Alisa (Alice) Selezneva or Seleznyova is the main character
of the series of children's science
fiction books by Russian
writer Kir Bulychov.
Alisa Selezneva,
a courageous and curious girl from the future is especially beloved by the
readers; screen versions of some of his gripping fanciful books contributed
much to ‘Alisa’s cult’ among teenagers of the 1980-90s.
The
series, unofficially referred to as "Priklyuchenia Alisy", Russian
for "Alisa's Adventures") was started in 1965 and comprises more than
50 novellas and short stories, of which many were adapted to film, television,
comics and video game.
Alisa franchise is a Russian pop culture
phenomenon with popularity not fading for nearly half a century.
In Alisa's time people learned how to travel in space faster
than light. Robots and aliens are common. Time
travel is possible, but
reserved only for scientific purposes. The society in most of books is shown as
a communist utopia: there's no need for money, environment is strictly
protected and everything is done for the benefit of men (some later books of
the series contradict with this model at least regarding money).
Alisa is a teenage Russian schoolgirl with deep interest in biology
and a number of hobbies (such as violin playing, "bubble racing"
etc.). Her father, Professor Seleznev, is a space biologist and director of
Moscow CosmoZoo. The heroine is a curious fidget, she's interested in any sort
of mystery, either scientistic or detective. In the stories, Alice, her
friends, and occasionally her father, travel in space and time, explore distant
planets, deal with aliens, fight space pirates and make scientistic
discoveries.
The stories are aimed at children and often feature fairy-tale
elements, such as magic and fairies, along with science fiction setting
consisting of aliens, robots and spaceships. Nevertheless, many stories are
based on serious ethic conflicts or have a subtext. Alisa books not only
popularize science for children, but also slightly propagate pacifism,
environmentalism, racial and religious toleracy. Those books that were written
in the late Soviet era also feature some remnants of communist ideology, but
the later books lack them.
Alisa's family is formally modelled after that of the author: he
actually had a daughter named Alisa, and the heroine's parents are named after
real names of Bulychov himself (Igor
Vsevolodovich Mozheyko)
and his wife (Kira Soshinskaya; the respective character,
though mostly absent in stories, also has the same profession – architect),
however according to the author the main character shares only the name of his
daughter but not her looks at similar age or her temper:
"Why have you decided that my Alisa Seleznyova is connected
with my daughter Alisa? They are not even similar. [My] Alisa haven't even read
all books "about herself", she prefers higher class of
literature."
The most familiar illustrations in the books of the series were
made by graphic artist Yevgeni Migunov (however many of the earlier
illustrations are by Bulychev's wife).
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