branch of the Russian police force. It was given to him by his father. Ra is an allusion to the Egyptian Sun god, whose body is human and whose head is that of a falcon. Omon bestowed this surname upon himself, inspired by the fact that the word falcon was sometimes applied to cosmonauts and heroes. Ra is connected with the Egyptian myth of the sun orbiting the earth, which connects to Omon's obsession with spaceflight. Later, Ra becomes his call sign for the lunar mission. Together these names relate to Omon's dream of flight and the absurd military system he must go through to achieve it. Major characters Omon Ra (Omon Krivomazov) Raised by the Soviet apparatus due to his apathetic aunt and absent father, Omon dreams of becoming a cosmonaut. He enters the Soviet space program and is selected for a special program. In the novel, Pelevin gives sacred significance in the eyes of the philistines of the time being described to the personalities of the era who are the reference points, these are: Alexei Maresiev, Alexander Matrosov, and the literary character Pavel Korchagin. With these people in one way or another associate themselves with the flight school cadets, teachers, the leadership of the special mission and its participants. At the same time, the main character, Omon Krivomazov, in contrast to everything else around him, associates himself with the Egyptian sun god Ra. Throughout the story, the hero unconsciously searches for the divine beginning, the soul, which is marked by a reference to Dostoyevsky's novel in his surname. It is this beginning, and by no means the heroic one, that turns out to be the main one, and ultimately helps Omon to escape from the space of "doom for the feat". Pelevin characterizes the hero's inner world with signs - details: there is the invariable "soup with macaroni stars", burlesquely indicating the desire for heights, and the plasticine cosmonaut from the plywood rocket in the canteen - a simulacrum of the space feat. Mitiok Omon's friend, who also dreams of going into space. He was executed after the "reincarnational test" which revealed that he had been a Nazi officer in his previous life. Colonel Urchagin Blind and paralyzed graduate of the military political academy named after Pavel Korchagin, the protagonist of the novel How the Steel was Tempered (his injury is the reference to the author of the