Science fiction writer Sergei Chekmaev: “Many will not live to see the war over a can of stew”

There has recently been a frightening evolution in the perception of atomic weapons, says the famous science fiction writer Sergei Chekmaev. The author, in whose books the characters live in conditions of a nuclear nightmare that has already happened, was asked by an MK correspondent about what will happen to people and humanity if the apocalypse becomes a reality. Spoiler: everything will be fine, but only because everyone understands the inviolability of the doctrine of “mutually assured destruction.”

– Since the time of the incinerating explosions of “Baby” and “Fat Man”, have people become more afraid of the atomic bomb? Or, on the contrary, did some kind of “addiction” occur?

– There are many examples in history when good money was made from the fear and morbid interest of society in the atom. For example, in the 50s, “nuclear tourism” was popular in the United States, when hotel owners in Las Vegas rented out rooms facing the Nevada Test Site at exorbitant prices for extravagant guests who came to see the atomic mushrooms. Retail chains quietly sold a children’s construction set U-238 Atomic Energy Lab with samples of uranium ore and radioactive isotopes. And the now popular polonium – including. The BBC acted out a nuclear war scenario on a TV show. The theme has been used more than once in operas and musicals, but I’m generally silent about computer games: Fallout has become a cult classic.

– Has this cohabitation with a nightmare made the “nuclear baton” less frightening?

– It’s time to honestly admit: the focus of society’s attention has shifted, people are interested in completely different problems. After all, how was it? In the 60-70s, bright, spectacular, sometimes shocking science fiction films and books warning about the consequences of the atomic meat grinder initiated a massive anti-war movement on both sides of the ocean. Well, in fact, who seriously listened to the calculations of scientists about nuclear winter? But the images from the media worked perfectly. And – in the end – indirectly led to detente. Then the world situation changed, the specter of total destruction went away along with the Cold War. Post-apocalyptic films are now more frightening with natural disasters, epidemics or zombie invasions. But if the number of warnings has decreased, their degree has decreased, then there is less fear. Military and political “experts” started talking with all their might about some kind of local use of special ammunition. It’s as if nuclear war can be turned on and off like a light bulb! Perhaps the time has come to recall the global and irreparable result of the nuclear bacchanalia.

– You described in detail in your books what will happen if real buttons are pressed and the rockets fly? In six months, will we be wandering through the ruins of “The Terminator” and killing for a can of stew?

– No nuclear war is needed to destroy modern civilization: our world is comfortable, familiar and very fragile. The series of “color revolutions” of the 2000-2010s, the migration crisis and the COVID pandemic live showed how quickly the highly complex and extremely vulnerable mechanism of social well-being in the metropolis “breaks down”. For many of us, the end of the world comes when the electricity and Internet go out for a couple of hours. Imagine that the pumping stations have stopped: the water has disappeared from the taps, the sewage system is not working. The supply of food to supermarkets has stopped, there is no fuel at gas stations, the streets are littered with mountains of garbage, as recently in France, and ambulances and fire trucks cannot reach calls because of the barricades.

No Bomb with a capital B is needed to plunge a city, region, or even an entire country into chaos. An ordinary city dweller, alas, will be completely helpless in such a situation. Except perhaps for a handful of survivalists and lovers of hunting and fishing. And people of the older generation who still remember youthful camping trips and storing candles and dry alcohol at their dacha. The rest will not even be able to light a fire, because experience in survival games does not at all replace real training.

– It turns out that the retired pioneers will survive? Not a good prospect, to be honest.

– Yes, as sad as it is to realize, many simply will not live to see the war over a can of stew, even if they manage to sit out the nuclear attack itself in shelters.

But in my books, the heroes still try not just to survive, but also to give people a chance for rebirth. In the novel “The Promised Ashes,” the stalker Adrenaline protects a girl with unique abilities (although almost everyone he meets is hunting for her). The events of the book “The Brand of the Zone” from the STALKER universe develop around a group of rescuers who went in search of the legendary Mut – a man who knows the way to the Fourth Power Unit and is able to stop the expansion of the Zone. And in the large project “Metronomicon,” my colleagues and I described an entire country, or whatever, a world that was able to cope with a total wave of destruction. Even if not nuclear.

– Science fiction writers – since the prophecies and foresights of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells were so “shot” – are now considered almost prophets. Therefore, I ask you – tomorrow, in ten years, in the 21st century, will there be a “big bada boom”?

– I hope that it won’t happen. Single actions by “nuclear dwarfs”, the use of “dirty” bombs, probably attempts at nuclear terrorism, but nothing more. Let us not forget that the fear of a general apocalypse kept peace on Earth for almost fifty years. On Earth, which was simply bursting at the seams with contradictions, regularly slipped into minor conflicts and colonial wars, but still did not cross the line of the Big, Last War. As cynical as it sounds, the notorious MAD doctrine (Mutually Assured Destruction) turned out to be the best peacemaker in the history of mankind. The main thing is to remind all people on the planet – both ordinary people and those in power – of the consequences more often.