Title: The New Soviet Man

Author: G.D. Falksen

Date of First Publication: 2016

Place of Publication: Eternal Frankenstein

Type: Short Story

Characters: No Character

Themes: ANDROID; MAD SCIENTIST/MONSTER; POSTHUMAN; RACE/POLITICS

Critical Summary: This short story begins with Captain Sergeyev visiting a town called Karmolinsk in Russia. He brought Kirilov along with him, and they were sent to go check on Zapadov, known as the hero of Moscow and Kursk, and a scientist who transformed Karmolinsk into his own private area. Zapadov is quite nervous when Captain Sergeyev and Kirilov want to examine Karmolinsk—yet they, in a sense, force him to show them around the area, and demand to be shown every aspect of Karmolinsk. This is when they discover that Zapadov has been murdering prisoners, then bringing them back to life with using different parts of the body, such as brain, heart, lungs, arms, etc. After they make this horrible observation, Zapadov and his assistant, a young woman in her early twenties, Raskova, get a hold of Sergeyev and Kirilov, killing them both…then bringing both come back to life with a completely different mentality. They leave Karmolinsk under Zapadov’s orders and agree to make the report to the officials as he wishes. They even agree that maybe they should visit again for their health.

In terms of themes, Victor Frankenstein and Zapadov are both obviously mad. They are both passionate and stubborn when it comes to their work as well. However, Victor creates the monster, whereas Zapadov is the actual monster—since he is killing prisoners and turning them into his scientific experiments. Another theme was the Posthuman and Last Man as what happen in in Karmolinsk is a forced evolution. In the short story, politics is also present. Zapadov uses his science in order to switch people’s beliefs completely. One Nazi, after Zapadov gets a hold of him, is turned into a socialist. Zapadov is using his “power” as a scientist to transform a human’s political views.

Administrative Notes:  Gabriela Yanez, CSUF; Autumn Nevarez (editing)