Kassil, "Konduit and Shvambrania": summary and main characters

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

As Lev Kassil recalls, this story began on the day when he and his brother Oska were serving their sentence in the corner for the lost chess queen. The figurines of the set were made to order for my father, and he treasured them very much.

Country opened in pantry

In the dark corner of the pantry, the brothers felt like they were in prison.

–Let's run away! - the younger brother Oska said hopefully. – Let's start!

But Lelka's older brother suddenly had a bright thought.– We won't run away! he said. Let's invent a new game! It will be the land we have discovered: palaces, mountains, palm trees, the sea. There will be our own state that adults will not know about.

The new land required a beautiful name. Lelka and Osya named the promised land Shvambrania, by association with Schwab's book "Greek Myths". The letter "M" was added for euphony.

Conduit and Shvambrania. Book Summary

Shvambranyucaptured on a homemade map by Oska himself. It was shaped like a human tooth, which the young artist copied from an advertisement for a dentist.

The tooth symbolized the wise policy of the new state. Shvambrania was a mainland surrounded by "akian", waves and "sea". On the mainland there were cities, bays and mountains. Some words are misspelled, which was justified by the youth of the cartographer. There was also a blot, under it it was honestly written: “The island does not count, this blot is accidental.”

At the bottom of the map was the island of Piligvinia, with its capital Abroad. For convenience, two inscriptions were inscribed on the "sea" for the pilots of passing ships: "so with the flow" - "and so against". The map was striking in its symmetry. This was due to the craving for justice, which the creators of the country dreamed of.

On the left is "morye" - on the right is "morye", here is Argonsk, and there is Drandzonsk. You have a rupee, and I have 100 kopecks. It's called justice!

The author goes on to say that Shvambrania waged wars. The enemies were called Caldonians and Balvonians.

The war began like this: from the front door to the king (Lelka) a postman (Oska) appeared and handed the king a letter with a challenge from enemies. Enemies lived on the other side of the "fences" depicted on the map in semicircles. Battles took place on a rectangle marked with the word "war". On both sides of the "war" there were "captives" where the captured soldiers were placed.

Breshka and Jack, sailors' companion

In parallel with the Shvambran battle, Russia also entered the First World War. Swambrania always came outthe winner of the battles, like tsarist Russia, in school textbooks.

In Shvambrania, Oska and Lelka lived in Drandzonsk, on the top floor of a thousand-story building. And in their hometown of Pokrovsk, under the windows, there was a street called Breshka among the people.

Guys and girls from nearby farms walked along it in the evenings. The street was strewn with husks of sunflower seeds. Fragments of “refined” conversations could be heard from the street:

– Let me cling to you, young lady! How are you called? Masha, what's Katyusha?– Don't bother… He's very smart! - the rural beauty answered exquisitely, spitting out the husks from the seeds. – By the way, high toby greet – chippy!

… A lot of cargo steamers sailed along the Volga, which could not but affect Shvambrania. There, too, appeared a hero known as Jack, the companion of the sailors. This happened in connection with a booklet purchased on the market. It was an international sailor's dictionary.

As a polyglot, Jack spoke fluently, “Ken ai help yu?! Donner wind, guten morgen, hello man overboard, mama mia, how much will you charge to save the ship?

In this he differed from the inhabitants of Breshka, spitting husks on the street, and could serve as a model of culture for conscious Schwambrans.

First and third class cabins

A lot of funny moments are described by Lev Kassil in the book “Konduit and Shvambrania”. The summary does not allow you to fully immerse yourself in the life of little heroes, which sometimes resembled a ship.

Passenger cabins were conditionally divided into categories of the first andthird class. The first-class cabins were the living room, father's study and dining room. Third class cabins - cook room and kitchen.

From the window of the kitchen, a view of another world opened up. In this world lived those whom adults called inappropriate acquaintances. Among them were: beggars, loaders, chimney sweeps, janitors, mechanics and firefighters. Maybe they were not bad people, but our heroes were convinced by adults that they were full of germs.

