4338-i god: Peterburgskie pis’ma [The Year 4338: Letters from Petersburg] is a futuristic fragment, set in the year 4338 (one year before Biela’s comet was to collide with the Earth, as computed in the 1820s – although the comet in fact burned up later in the nineteenth century). It was originally conceived as the final part of a trilogy likely to have had the overall title of “Letters from Petersburg”, which was to feature depictions of Russia in Peter the Great’s day, in contemporary times (the 1830s), and in the distant 44th century. The first part was never written and parts two and three remain unfinished; fragments were published in 1835 and 1840, and the fullest version, of just the utopian part, came out in book form in 1926. The world described in The Year 4338 presents many...
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Citation: Sucur, Slobodan. "4338-i god: Peterburgskie pis'ma". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 24 May 2005; last revised 13 July 2025. [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=16249, accessed 06 December 2025.]
