"Arcady And Boris Strugatsky. Prisoners of Power" - читать интересную книгу автора

realized two things: that all this time the natives must have considered him
insane and therefore had deliberately selected his mentograms for the Magic
JourneyMagic Journey; and that, for the time being, he had better keep his
mouth shut about coming from another planet - unless he wanted to be
returned to Hippo. This meant that he could expect no help from the
inhabited island, that he must depend only on himself, that the construction
of a coil transmitter must be postponed indefinitely, and that he was
stranded for a long time to come, perhaps, massaraksh, forever.
The hopelessness of his situation was demoralizing, but he got a grip
on himself and forced himself to think rationally. His mother would face a
painful period. It would be terribly difficult for her, and this thought
alone smothered any desire to think rationally. "Damn this place, this dull,
claustrophobic world! OK, now, Mac, you have a choice: dwell on the
impossible and bite your nails, or pull yourself together and live. Live as
you've always wanted to live. Love your friends, work toward a goal, fight,
win, take it and dish it out. Anything, but stop moping around." He dropped
the conversation with Guy about the structure of the universe and took an
entirely new tack: he began to quiz Guy about the inhabited island's history
and social system.
Their discussion of history was not particularly productive. Guy's
knowledge was scanty, and he didn't own any serious books on the subject.
Nor did the city library. But Maxim managed to extract a few facts. He
learned that the country now sheltering him had been significantly larger at
one time and had possessed numerous overseas colonies and that these
colonies had been the cause of a highly destructive war with neighboring
states whose names were already forgotten. The war had enveloped the entire
World; millions upon millions had perished; thousands of cities had been
destroyed; dozens of large and small nations had been wiped off the face of
the planet; and chaos had reigned throughout the World. Famine and epidemics
followed. Popular uprisings were suppressed with nuclear weapons. This
country - along with the rest of the world - had been headed for total
destruction until the All-Powerful Creators had come to the rescue. The
facts suggested that an anonymous group of young staff officers with two
divisions at their command, unhappy about being sent to the slaughter in an
atomic mincing machine, organized a coup and seized power. Since then the
situation had stabilized considerably, and the war seemed to have petered
out, although a formal peace treaty had never been concluded.
Maxim realized that the country's political system was far from ideal.
But it was clear that the All-Powerful Creators were extremely popular, and
among all classes of society. Maxim could not understand the economic
reasons for this popularity, but apparently it was related to their tactics:
the military clique curbed the appetites of the industrialists, thereby
gaining favor with the workers. And by subjugating the workers, they gained
favor with the industrialists. But this was only guesswork on his part. Guy
was surprised when Maxim presented the problem from this point of view,
because the concept of class meant absolutely nothing to him, nor could he
imagine contradictions between social groups.
The country's foreign relations were still extremely tense. Two large
independent nations, Khonti and Pandeya, were located to the north. Although
no one knew anything about their domestic affairs, it was common knowledge