The Astronauts

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The Astronauts (Polish: Astronauci) is a 1951 science fiction novel by Polish writer Stanisław Lem. It was Lem's first science fiction novel published as a whole: his earlier science fiction novel The Man from Mars was serialized in a weekly during 1946. To write the novel, Lem received advance payment from publishing house Czytelnik (Warsaw). The book became an instant success and was translated into several languages (first into Czech, in 1956). This success convinced Lem to switch careers and become a science-fiction author. The Astronauts, written for the youth, is set in a Communist utopian future. To get it published under the communist regime in Poland, Lem had to insert frequent references to the ideals of communism. Decades later, Lem declared about The Astronauts: Everything is so smooth and balanced; among the heroes we have a positive Russian character and a sweet Chinese; naiveté is present on all pages of this book. The hope that in the year 2000 the world would be wonderful is indeed very childish.... On November 23, 2011, to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the release of The Astronauts, an elaborate interactive Google Doodle, inspired by the illustrations of Daniel Mróz in The Cyberiad, was presented.