What is justice? The answers of utopia, tragedy, and dystopia -- Nineteenth-century precursors of the dystopian vision -- The dictator behind the mask : Zamiatin's We, Huxley's Brave new world, and Orwell's Ninteenth eighty-four -- Dictatorship without a mask : Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, Vonnegut's Player piano, and Atwood's The handmaid's tale -- The writer on trial: socialist realism and the exile of speculative fiction -- The dystopia of revolutionary justice : Serge's Conquered city, Zazubrin's "The chip," and Rodionov's Chocolate -- The legalization of terror: Platonov's The foundation pit, Ribakov's Children of the Arbat, and Koestler's Darkness at noon -- Terror in war, terror in peace: Grossman's Life and fate, Tertz Sinyavski's The trial begins, and Daniel's This is Moscow speaking -- Collective paranoia: the persecutor and the persecuted: Andzrejewski, Déry, Fuks, Hlasko, Örkény, Vaculik, and Mrozek -- Kafka's ghost: The trial as theatre: Klima's The castle, Karvas's The big wig, and Havel''s Memorandum -- From terror to entropy : the downward spiral: Konwicki's A minor apocalypse, Déry's Mr G.A. in X and Zinoviev's The radiant future -- Speculative fiction returns from exile : Dystopian vision with a sneer: Voinovich's Moscow 2042, Aksyonov's The island of Crimea, Dalos's 1985, and Moldova's Hitler in Hungary -- Dystopia East and West: conclusion
