Kassil Lev “Conduit and Schwambrania” Reader’s diary, summary

Plot - summary

The narrator and Oska invent the country of Schwambrania, which they play all day long.
The hero grows up, his hair is cut bald and he is sent to study at the gymnasium.
The gymnasium is ruled by a conduit, and those who violate this law are severely punished by the director and teachers.
A revolution occurs, the tsar is overthrown, and the director of the gymnasium is kicked out.
New teachers arrive, another revolution occurs, a commissar appears in the city.
Hard times come, typhus, famine, and the guys decide to cancel Schwambrania.

Summary: Conduit and Schwambrania

The main characters all live in Pokrovsk. The story is told on behalf of the author.

Conduit.

Conduit and his younger brother, Oska, lost the queen from the chess set that belonged to their father. They were punished by being put in a corner. Then they came up with the country of Schwambrania and started playing it. By the time the missing queen was found, the father had already made another, and they took the lost queen as the Secret Keeper of Schwambrania. They imprisoned her in her mother's grotto. This game continued for several years. The country was shaped like a tooth, and was surrounded by ocean. Schwambrania fought with Balvonia and Caldonia. The conduit was the ruler of the country, Oska was the postman, and carried letters calling for war. Schwambrania always won. The country was inhabited by sailors and watermen. They all walked on Breshka. The most important sailor was Jack. He accompanied sailors and knew many languages.

Conduit's entire house was like a big steamship for the players. His father, a doctor, was a ship captain. Conduit describes his father positively: he always joked, but when he got angry, his mother always softened his blow. My father was a doctor, he often had to go to calls at night. The children rode around on the cart until one day their father pushed them into a ditch. Oska's favorite pastime was fishing in the aquarium: he pulled out goldfish and gave them a magnificent funeral in matchboxes. One day he decided to brush the cat's teeth with his dad's toothbrush. For this she slashed his hands. Then the father gave the children a little goat. He tore off all the wallpaper, ate his father's trousers and was given to someone unknown.

Conduit loved to read “Around Us. From there he learned about everything in the world. Oska also has a large vocabulary, but does not know the meaning of half of the words she has learned. One day he met a priest in the park, deciding that she was a woman. The priest enlightened Oska in religious matters, and his maid Annushka showed them the wedding in the church. Then the children decided that Schwambrania would be the kingdom of heaven, and the priest was named Hematogen. All the authorities were divided into classes: the parents were liquid, the school director and teachers were solid, the police were gaseous.

One day their cousin, Mitya, came to visit them. He spoke badly about God, and for this he was kicked out of the gymnasium in Saratov. He considered it his sacred duty to spoil high-ranking officials. One day the Assembly of Commerce held a masquerade ball. All the children were also invited there. To annoy the zemstvo chief, Mitya took Marfusha with him dressed as a postal envelope. This costume took first place, and Marfusha was given a gold watch. The zemstvo chief liked her, he wanted to get to know her, but she was stolen. When the father told the zemstvo that Marfusha was their servant, he became furious.

