Around the break of the millennium
popadanstvo gained an immense popularity in
Russian science fiction and fantasy. Responding to the demand, the supply of the novels of this type skyrocketed, with an inevitable drop of the overall quality and degeneration of the inventiveness of the writers into a series of clichés. A significant number of
popadanstvo occur at a key moment in the Russian past. Armed with modern knowledge, they turn the tide to the glory of the Motherland, i.e., a
popadanets becomes a
progressor, creating an alternative history. It was suggested that this phenomenon of Russian science fiction is characterized by two motivations: "
Mary Sue"-type drive to self-fulfillment and patriotic nostalgy over the times of
Soviet superpower (
Communist nostalgia). Russian political scientist
Boris Vishnevskiy considers the phenomenon of
popadanstvo to be the manifestation of post-Soviet Russian
revanchism, which, he thinks, has become the cornerstone of Russian politics under
Vladimir Putin. In 2024
Eliot Borenstein, published a book
Unstuck in Time: On the Post-Soviet Uncanny about
Soviet nostalgia in Russian literary fiction. Chapters 1 and 2 are devoted to
popadantsy who want to change the future. He calls these "Time Crashers". (
Cornell University Press offers a free e-book online). A typical Russian popadanets is one of the three types: an
everyman, a commando, or a
reenactor, with all undergoing a social lift after travel. In 2016
Sergey Lukyanenko wrote a parody short story,
Vitya Solnyshkin and Iosif Stalin .
Young pioneer Vitya chances to meet
Joseph Stalin and explains that he is in fact from the future. Stalin is not at all surprised: for years now time travelers swarm to advise Stalin, but comrade Stalin does not rush to follow their advice: he is quite sure that
Adolf Hitler and
Franklin Roosevelt have similar "advisors" as well, and with all these conflicting advices, the history stays in old tracks. A considerable subgenre of
popadantsy was spawned by the
MMORPG EVE Online, about persons who find themselves in the interstellar world of EVE Online, often captured by
space pirates-
slave traders. Most of the stories of this kind are of low literary quality, not to say that the idea of "accidental travel" does not fit well into the philosophy of
EVE Online. Still, some people may find these stories quite entertaining.
In film Russian films about
popadantsy include
Black Hunters (the original Russian title translates as "We are From the Future") (2008) and (2010) about
treasure hunters called "black diggers" in Russian, who find themselves in the 1942 of the
World War II Eastern Front, , Russian TV film about three Russian soldiers,
popadantsy into the 1941 of the Eastern Front, about
popadantsy into the
Nevsky Pyatachok frontline during the
Siege of Leningrad and
Mirror for a Hero, a combination of
popadnstvo with "
time loop" in late 1940s. ==See also==