EN
The present paper is devoted to tracking the ambivalent attitude of Soviet literary critics towards the science fiction and fantasy literature published in one of the republics of the USSR, namely, Latvia. The paper discusses the forewords and epilogues of the science fiction and fantasy books published in Latvian as manifestos of Soviet ideology as far as imagination was concerned and points out the differing attitudes toward both genres. Science fiction was turned into a tool for promoting dialectical materialism and Soviet ideals, whereas fantasy was deliberately silenced as a genre since these principles could not be applied to it. The paper concludes that this fifty-year-long discrimination has left its mark on the present-day situation of Latvian culture and literature.