The story ties in with the Strugatsky's "Noon universe" explored in several other books, such as Beetle in the Anthill [2], which explores the same purported aliens, the Wanderers, which seem to operate invisibly behind the scenes, subtly manipulating humankind. The aliens may or may not be same ones that caused the Zone in their masterpiece Roadside Picnic.
Lem himself said pretty much exactly this, in one of the essays in the collection “The Mask.” Humans in Western SF had distinctly colonial tendencies: they went to space and bent whomever they met to their will.
(Not sure if the collection is translated to English, the eponymous short story is among the stories in the book along with the essays. The book might even have been compiled by an editor for the Russian market.)