"Monday starts on Saturday": a summary. Fantastic humorous story Strugatsky

Look at one curious piece called "Monday begins on Saturday." You will find out the summary of it by reading this article. The authors of the work - Arkady and Boris Strugatsky - wrote it in 1964. According to the genre, the narrative is "Monday begins on Saturday." The summary is divided into three stories. It begins, like the work itself, with the following events.

Vanity around the sofa (first story)

Alexander Privalov, a Leningrad programmer, travels while on vacation by car. He goes to the city of Solovets, in which he has one meeting planned. Privalov picks up two employees from the organization of the Research Institute of Sorcery and Magic (NIICHAVO) along the road and brings them to Solovets. Here they arrange it for the night in the museum of the institute - the izba on chicken legs (ISAKURNOZH).

Privalov gradually begins to notice a variety of strange phenomena. For example, it strikes a similarity with the Baba Yaga of Naina Kievna Gorynych, the inspector of the museum. He sees a talking tree, a mermaid on it, a huge cat that recites songs and fairy tales, and a book-changer with constantly changing content. Privals in the morning catch a pike from a well. She fulfills her desires. As you probably already understood, this genre is a fantastic comic story. The protagonist thinks that everything unusual must obey a system.

History with an unchangeable pyatka

The Strugatsky brothers further describe the strange story that happened to the protagonist. He finds, walking through the city during the day, an undivided five-kopeck. Privalov begins to experiment with him. He buys various things on him. The police interrupt this experiment. Privalov is taken to the department, they are forced to compensate for the damage. A inseparable nickle is withdrawn and given in return for the ordinary. The policemen are not at all surprised by this strange subject.

The Departure of the Sofa

Privalov, returning to Iznakurnozh to rest, discovers that the sofa, which was standing still in the morning, disappeared. Then one by one strange persons come to him, showing amazing abilities. They become invisible, fly, pass through the walls and for some reason they are interested in the missing sofa. Privalov between the cases learns that this piece of furniture is actually a magical translator of reality. He was abducted by Viktor Korneev, an employee of the institute, for his research work, since the sofa could not be retrieved from the museum officially because of the bureaucracy of Modest Matveevich Kamnodov, administrator. The scandal with the kidnapping in the morning becomes uncontrollable. Privalov comes to the aid of the one whom he threw up to the city, - Roman Oira-Oira. He persuades him to enter NIICHAVO to work as a programmer. Privalov agrees - he was interested in what is happening.

Vanity of vanities (second story)

Approximately six months after the events described in the first part, the second action unfolds. Alexander Privalov, who now runs a computer center in NIICHAVO, remains on duty at the institute on New Year's Eve. He takes the keys from the heads of departments. A string of bright characters, created by the Strugatsky brothers, passes in front of him - mages Junta Cristobal Khozevich and Kivrin Fedor Simeonovich, opportunists and hackers Vibegallo Ambrose Ambroazovich and Merlin, director of the institute Nevstruev Janus Poluektovich, who simultaneously exists in two incarnations - as a scientist U-Janus and As administrator of A-Janus, and others.

Privalov begins to bypass the institute from the building of the vivarium, located in the basement. It contains mythological and magical creatures. Then he passes through the floors of the rooms of Universal Transformations, Eternal Youth, Defensive Magic, Prophecies and Prophecies, Absolute Knowledge, Sense of Life, Linear Happiness. Ends in the laboratory of the still working Vitka Korneev. Privalov tries to drive him out of the room, but with practiced research, a practicing magician can not cope. He discovers, leaving Vitka's laboratory, that the institute has many employees who preferred to return to the place of service instead of celebrating the New Year at home. These people all had one motto: "Monday begins on Saturday." The brief content of its meaning is as follows: they saw the purpose of their life in the knowledge of the unknown and in the work. Having met the New Year, all these people returned to their studies.

The model of an unsatisfied human gastrointestinal tract

In the laboratory Vibegallo, a professor, at that time a model of an unsatisfied gastrointestinal man "hatched" from the autoclave. This is a copy of the professor, capable only of devouring all that is edible. Employees gather in the laboratory Vybegallo. Next describe the appearance accompanied by correspondents and the professor himself, the Strugatsky brothers ("Monday begins on Saturday"). In his theory, the path to spiritual growth and development of the individual lies, first of all, through the satisfaction of its material needs. The presented model is an intermediate stage on the way to the creation of the model of the Ideal Man, completely satisfied. She successfully demonstrates her ability to eat a lot, more and more. The model, after all, bursts with gluttony, while throwing correspondents and Vigbegallo contents of the digestive system. Everyone diverge.

Decision on landfill tests

For a while Privalov thinks about what's going on, then falls asleep. Next the following events are described in the work of the Strugatsky brothers ("Monday begins on Saturday"). After awakening, Privalov tries to create himself a magic breakfast with magic, but instead becomes a witness of a meeting taking place at the institute's director. It discusses the issue of the dangers of the next model. She wants to test her at the institute, and other experienced magicians offer to conduct a range of tests several kilometers from the city. Nevstruev Janus Poluektovich, director of the institute, after a heated dispute decides to hold them at the training ground, as significant destruction will accompany the experiment. Nevstruev takes Roman Oyre-Oyre "preliminary gratitude" for courage and resourcefulness.

