"Aelita"-98

The annual "Aelita" festival took place in Ekaterinbourg betwwen 25 and 29 March 1998. That was the *fifteenth* annual festival dedicated to the Aelita award celebration.

The "Aelita" festival was founded in 1981 by the SF magazine called The Urals Scout mostly thanks to the editor of the SF department of the magazine Vitaly Bugrov. The award is given for the best Russian SF novel published within two years prior the festival. But beginning with the very first years the rule was broken and award was given with for life archivement, reprinted books or magazine publications. Among the the most outstanding authors who got the Aeltia award were Arcady and Boris Strogatsky, Vladiaslav Krapivin, Sergey Snegov, Sergey Pavlov, Olga Larionova, Oleg Korabelnikov, Vasily Zviagintsev, Kir Bulytchev and others.

Aelita didn`t take place in 1995 and 1996 - the fans weren`t able to find sponsors for the celebration. In 1997 the festival was reborn thanks to the Book Club Assosiation.

The award itself is a work of art created by the sculptor Victor Salvin (that might be not the right spelling of the sculptor`s surname as it was transcripted from a not very clear tape recording). Victor creates this prise for every festival all new. However, the conception of the prise design is kept the same: It consists of several stones that are mined in the Ural region and the metals that are prudused over there as well. The Aelita prise always was the most prestigeous prise in the USSR. And it keeps the same status even nowdays.

“Aelita” was the only SF con in the former Soviet Union. Now there are a few other cons in Russia. Aelita-1998was given to Eugeny Guliakovsky (at the photo to the left), who founded SF action genre in Russia. In 1973 when he published the novel called The Season of Mists in The Urals Scout brought him instant fame.

Besides the title award there are also other awards given at the con. Start - for the best debut novel was given to 28 years old Mikhail Tyryn (at the photo to the right) for The Shadow of the Mentor. The Memorial prize of Ivan Efremov for "propaganda" of SF was given to the director of the Moscow book shop Stozhary Alexander Ęŕshiryn. The shop is mostly selling general books but inside there is a large segment of the room that is given to the SF cafe and here a fan can not only buy a SF books but also get a cup of tea or coffe and read a zine for free. A SF fan club of the same title is located in the shop. A few meetings with famous writers were arranged in that club, for instance Harry Harrison was one of the latest gueststhere. The Memorial prize of Vitaly Bugrov for scientific research in SF literature was given to Sergey Kazantsev, the editor of the SF department of The Urals Scout who replaced Vitaly Bugrov.

At the picture above: V. Bugrov Memorial prize, "Aelita-98", I. Efremov Memorial prize, the Start prize.

Then there were seminars, games, and just fan discussions. At the photo to the right: the roleplaying games seminar. To the left: con sale.

It was a great con.

Vladislav Krapivin arrived at the con to greet his fans. This author is mostly famous for his absolutely brilliant non-sf books for the young gemeration. His books are mostly adventures but they are deep and always solve a moral dilemma even though the books are written for the kids and with youngsters as main characters. Overage Krapivin`s reader is about 13 years old. The youngsters have always been gathering around their favourite writer at any con. He also was the creator and leader of the children`s club called Karavella now his son`s wife is continuing to work with the young generation at the club. It was funny and sad to see that Krapivin got all the fans` attention this time as well, leaving the main hero of the evening Eugeny Guliakovsky alone with his prize. Guliakovsky was shy and *I thinks* a little bit disappointed by the absence of fan attention - everyone were avidly interviewing Vladislav Krapivin and recording it on multiple video or taperecorders and taking pictures. Vladislav Petrovitch seems to love his fans too. He is still answering to his own mail. He is a very generous and lovely man to communicate with. It was pleasure to see and hear him. There is the story: one of the fans, first time in Ekateringourg, didn`t know were to go and knew nobody in the town, except... he knew that Krapivin is living there. He found his home address in the Q&A town system and came to the writer to ask him where Aelita was taking place. Anyway, Krapivin took a pen and drew a plan how to get to the con. *That* memorabilia is even better than an ordinary autograph.

At the pictures: left - Vladislav Krapivin; right - at the press conference (Alexander Kashiryn to the left and Eugeny Guliakovsky to the right).

report completed by N. Markalova