Page "Social science fiction" Paragraph 13

Since disbandment of KGB in 1991, dissident trend in science fiction transformed as well.

Government in 1999 Rejection ( Wybrakovka ) by Oleg Divov responded on rise of crime in 1990s by creating the service rejecting millions criminals out of life ; the book raised discussions which hardly subsided now ( inaccurate quote of the main hero, " the world envies Slavian Union, because it's the only country where human rights are really guaranteed — but rights of law-abiding citizens .").

Hero of Sergey Lukyanenko's Spectrum ( 2002 ) prefers not to seek troubles cooperating with FSB, though taking it half-ironically (" Or do you consider that government is able to exist without counterintelligence ?").

Looking broader, society ruled by intelligence services disturbs citizens, but democracy is unable to react on sharp threats, as shown in the duology Soft Landing, Year of the Lemming by Alexander Gromov.

But what about personal freedom?

Here comes a revelation, because it's a function not only of condition of society but of person's will as well.

As a polar case, Pavel Gusev considers himself free in harsh world of Divov's Rejection.

Freedom does not make happier lives of several male refugee's in matriarchal world of Gromov's The First of the Mohicans, but it makes them people ; the male oppositioner finds it possible to fight for this world against alien threat, remembering Helots who became mentally free fighting for Spartians.

Moreover, true democracy may be built only by responsible people able to refresh the tree of liberty with their blood, as Gromov showd in Antarctica-online.

This approaches theme of individualism ; world dying since people's assurance there's definitely someone to care for them is theme of several late stories by Leonid Kaganov.

However this fails to be the essence of modern Russian science fiction, only a slice cut in this plane.