Testing the Model of the Perfect Man

Privalov is present at the trial. The Model of the Ideal Man possesses the ability, with the help of magic, to satisfy all material needs. She, leaving the autoclave, carries all the material values that are in the zone of action of her magical abilities (including things of nearby people) to herself, after which she tries to collapse the space. Novel Oira-Oyra prevents cataclysm. He throws a bottle of genie into the Perfect Consumer. The genie who escaped to freedom, destroys the model.

All sorts of fuss (the third story)

We turn to the presentation of the third story, which was described in the work of Strugatsky ("Monday begins on Saturday"). The computer "Aldan" was broken, - the machine on which the main character works. While it is being repaired, Privalov strolls around the institute. He ends up in one department (Absolute Knowledge), in which the machine invented by Louis Sedlov is demonstrated at this time. On it you can get into a fictional future or a fictional past.

Privalov goes to the future

Privalov's journey to the future is an interesting episode, which the Strugatsky included in his work. "Monday begins on Saturday" has thus acquired a truly epic scope. Privalov goes to the future, agreeing to an experiment. He first sees a strange world with inhabitants resembling the ancient ancestors of man. Then Privalov appears among people, the same as his contemporaries, externally. However, in their world there are already traveling on space ships to distant planets. After this Privalov is in the era of returns. In it, people flying to distant stars and planets returned to Earth. He notices that the Iron Wall exists in this world, and learns that the World of Fear of the Future is behind it. After falling behind the Wall, Privalov sees war, murders and blood.

From the inhabitant, accidentally met him, the main character learns that the robots have enslaved part of the world behind the Wall. The other part was captured by the aliens. Communists, minerals, plants and parasites enslaved some more areas. Appeared aircraft, bombs are pouring. The protagonist departs to the opposite side of this wall. The world here is called the World of Human Imagination. Then it returns to reality, but the machine disappears without a trace.

A story with a dead parrot

Privalov goes to Oire Oire and sees a dead parrot in the laboratory, lying in a cup. Approached Janus Poluektovich, director of the institute, calls this parrot a photon. He burns his corpse in the furnace, dispels the ashes in the wind and leaves. The novel is surprised, as he found a green fried feather a day earlier in the stove. How could it have appeared, if only today a parrot was burned, and others of the same color were not there, remains a mystery.

Privalov the next day composes with the witch Stella verses for wall newspaper. Suddenly he sees the green parrot enter the room. He flies, but not completely healthy. There are other employees. They are wondering where this parrot came from. Then everyone is mistaken for their work, but suddenly they notice that the parrot lies dead. The inscription "Photon" and a ring with figures can be seen on its foot. It was also on the foot of a parrot lying dead in a cup yesterday. Everyone is puzzled. Artist Drozd puts a parrot accidentally in a cup.

The computers are corrected the next day. The protagonist proceeds to his work. Then Roman calls him and says that there is already no parrot in the cup and nobody saw it. The protagonist is surprised, but then, absorbed in the work, stops thinking about it. Roman later calls again and asks Privalov to come. When he comes, he discovers a living green parrot, on whose foot a ring is visible.

The parrot responds to the words of the staff in other words. Can not establish a semantic connection between them. Then the parrot is called the names of those present, and he briefly characterizes everyone: primitive, old, rude, etc. Employees can not understand where he knows all this from.

Who in fact is Janus Poluektovich

We are approaching the curious ending, which concludes the book "Monday begins on Saturday." Friends come to the idea that the parrot belongs to Janus Poluektovich, an even more mysterious person. This single person in two faces never appears at twelve o'clock in the night in public. He also can not remember after midnight what was before her. Janus Poluektovich, in addition, foresees the unmistakable future.

Scientists guess in the end that there is a possibility of a counter-struggle, in other words, the passage of time in the opposite generally accepted direction. If the parrot was a counter-clock, it means that he can be alive today, and yesterday, after death, he was put in a cup. The day before yesterday he was burned by Janus when he found him. And the day before, a burnt feather, found by Roman, remained from him in the stove.

Roman tries to explain what happened to the Tunguska meteorite, the concept of contra- diction. It was actually a spaceship. The aliens who were in it were counterparts. They lived from the future to the past, by the standards of ordinary people.

Two incarnations of Janus Poluektovich

Scientists have unraveled the mystery of Janus Poluektovich. He was engaged in science in the person of A-Janus until he discovered the idea of controversy. Then he realized how you can put it into practice. And in a year that is still a distant future for NIICHAVO's employees living now, he turned himself, as well as Photon, his parrot, into contraptions. After that, he began to live on the time line reversed. And now every midnight the director turns to today from tomorrow. He lives in the form of A-Janus, as ordinary people, that is, from the past to the future, but in the form of U-Janus - on the contrary, from the future into the past. Both incarnations remain one person. They are combined in space and time.

Meeting with U-Janus

Privalov meets U-Janus during lunch. He asks if he has the courage to go to see him tomorrow morning. He replies that Privalov will be summoned to Kitezhgrad tomorrow morning, therefore, it will not work. Then he adds that there is no future, the only one for everyone. There are many of them, and one of them is created by every human act.

This ends the story "Monday begins on Saturday." The summary, as you understand, transmits only its main events in general. After reading the text of the work, you will learn a lot of interesting details.

"Monday starts on Saturday" reviews from most readers cause positive. For amateurs of humorous fiction this work will be especially to taste. The stories of the Strugatsky brothers are very exciting and interesting, and this one is no exception. Creativity writers today is very popular. Perhaps, with full certainty it can be said that one of the most famous stories is "Monday begins on Saturday." Quotations from this work, and especially its name, can often be heard from the fans of fantasy.