One day, an unknown person threw a shoe and a note onto this boss’s porch. It said that whoever fits this huge shoe will become his wife. Everyone blamed Mitya for this. Conduit was accepted into the gymnasium after having shaved his head. The whole summer before entering the gymnasium they were at the dacha. On his first day at the gymnasium, all his buttons were torn off. In the pastry shop, Conduit and his mother met the director of the gymnasium. Children were not supposed to be seen in entertainment establishments - they were immediately recorded in a book where fines were kept track of. Everyone was very afraid of the director, nicknamed Fisheye. Tsap-Tsarapych made sure that the students strictly followed the requirements from the book of fines. But everyone respected the inspector. If someone did something wrong, they kept him in a corner for a maximum of an hour, and then they were allowed to go home. Previously, there were no bells in Pokrovsk - instead of them there were wire handles. But the doctor was the first to make an electric bell for himself. The Athonite Recruit also lived there. He was a master at fixing bells. The conduit and his brother often visited him, chatting about books. Once there was a fight in the People's Garden, after which everyone was forbidden to show themselves there. When the students began to be indignant, Oska proposed to protest by cutting off all calls in the city. At that time the Athos Recruit had many visitors. No one made any more calls to themselves. The zemstvo chief did it, but again everything was cut off for him. Moreover, it was his own son. Then the Bailiff ordered the Pharaohs to find the thieves, giving them fifty rubles. Pharaoh found a fragment of the manifesto, where the name of the zemstvo son was indicated. Pharaoh went and complained to the director. He also complained about Atlantis, and Bindyug himself surrendered. They were all kicked out. Joseph told the director that the entire gymnasium was to blame for the lack of calls, so let him accept those expelled back. Enforcement of rules in the gymnasium has become even stricter. The Latin teachers, Cockroach and Longneck, constantly give their students two and a stake, and the history teacher likes to give everyone standing marks. The Frenchwoman always walks around offended. One day Conduit was running away from a janitor across the rooftops. So he became friends with the girl Taisa. He told her in confidence about Schwambrania, and she went ahead and told some unknown boy about it. Once Conduit and Oska fought, taking the cook’s daughter prisoner. Klavdyusha received a letter that her son had lost his arm. The children felt very sorry for her. They constantly bothered the teacher: they poured gunpowder under his feet, mixed his tobacco with pepper. The teacher could not stand it and complained about them to the director. The students began to often meet wounded soldiers, and were imbued with the spirit of war. Oska had a ring with a portrait of Nicholas II. The boys and girls' high school students were taken on an excursion to the city. End of 1916. On December 31, Conduit’s parents met with their friends. His classmate, Grishka, came to visit Conduit. They went for a walk and, seeing some gentleman’s horse, decided to ride it. But the horse was so happy that he stubbornly refused to slow down. When Tsap-Tsarapych appeared, the mischievous horse immediately froze. Tsap-Tsarapych promised that he would write them down in the book as having been at fault and would deal with them after the holidays. When he asked if the children could ride a horse, they answered in unison that yes, they could. He mounted the horse and it ran. When the owner came out, he did not find his horse and called the police. After the holidays, Tsap-Tsarapych did not say anything to the children. Oska discovered that there is a connection between the round Earth and the round globe. A call came from Uncle Lyosha, who asked Conduit to tell his parents that a revolution had taken place. The king has been overthrown. Conduit wanted to go out into the street and talk to everyone about the revolution. This time Tsap-Tsarapych included him in the book of fines. At the gymnasium, Conduit told everyone about the revolution. A cigarette was stuffed into the portrait of the Tsar that hung in the classroom. It looked like Nicholas II was smoking. Corresponding with the girls' gymnasium, the students found out that the girls were also for the revolution. Atlantis overheard the teachers plotting against the principal. When the demonstration took place, the director was ill and was not there. The committee removes the director. In his haste, he forgets his ears. The director went to the parents of the students. Conduit's father was the secretary of the parent committee. Parents are afraid that their children will be given freedom. They think that then the children will go completely wild. In the gymnasium, the grades are now “good”, “satisfactory”, “unsatisfactory”, “bad”. Excellent student Arkasha started studying for free. Arkasha loves Lyusya, but her mother is against their meetings. He became upset, lost weight, and slowed down in his grades. Then he decided that the Barins were no longer anywhere, and sent her a letter. The letter, however, was not delivered as intended: it was intercepted by the teacher, who for a long time later ridiculed Arkasha in front of everyone. Then Arkasha realized that the difference still remains between paid and free.

Schwambrania.

Conduit also wanted to participate in meetings and rallies. Together with the Boy Scouts they did good deeds. They burned the book of fines in a fire where the diaries were already burning. In the summer of 1918 they were in the village of Kvasnikovka. There they beat nettles and trampled toadstools. Much has changed in their absence: the wine store of one bourgeois was damaged. The Conduit gymnasium was connected to the girls' school. They recruited girls into their class themselves. Pupils from a higher primary school also arrived, but the high school students did not like them. The girls had their own game - staring contest. On dance nights, Conduit's class made sure that boys from other classes did not ask their girls to dance. The schoolchildren ate their tea with refined sugar; this is a very scarce product. The conduit did not drink tea with sugar, but carried it home and hid it in a hiding place. In the dining room he distributed sugar. Bindyug suggested dividing the remaining sugar equally. When Conduit refused, he was tripped up. He fell and got a bump on his forehead. When Oska went to school, Conduit told him how not to get beaten. Nobody played staring contest anymore, everyone was engaged in French wrestling. The high school students really liked the new history teacher. Everyone is catching up on algebra. The teacher teaches students after school, parents are shocked. Conduit’s class invited the “Bashniks” to compete in algebra.

