The Strugatsky brothers’ Soviet sci-fi classic ‘Hard to Be a God’ took aim at dictatorship. Russia’s new state-backed TV adaptation strips away the politics.

Russia's new state-backed TV adaptation of the classic Soviet sci-fi novel "Hard to Be a God" by the Strugatsky brothers has stripped away its political undertones. The streaming platform Wink is releasing a series based on the novel, but it has significantly altered the story, adding more characters and adventures while removing the themes of utopian progress and science's role in shaping it.

The novel, published in 1964 near the end of the Thaw period in Soviet art, was a critique of dictatorship and totalitarianism from a leftist perspective. In the original, Earth sends observers to gather data on other inhabited planets and support local progressive forces, with the protagonist Don Rumata working undercover to protect philosophers, scientists, and poets targeted by the powerful Don Reba.

However, the new adaptation has eliminated these themes, focusing more on action, adventure, and less on the political commentary. The series' protagonist, Rumata, is now portrayed as a more traditional action hero, busy with court intrigues, rescuing girls, and fleeing from bandits, rather than focusing on helping persecuted intellectuals as in the original.

The adaptation has also replaced Rumata's historical parallel to German National Socialism with a character who is a fervent believer in his destiny to become second only to God. The creators of the series have avoided ideological content, instead opting for clichés like biotech and minimalism, in an attempt to avoid dangerous territory.