Sever Feliksovich Gansovsky (1918–1990) was a prominent Soviet writer of fiction, including science fiction. He wrote some of the best short stories of his generation, several of them collected in English in Macmillan’s Best of Soviet Science Fiction anthologies in the 1980s. He received the Russian Aelita Award in 1989.
During his lifetime, Gansovsky held a number of jobs—sailor, electrician, teacher, postman, and, during World War II, sniper and scout. Severely wounded during the war, Gansovsky was presumed dead, returning home only after his family had already held a funeral for him.
His first published work appeared in 1950, and he graduated from Leningrad State University in 1951 (philology). Soon thereafter, Gansovsky began to win awards for his writing. Because he was also a talented illustrator, his career intersected with that of Arkady and Boris Strugatsky when he created the artwork for their short novel The Snail on the Slope (1972), among others.
There is a fierce intelligence to all of Gansovsky’s fiction, wedded to a spare but effective characterization underpinned by a keen observation of the absurdities and ruthlessness of human nature. Clearly, too, his experiences in World War II influenced his fiction. Stories involving the military reveal a war-weary sensibility, and Gansovsky had a knack for situating interesting characters within the constraints of political and social systems.
Gansovsky was one of the best science fiction writers of his era, easily rivaling his Western counterparts, and his work deserves a revival in the English-language world. Although several stories are worthy of reprinting—including the antiwar story “Testing Grounds”—the classic “Day of Wrath,” with its focus on biotech experimentation and echoes of Dr. Moreau, is showcased here, in a new translation.