That day they sat preparing until twelve at night, and on the way back they were arrested by a patrol, because they could only walk until eleven. They made an excuse that they went to the pharmacy to buy castor oil. Bindyug won in the hero class, but then it turned out that he cheated, and the sugar had to be divided equally. The commissioner asks after the lesson to draw posters about the rash forest. The students were hungry, but they agreed. Soon that commissioner fell ill with typhus. Then he began to get better, but was still unable to walk due to weakness. The conduit brought him books. While visiting the commissar, they played a staring contest. The conduit wanted to treat the commissar with sugar, but someone had already beaten him to it. Conduit and Oska created mortality in Shvambrania. Oska said that some soldier stopped him on the street and asked him to go to Shvambrania. It seems to Conduit that Oska actually believes in this country. When he talked about it at school, they laughed at him - there is no such country. Then it turned out that the soldier was not interested in Schwambrania, but in the headquarters. Three aunts came to visit. Two of them burr. He began to raise Conduit and Oska, and their father took them to live in another house, saying that their aunts were pathetic slaves of things. He asked the children to despise things. But when they took and broke the dish, the father called it vandalism, and explained that before you despise things, you need to learn how to make money from them. When my mother was not at home, they took her piano. Mom is shocked: she hid expensive scented soap in the piano, which was brought to her from abroad. And the children had Schwambran documents there. Then Condit went to help his mother pick up the package. He played a polka for everyone and read ditties, and mother played “Prince Igor.” Everyone liked it. When the commissioner recovered, he settled next to them. At first, Oska played “Bloopers and Hobbies” with the commissar. Then their father started playing with them. La-Bazri-De-Bazan settled in the next room. He was a military man, but for some reason his aunts called him Marquis. Soon a commission came to them, which fought against desertion. The soap package has disappeared. Then this package was found at the Marquis's. He also had maps of Schwambrania. The children had to tell the boss about their country. The boss chuckled. The family moved again. Every day they went with their aunts to the Lunacharsky Theater. In Pokrovsk it became fashionable to go to the theater. Even children were taught theater arts. Conduit and Oska were also put there. When his father went to the front, Conduit remained in the house as the eldest. Hunger began. The conduit teaches literacy and counting per pound of meat per month. Sugar from his savings is given to the family only on holidays. Mother traded a quarter of the kerosene for a grotto made of shells. Schwambrania also suffers a decline, settling in the domain of the Eel. When he and Oska were exploring the house of the dead, they fell into the basement, where someone grabbed them. It turned out that Kirikov was a nasty person who was inventing magic water there. Then cousin Dina came to the family and stayed with them. Conduit and Oska immediately began to like her, especially after she shut up her aunts. Dina started working as a library manager. There the children created a literary circle. The Commissioner fell in love with Dina. Dad fell ill with some kind of rash, and Atlantis died. Conduit and Oska got tired of playing Schwambrania, and they went to Kirikov. It turned out that he was not inventing magic water, but real moonshine. When dad arrived, he had a yellow face and a huge thick beard with lice. They wanted to close the library due to a lack of firewood. Conduit offered to cut up the Schwambrania, which was in Eel’s house, for firewood. So Shvambrania ceased to exist.

Pokrov was renamed the city of Engels. Recently, Conduit came there to visit Oska, who had become a father. He still doesn't know the meaning of some words. They tell children about Shvambrania and remember themselves as children. The city has changed.

A brief summary of the novel “Conduit and Shvambrania” was retold by A. S. Osipova.

Please note that this is only a brief summary of the literary work “Conduit and Schwambrania”. This summary omits many important points and quotes.

Proverbs for the work

Steel is tempered in fire, but man is tempered in difficulties.

Everything that is done is for the better.

The smart and brave are not afraid of difficulties.

Living life is not a field to cross.

As is the character, so are the actions.

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Brief description of the main characters

The entire plot is built around two brothers and their relatives, playmates and other adults.

Main characters

Lelya (a writer in childhood) is an active and inquisitive boy who loves to fantasize.
Oska (Joseph) is Leo’s younger brother, his closest person and main playmate.

Other characters

The father is a strict but fair man. Works as a doctor.
Mother is an understanding, affectionate woman. A talented pianist.
Annushka and Marfusha take care of the housekeeping and order in the house.
The three aunts are strict, intelligent, educated women.
Mitya Lamberg is the cousin of the main characters and loves to argue with elders.
Juvenal Bogdanovich Stomolitsky is the director of the educational institution, whom the schoolchildren nicknamed “Fish Eye”. A callous person for whom the most important thing is compliance with regulations.
Tsezar Karpych (Tsap-Tsarapych) - makes sure that students follow the rules of behavior.
Nikolai Ilyich Romashov is the chief inspector, smart and fair. He is respected by the guys.
Alexander Karlovich Bertelev is a talented mathematics teacher.
Taisiya Opilova is Lyolya’s friend.
Arkasha Portyanko is the son of a cook, a very smart and talented boy.
Commissioner Chubarkov enjoys authority among the guys, he is a simple and kind young man.
Dina is a relative of the main characters, a communist. Smart and active girl.

Trips to the people

The father of the Schwambrans worked as a doctor. Sometimes, out of democratic motives, he ordered a carriage with a horse, put on a shirt, and sat on the beam 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. Otherwise we’ll inadvertently crush you.”

“This “ride among the people” ended with dad one day throwing us all into a ditch. Since then, the trips have stopped" (Lev Kassil, "Conduit and Shvambrania").