Naive Oska once asked a question to Levontiy Abramkin, the foreman:

– Is it true that scarlet fever crawls over you?– What are scarlet fevers? – offended Levontiy. - Ordinary lice. And scarlatinas - I can’t remember such animals when I was born …

Oska liked to pull the fish out of the aquarium, and then arrange their funeral in matchboxes. Once he brushed the cat's teeth, and she scratched him.

Once Oska met a priest, whom he thought was a girl, and the priest entered into a religious conversation with him.

Oska was a great confusion and constantly confused: cannibals with the Balkans; St. Bernard with artist Sarah Bernard, monsters with an erupting volcano.

Trips to the people

The father of the Shvambrans worked as a doctor. Sometimes, out of democratic motives, he ordered a cart with a horse, put on a shirt-shirt, and sat on the box as a coachman. If familiar ladies walked ahead, dad asked Lelka to ask them to give way. Lelka came up and said embarrassedly: “Aunts, that is, madams … dad asks you to move a little bit. And then we accidentallypress down.”

"This" ride to the people "ended with the fact that dad once knocked us all into a ditch. Since then, the trips have stopped" (Lev Kassil, "Konduit and Shvambrania").

Russian Cinderella

One day, the people of Shvambran realized that something was wrong in life. Adults were the main ones on this earth, but not all. And only those who were wearing expensive fur coats and uniform caps. The rest were placed in the category of unsuitable acquaintances and worked from dawn to dusk. The world is ruled by injustice. This is the main idea of the book "Konduit and Shvambrania", a summary of which will tell about the main positive and negative characters.

Cousin Mitya, expelled from the gymnasium, came to visit the Shvambrans. Mitya did not like officials and offered to annoy the zemstvo.

There was a masquerade ball, and the pretty maid Marfusha was prepared to play the role of a disturber of the Zemstvo peace of mind. For her, they made a suit in the form of an envelope. Postage stamps that Marfusha collected for many years went to him.

At the ball, Marfusha conquered everyone with her beauty and received a prize: a gold watch. The zemstvo chief fell in love with a charmer, but he was informed that Marfusha was a simple maid. Zemsky was put to shame.

To his porch at night, Mitya screwed a huge galosh with a note: “Whoever hits the galosh on the leg will be the wife of the zemstvo.”Everything is like in the story about Cinderella…

Sizari and Conduit

Lelka was admitted to the gymnasium. Gymnasium students were called sizars because of the color of their overcoats. Sisari were freebirds and did not want to obey orders. On the very first day, Lelka, who went to a cafe with his mother, ended up in Conduit (or Pigeon Book). That was the name of the magazine, where the director of the gymnasium, nicknamed the Fish Eye, entered the pen alty box. The cafe was considered a place of entertainment, and high school students were not allowed to visit such places.

The overseer of the gymnasium, nicknamed Tsap-Tsarapych, also made notes in the conduit. Getting into the magazine was easy; for the unbuttoned overcoat and the appearance in the city after seven in the evening; for visiting the cinema or wearing an embroidered shirt.

The gymnasium was fun. Sisari, mostly children of farmers, fought, smoked in the toilet and played dirty tricks on teachers. They came up with cunning devices for transferring cribs from neighboring classes. Young hooligans mooed, burned phosphorus for the stink - all in order to disrupt the lesson.

The only thing that the high school students liked was the tongue-tied Inspector Romashov, who brought up the Sisars with tedious suggestions. After his lectures, many lost their desire to act as hooligans, recalls the author of the work "Konduit and Shvambrania".

The heroes of the book went through the everyday life of the old gymnasium. Of the most striking figures in the book, the Athos Recruit stood out, the hero of the shalman, a man who repaired electric bells and adored literature.

Shalman, as the townspeople called it, was a haven for the poor. He was near the meat rows in the market. It eked out a miserable existence for the Chinese women Chi Sun-cha, the sewer operator Levonty Abramkin, the German organ-grinder Gersht, the thieves Krivopatrya and Shebarsha, and the petty salesman JosephPukis. Books were read in the shalman and the high school students felt like adults, equal among equals…

Lev Kassil recalls this. "Konduit and Shvambrania" (the summary of the book cannot fully convey this) describes the life of the common people. This description will introduce young readers to a life that will be a real discovery for many.

