Designed to fly. Our good old science fiction.

Science fiction, like any creative phenomenon, cannot stand still; it exists precisely to peer beyond the visible horizon and foresee the future of humanity and the planet. Although there have been times in our history when zealous literary guardians tried to hobble it and tie it to the ground. For this volume of "good old science fiction," we have sought to select, in our opinion, the best examples of the genre, created between the 1970s and mid-1980s. It's worth noting that this period was not exactly easy for Russian science fiction—while heads weren't rolling, the screws were tightened in earnest. The story of the Strugatsky brothers and the Molodaya Gvardiya publishing house is proof of this. The "old hands"—G. Gurevich, A. Shalimov, S. Snegov, Z. Yuryev, and V. Savchenko—were also productive. New names have emerged: L. Panasenko, S. Drugal, V. Nazarov, A. Yakubovsky, P. Amnuel, B. Stern, V. Golovachev, B. Rudenko. These "newcomers" haven't replaced or displaced the proven masters; they've complemented and enriched our science fiction, just as one enriches the soil for the future harvest.
We called this volume "Created to Fly," after the title of a short story by D. Bilenkin included in the collection. The title is symbolic, and not because it paraphrases a famous quote from Gorky. Whatever one may say, science fiction is the literature of dreams; man has dreamed of the sky and the stars since birth. And it was science fiction that first led him to the stars.