Monday Begins on Saturday

Monday Begins on Saturday (Russian: Понедельник начинается в субботу) is a 1965 science fiction / science fantasy novel by Boris and Arkady Strugatsky with illustrations by Yevgeniy Migunov. Set in a fictional town in northern Russia, where highly classified research in magic occurs, the novel is a satire of Soviet scientific research institutes, complete with an inept administration, a dishonest, show-horse professor, and numerous equipment failures. It offers an idealistic view of the scientific work ethic, as reflected in the title which suggests that the scientists' weekends are nonexistent.

The "Scientific Research Institute of Sorcery and Wizardry," located in the fictional Northern Russian town of Solovets, is portrayed as a place where everyone must work hard willingly, or else their loss of honesty is symbolized by hair growing from their ears. These hairy-eared people are viewed with disdain, but, in a turn symbolic of Soviet times, many of them stay in the institute because it provides them with a comfortable living no matter what.

Tale of the Troika, which describes Soviet bureaucracy at its worst, is a sequel, featuring many of the same characters.

The novel is written from the point of view of Aleksandr Ivanovich Privalov (usually called Sasha), a young programmer from Leningrad, who picks up two hitchhikers during a road trip north through Karelia. After the two find out that he is a programmer, they convince him to stay in Solovets and work together with them in the Scientific Research Institute of Sorcery and Wizardry (abbreviated NIIChaVo in Russian, which sounds very close to "Ничего", the word for "nothing").

The book contains a large number of references to well-known Russian fairy tales and children's stories: Baba Yaga makes an appearance as does Zmey Gorynych and the Learned Cat from Pushkin's "Ruslan and Lyudmila," who turns out to be a slightly demented bard. Some figures from mythology also appear, such as genies and Cain. The authors portray these persons and concepts (such as magic) either as objects of scientific inquiry or members of the Institute. Merlin, for example, is described as an incompetent boaster and is in charge of the Institute's Department of Predictions. The Technical Helpdesk is headed by one Sabaoth Baalovich Odin, also described as the most powerful wizard in the universe, while the vivarium is staffed by Alfred, a vampire.

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