Cockroach and Matryona

Director Fisheye has banned the party because of the fight in the People's Garden. The pupils of the gymnasium were indignant and, as a sign of protest, cut off the front door bells throughout the city. Athos Recruit, who made good money on this, was very pleased.

The police were looking for mysterious hooligans. Stepan Gavrya, nicknamed Atlantis, and Bindyug, who enjoyed authority because of his powerful fists, were caught. They, and with them six more sizars who participated in this case, were expelled from the gymnasium. And only after the intervention of Joseph Pukis, the violators were restored.

I remember a teacher named Tarakanius, or Long-necked. He taught Latin and rolled deuces right and left. There was also a touchy French teacher Matrena Martynovna. She did not greatly annoy the schoolchildren, the stern sizars even loved her in their own way, but they still played pranks mercilessly and cruelly in the lessons. The echo of the war reached Pokrovsk. The townspeople met the wounded who returned from the front. The year 1917 was approaching. These historical events are narrated by L. Kassil ("Konduit and Shvambrania"). The main characters of the book are eyewitnesses of the Russian revolution.

ThirtyOn the first of December, the parents of Lelka and Oska went to their friends to celebrate the New Year. A classmate came to Lelka, and they went for a walk. Unfortunately, they came across a horse team of a local millionaire. The students decided to take a ride. The horse, smelling strangers, carried the abductors through the deserted streets. The frightened schoolboys could not stop him. As luck would have it, they met Tsap-Tsarapych.

Seeing the guard, the horse stopped. Tsap-Tsarapych promised the Sisars to enroll them in a conduit and leave them without dinner. After that, he sat down on the box to return the stolen wagon to its owner. The animal, not seeing the difference between the abductors, rushed at a gallop, and the owner of the wagon, who left the house, called the police.

It is not known how Tsap-Tsarapych justified himself in the police, but he no longer remembered this incident.

The Missing Atlantis

Styopka Atlantis suddenly disappeared. As it turned out, he fled to the front. The former teachers were dispersed, and instead of the gymnasium they created the Unified Labor School with co-education of girls and boys.

A delegation of high school students went to the women's gymnasium to choose the most beautiful girls for the class. They were immediately given nicknames: Bamboo, Lyulya-Pill, Ogloblya and Klyaksa. With the advent of girls in the gymnasium, they began to play peepers. The game was to look at the interlocutor for hours. Blinking was not allowed. There were cases that came to fainting.

There was a revolution in Russia, the tsar abdicated. Shvambrania, accordingly, also reacted with riots. After long and deep doubts, Jack, the Sailors' Companion, passed away. The last of itthe words were: “Farm la car! Stop di car! But he was carrying …”A golden anchor was hoisted on the grave of the hero, instead of wreaths it was decorated with life buoys.

"Science can do a lot of githik" - says L. Kassil. Such is the book "Konduit and Shvambrania", the author of which knows how to talk funny and tragic about simple things.

Conclusion

The red commissar Chubarkov was put into the apartment. He taught Oska to play the game of choppers. Dad also got into the game. The players' hands were red from being slapped.

Aunt-relatives came to visit, who began to educate Oska and Lelka and take them to the theater.

A military man, La Basri-de-Bazan, settled in one room, and a commission for combating deserters occupied the other room. Dad was taken to the front. The Marquis de Bazan, as his aunts called him, stole the soap hidden by his mother in the piano, but after the Cheka was called, the soap was found. And along with the soap, the missing maps of Shvambrania. The Chekists, having seen the maps of the new state, laughed their heads off.

Shvambrans discovered the alchemist Kirikov, who was brewing the elixir of life, in an abandoned house. Then it turned out that this was ordinary moonshine.

Dad returned from the front. He had typhus. He looked thin and yellow and had lice crawling up his beard.

Dreamland tired of our heroes. Severe everyday life pushed aside a fictitious state in which, as Kassil claims, the conduit was never used. And Shvambrania, whose reader reviews sound enthusiastic, will forever be remembered by those who read this book.

Eel House, whereLelka and Oska played, dismantled for firewood. Shvambrania ceased to exist.

L. Kassil wrote about these events. "Konduit and Shvambrania" - a story about unforgettable times - became the most famous book of his works.