First Soviet Sci-Fi Author Vivian Itin Executed for Espionage

Many consider the first science fiction novels in the USSR to be Alexei Tolstoy’s Aelita (1923), Vladimir Obruchev’s The Land of Sannikov (1924), and Alexander Belyaev’s Professor Dowell’s Head (1925). But few know that even before them, a writer from Ufa presented the world with The Land of Gonguri, which did not gain great fame but was noted by contemporaries, including Maxim Gorky himself.

In The Land of Gonguri, the author created his own version of a utopia, and made the main character a revolutionary who, finding himself in captivity, discovered the gift of time travel and saw what the world was like and what it could become. Awaiting execution, he learns more and more, but comes to disappointing conclusions about humanity. The author’s fate was no less sad. Why he was shot and the book almost faded into oblivion is in the article by UFA1.RU.

The Land of Gonguri was written by Vivian Itin, born in 1894 into the family of a lawyer famous at the time in Ufa. At various times, his father Azary Itin was a member of the City Duma, chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Commercial College, and a member of the audit commission of the local branch of the Red Cross Society.

His son was also destined for a great future. After finishing school, Vivian moved to Saint Petersburg for higher education, but his main pursuit became writing poetry. There he met the poetess and one of the heroines of the 1917 Revolution, Larisa Reisner.

Reisner passed Itin’s story “The Discovery of Riel” to the then already influential writer Maxim Gorky. Itin later reworked this story into the novella The Land of Gonguri. The work appealed to the famous writer, but it was never published: the magazine Gorky worked for closed, and the manuscript was lost.

Itin had to part with Larisa Reisner because the People’s Commissariat where he was registered was relocated to Moscow. Vivian had to travel extensively across the country and fight as part of partisan units. When he found himself in Kansk, Krasnoyarsk Krai, where he worked as an editor for a local newspaper, he was sent a copy of the manuscript of that very “Discovery of Riel.”

Itin reworked and expanded the story, publishing it in a small print run—only about 800 copies. The author sent one copy to Gorky, but he felt the original version was more interesting—he chided Vivian for the final version but noted that he had obvious talent and ability.

Subsequently, The Land of Gonguri was reprinted several times. Itin also wrote the poetry collection The Sun of the Heart, the anti-war story Urambo, and a story about aviators, Kaan-Kerede.

The writer was one of those who publicly condemned the execution of the poet Nikolai Gumilev, calling what happened a profound tragedy for the entire country.

In 1938, Vivian himself was arrested. He was then working as an editor for a journal in Novosibirsk, which at the time was still called Novo-Nikolaevsk. Incidentally, the modern name of the city, according to one version, was proposed by Itin himself. The charge was very serious—espionage for Japan.

Itin was sentenced to death and shot. Only 18 years later was the writer rehabilitated “for lack of evidence of a crime.” His burial place remains unknown.

Another sad fact: Gonguri is the name of one of the heroines of the novel. One of the writer’s daughters was named after her, but she died shortly after birth. Later, he had a son named Sun. He also died in infancy.

In addition, Itin had two daughters: Larisa from his first marriage and Natalia from his second. Both lived and were buried in Novosibirsk.