“A means has been discovered for travelling to and from the Moon; it is uninhabited and serves only as a source for supplying Earth with various necessities of life, thereby averting the fatal catastrophe with which Earth was threatened by virtue of its immense human population […] Through the use of diverse chemical compounds found in the ground, a means has been discovered for heating and cooling the atmosphere: ventilators have been devised to avoid high winds”

Vladimir Fedorovich Odoevsky, The Year 4338: Petersburg Letters, 1835

“Imagine now that the energy sent to the Earth by the Sun, which presently scatters off into space, could instead be conducted onto the Earth, thanks to a massive configuration of lightning rod–aerostats, implements that will drive solar light to our planet. Imagine that this solar energy, once directed earthward, might alter the density of its new home, weaken the bonds of its gravity, giving rise in turn to the possibility of manipulating its celestial course through the heavens, rendering the planet Earth, in effect, a great electric boat.”

Nikolai Fedorov, Astronomy and Architecture, 1904/2018

“a museum is not just a cemetery, because it holds not only decayed bodies, but also souls! For the curator of a museum library, the museum is a book depository, while for a reader the museum also becomes a soul depository, for while reading, it is impossible not to envision the author; a reader unwillingly paints in his imagination the author’s portrait, hears his voice, enters his feel ings and thoughts; but he does not do all this on purpose, independent of will, only because he cannot not do it, even though reading is not yet action.”

Nikolai Fedorov, The Museum, Its Meaning and Mission, 1906/2015

“The museum is not an aggregate of objects, but a congregation of persons; its activity consists not in accumulating dead things, but in restoring life to the remains of the dead, in reestablishing the dead through their works, via living agents.”

Nikolai Fedorov, The Museum, Its Meaning and Mission, 1906/2015

“If we compare an archive to a grave, then reading, or more precisely research, will be the path toward exhumation, and an exhibition, as it were, the resurrection.”

Nikolai Fedorov, The Authorial Debt and the Bylaws of the Museum-library, 1995–2005/2015

“The most important thing for us is the immortality of the individual and its life in the cosmos. We made this value our goal, thus formulating our teleological point of view.”

Alexander Svyatogor, Our Affirmations, 1922/2018

“Death diminishes man and debases the human character: fear for one’s life gives rise to cowardice, baseness, falsity, and ugliness. Death is also responsible for the deepening root of social injustice, monstrous private ownership, and the antagonism between individuals, nationalities, and classes. This restriction in time—that is, death—represents the age-old foundation for the spiritual and material decomposition of both the individual and society.”

Alexander Svyatogor, Our Affirmations, 1922/2018

“man has within him an instinct for immortality, at once powerful and unquenchable, and can never, therefore, be reconciled with the order of death. Death is so logically senseless, ethically inadmissible, and aesthetically ugly that the question of immortality inevitably emerges in a person’s consciousness.”

Alexander Svyatogor, Our Affirmations, 1922/2018

“First Theorem: All matter is alive at its core. Second Theorem: No atom in the universe can avoid a complicated life. Third Theorem: A mass of any size can produce spirit. Fourth Theorem: The simplest spirit is an atom. Fifth Theorem: The whole universe contains only spirits—simple and complex ones. Sixth Theorem: An animal is a particular combination of simple spirits.”

Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, Theorems of Life, 1925/2018

“Seventh Theorem: Every animal or complex spirit consists of a multitude of spirits of varying complexity (atoms, molecules, cells, their aggregate, the whole animal). Eighth Theorem: The death of an animal is the destruction or discord of this combination, and the creation of more elemental, or even simpler, spirits that feel independently and in their own way. Ninth Theorem: Inversely, the birth of an animal or a plant is the formation of this combination from elemental spirits.”

Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, Theorems of Life, 1925/2018

“Tenth Theorem: The richness of spirit depends on its mass and organization. 
Eleventh Theorem: The complexity of spirit is, generally, proportional to its mass. Twelfth Theorem: A particle of matter, of any size, feels. Thirteenth Theorem: Chemical, physical, and mechanical phenomena determine the life of a spirit. Fourteenth Theorem: Where there is matter, there is also spirit.”

Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, Theorems of Life, 1925/2018