obliged to be supreme, including moral and ethical qualities, everything in the works should be "incorruptible, harmonious, beautiful, eternal". In this respect, his personal opposition to the publication of the story Roadside Picnic was explained by deep aesthetic and worldview attitudes (the cosmic supercivilisation ignored the Earthlings, leaving our planet literally a garbage dump). Due to the aforementioned peculiarities of the quota system, the number of published books decreased significantly: the Strugatsky brothers were unable to publish their collection of unplanned meetings for seven years (from 1973 to 1980), Vladimir Savchenko scandalously broke off relations with the editorial board, and the manuscript of Dmitri Bilenkin's collection of short stories remained untouched for many years. The number of new editions in the second half of the 1970s barely reached ten. As a result, writers who became popular, especially Kir Bulychev and Olga Larionova, went to magazines and other publishing houses (especially Znanie and Detskaya Literatura). As L. Lobarev noted, in the 1970s it was these two publishing houses that quietly received funds and production facilities for fiction.Lobaryov, L. V. История советской фантастики. Большая российская энциклопедия: научно-образовательный портал (9 September 2023) [History of Soviet science and fantasy. Big Russian Encyclopaedia: scientific and educational portal] (in Russian).
Late Stagnation Era In 1978 Vladimir Shcherbakov became head of the fiction department of Molodaya Gvardiya. For the previous two and a half years he had been deputy editor-in-chief of Tekhnika Molodezhi, turning (as A. Pervushin put it) a popular-science materialist magazine into a stronghold of esotericism and parascience. The Anthology of Mysterious Cases section, which published material on UFOs, biofields, radio echoes and the hypothetical invention of the laser by Australian Aborigines,Пухов Михаил. Проникновение в будущее [Reaching into the future] (in Russian). [Рец. на книгу В. Щербакова «Семь стихий» (М., 1980)] // Техника — молодёжи. 1980. № 10. P. 50.Пухов Михаил. Проникновение в будущее [Reaching into the future] (in Russian). [Рец. на книгу В. Щербакова «Семь стихий» (М., 1980)] // Техника — молодёжи. 1980. № 10. P. 54. became a platform for the magazine's experiments. Science fiction as a genre was extremely popular in the USSR, and its publications had large circulations, so the editorial staff attracted people with unorthodox ideas who had a good chance of getting them out to the public. Vsevolod Revich called this trend (whose representatives, apart from V. Shcherbakov, were Yevgeny Gulyakovsky, Yuri Petukhov and Yuri Nikitin) "zero literature". Even in Yuri Medvedev's time, the Molodaya Gvardiya began publishing the almanacs Mysteries of the Ages and Roads of Millennia, whose regular authors were Valery Skurlatov and Shcherbakov himself, who devoted their works to creating a fantastic history of the ancient Slavs, as well as to fomenting belief in Yeti and aliens, which was seen as a means of distracting young people from pressing social and political problems.
V. Shcherbakov started work on the publication of science fiction, which in quantitative terms returned to the flow of the "boom" period of the 1960s. According to A. Pervushin, Shcherbakov decided to replace the ideological basis of Soviet fiction with the New Age, adapted to the "stagnant" society: "The Soviet version proposed by Shcherbakov was a more primitive mixture of crypto-historical, paleofantastic and occult theories". His connection with the Yefremov School V. Shcherbakov consistently denied. The reference work of late Molodaya Gvardiya fiction was Sergei Pavlov's novel Moon Rainbow, the merits of which were recognised even by the opponents of "zero literature". This novel combined the ideology of extraterrestrial expansion with the New Age promise of changing human nature. "The laboratory for the modification of man as a biological species, which will acquire psychic abilities, should serve as the universe itself". A. Pervushin argued that V. Shcherbakov's editorial policy had great potential. However, he fully followed the line set by Yu. Medvedev, and as a result he himself turned to Russian cosmism, the idea of which had just become widespread at the time of the publication of Lunar Rainbow. Yu. Medvedev, in his story The Cup of Patience (1983), promoted the mystical ideas of the late Tsiolkovsky. Nevertheless, Shcherbakov introduced the informal poet Vyacheslav Nazarov to the masses and also published an experimental novel by Georgy Shakh, There is No Sadder Story in the World (1984). Alexander Bushkov, Vasily Golovachev and Yuri Nikitin began their literary careers in Shcherbakov's editorial office.
Perestroika and All-Union Creative Association Of Young Fiction Writers In 1987, the All-Union Creative Association of Young Fiction Writers of the Publishing House Molodaya Gvardiya was founded — the first non-state publishing house in the USSR to specialise in publishing fiction by young authors. It was directed by Vitaly Pishchenko (Novosibirsk). The term Yefremov School appeared in the first collection of the association, Rumba Fantastika, as the name of the thematic section. In four years, the Association published 104 (according to other data, 94) collections containing 723 works by 208 authors; their total circulation amounted to about 11 million copies. In total, the Yefremov School united 250 people — about 80% of Soviet science fiction writers, science fiction critics, bibliographers, and activists of amateur science fiction clubs.
In the thematic volume of the Library of Science Fiction published in 1993, the author of the preface —cosmonaut V. Sevostyanov— dated the formation of the community of students and followers of I. A. Yefremov to the 1980s, and named his direct students — Gennady Prashkevich and Eugene Gulyakovsky. The Yefremov School included Y. Glazkov, E. Grushko, E. Gulyakovsky, O. Korabelnikov, V. Rybin, M. Pukhov, E. Sych, Y. Tupitsyn and many others among the authors presented in the Association's collections. One of the permanent seminars of young Siberian novelists included about fifty people. As the critic O. Dryabina (secretary of the Association of Science Fiction Writers) noted, it is not necessary to call all of them consistent and direct followers of the literary tradition of I. Yefremov and his ideological positions. The leadership of the Association preferred to emphasize the principles of "humanism, social optimism, no embellishment of the future, but a careful study of tomorrow, which is being created today and now". The critic Vasily Vladimirsky argued that the Association "practically did not introduce any new big names, but readily gave a platform (and thus brought them to the next level) to authors who had made their debut in the pages of newspapers and provincial magazines in previous years". Vasily Zvyagintsev was almost the only exception, debuting with stories and then the first novel of the epic Ulysses Leaves Ithaca, published in parts.