Ecocritica e letteratura russa tra cosmismo, fantascienza sovietica e distopie del nuovo millennio: Chlorofilija di Andrej Rubanov
Date Issued
2026
Type
bookPart
Start Page
149
End Page
169
Abstract
This essay examines Khlorofiliya (Chlorophilia) by Andrei Rubanov as an ecocritical dystopia that enters into dialogue with both Soviet science fiction and Cosmist philosophy, while also reflecting on the post-Soviet condition. Set in 22nd-century Moscow, where an invasive psychoactive plant has taken hold of the urban landscape, the novel portrays a post-human society marked by vertically stratification. The analysis traces the novel’s connections with Soviet science fiction (notably Belyaev and Zamyatin) and Russian Cosmism (Fedorov and, Vernadsky), focusing on such concepts as the biosphere, the noosphere, and cosmic resurrection. In Khlorofiliya, Rubanov employs the symbolism of chlorophyll in order to critique ecological crisis, economic dependency, and post-Soviet apathy. The author thus envisages a form of rebirth that unsettles the conventional dichotomies such as natural/artificial, and human/vegetal. The human-to-plant botanical transformation is accordingly interpreted as a paradoxical form of salvation, in which photosynthesis assumes both political and metaphysical significance.
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