The Lost War

About the Book

The novelette «The Lost War» belongs to the genre of anti-Utopia.

Russian writer Yevgeny Zamyatin and English writer George Orwell exemplified this controversial genre. As opposed to Utopists, who attempt to create and depict an ideal human society of the future, the anti-Utopists picture the future in extremely dark colors. A further distinction between Utopists and anti-Utopists is their interpretation of the relationship between the present and the future. While Utopists focus on the future, where humans have overcome all shortcomings of the present, anti-Utopists are quite concerned with the present and project its problems into the future using dark and grotesque stylistic methods.

Unfortunately, the pessimistic predictions of anti-Utopists are realized more frequently than the rosy fantasies of Utopists. Grotesque pictures of the totalitarian regime created by Zamyatin and Orwell, for example, became a gruesome reality in the Soviet Union, China, North Korea, Cambodia, and Iraq. 

This novelette first appeared in 2003 in Russian science fiction magazine «Polden – XXI Vek» published by world-famous writer Boris Strugatsky. It was published in Russian under the title «The Long Unhappy Life of Bill Stressner.»

«The Lost War» serves as an alert, an urgent warning to all of us who live today about the future that awaits our descendants if we fail to stop the horrors of terrorism and the ideology of obscurantism. 

About the Author

Dr. Yuri Okunev is a scientist in the field of communication technology. He is regarded as one of the pioneers of the Information Century, and his scientific school found a wide application throughout the world, including such countries as Russia, USA, and Israel.

After graduation from the St.Petersburg State University of Telecommunications, Russia, Okunev organized a scientific laboratory, which soon became a leading research center of a worldwide scale. The laboratory pioneered in wireless technology and received a worldwide recognition for innovations in the field of phase-difference modulation techniques. In Russia, Okunev published 14 scientific monographs and manuals.

In 1993 Yuri Okunev moved to the United States and since then has been working in the American telecommunications industry. Working for leading research centers, such as Bell Labs of Lucent Technologies, PCTel, Symbol Technologies/Motorola, he participated in the development of advanced wireless systems and technologies. In the USA, Okunev has published 25 patents and a new scientific monograph Phase and Phase-Difference Modulation in Digital Communications.

In 2007 Dr. Okunev received a prestigious IEEE Charles Hirsch Award for «outstanding contribution to the phase modulation theory and wireless system design».

Dr. Okunev’s creativity, however, reaches beyond his professional accomplishments. An outstanding philosopher-humanist, Okunev has authored deeply thoughtful books and essays of socio-philosophical nature. As anyone who has read his books can attest, Okunev is a profound thinker and a masterful writer. His books Letters to Loved Ones from the XX Century, The Axis of World History, The Incurable Leftist Disease in Modern Liberalism, and The Lost War are important contributions to treasury of the world socio-philosophical literature.

In 2008 The Axis of World History by Yuri Okunev was recognized by USA Book News as an «Award-Winning Finalist in the World History category of the National Best Books 2008 Awards».