He was translated by more than eighty different people in the Soviet Union, listed in Russian philosophical dictionaries, and Soviet boys were named Stanisław in his honor. Why exactly was Polish science fiction writer Stanisław Lem—the author of Solaris—so well-received in the USSR?

Master writer and acclaimed futurologist Stanisław Lem’s immense influence on Polish—and indeed global—science fiction is still felt today in how we discuss and contemplate the prospects of humankind. Maybe even more so than in the country’s troubled communist past, when his audacious visions served as an exciting glimpse into the multiverse of possible future normalities and, simultaneously, a heart-stopping reminder of what may await beyond our provincial Plato’s cave.