Summary of Mayakovsky's comedy "The Bedbug"

The main character, Ivan Prisypkin, was a former worker and former party employee, today, 1929, changed his name to Pierre Skripkin. He was going to marry the daughter of a hairdresser, Elvira Renaissance. She worked for her father as a cashier and manicurist. The preparations for the upcoming wedding were truly colossal; Skripkin purchased various necessary things for future family life - dancing figures, caps for twins in the form of a bra, and so on. For 15 rubles, Oleg Bayan offers Prisypkin to organize the greatest celebration.

While shopping, Ivan meets his former lover, Zoya, who asks in bewilderment what is going on. Newly married Pierre Skripkin announces that he has fallen in love with someone else. In the hostel, during everyone's preparations for the wedding, Zoya decides to shoot herself. The wedding is very solemn - everyone is having fun, drinking, dancing. The obnoxious best man constantly gets into fights, trying to defend the honor and dignity of the bride. The fight grew to such a scale that the stove was overturned and started a fire. All the guests die, and the fire brigade that arrived at the scene does not find the body of one person.

50 years pass, construction work is being carried out at the site of the tragedy. While digging a trench, workers discover the frozen body of a man in perfect condition. The public is delighted, and by popular vote they decide to resurrect him at the Institute of Human Resurrection. This lucky individual from the past turns out to be the groom Ivan. Realizing where he ended up, he faints. And Zoya, who was never able to shoot herself 50 years ago, helped resurrect her former lover.

Everything about the time Ivan ended up in did not suit him. His only brother that came with him from the past was a bug that fell from the collar of the protagonist. Prisypkin was subsequently placed in the Zoological Garden along with the bug, so that it would not die like a rare, extinct specimen, and feed on the vulgar man in the street from the past. The doctors prescribed Ivan a lot of beer, which made all modern people sick. Ivan drank beer, and the bug drank Ivan’s blood. Zoya brought books to the main character, but they did not please him and seemed boring. Sitting in a cage, in full view of the whole people, Prisypkin turns to the staring people, asking when everyone was unfrozen - after all, they are the same as him.

The author tries to ridicule the way of life and thinking of the working class and says that in the future people, in fact, are unlikely to change, comparing both the main character and the audience to bedbugs.

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"Bug"

- a satirical play by Vladimir Mayakovsky, written in the fall of 1928 [1]. The work, the genre of which is designated by the author as an enchanting comedy, was repeatedly supplemented and corrected after public readings and discussions [2].

According to Mayakovsky, the play was based on materials that he accumulated during his work in various publications - in particular, in Komsomolskaya Pravda. This “mass of philistine facts” served as the reason for the creation of two characters - Prisypkin and Oleg Bayan [3] [4].

Summary of “The Bedbug” by Mayakovsky

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Characters [ edit | edit code ]

• Ivan Prisypkin (Pierre Skripkin) - former worker, former party member, now groom
• Zoya Berezkina - worker
• Oleg Bayan (Bochkin) - a genius of homeowners
• Elzevira Davidovna Renaissance - Prisypkin's fiancée, manicurist, hair salon cashier
• Rosalia Pavlovna Renaissance - Elzevira's mother, hairdresser
• David Osipovich Renaissance - Elzevira's father, hairdresser
• Workers living in a dormitory
• Best man at a wedding
• Fire chief, firefighters
• Professor
• Zoo director
• The reporter
• Chairman of the City Council, working audiences, university students, festival manager, ancient old men and women, hunters

Summary of the Bedbug – Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky

Bug Summary of the comedy The play takes place in Tambov: the first three paintings - in 1929, the remaining six paintings - in 1979. Former worker, former party member Ivan Prisypkin, who renamed himself Pierre Skripkin for euphony, is going to marry Elzevira Davidovna Renaissance - daughter's hairdresser, hair salon cashier and manicurist.
With his future mother-in-law Rosalia Pavlovna, who “needs a professional ticket in the house,” Pierre Skripkin walks around the square in front of a huge department store, purchasing from hawker centers everything he thinks is necessary for a future family life: a toy “dancing people from ballet studios,” a bra, mistaken by him for a cap for a possible future twins, etc. Oleg Bayan (formerly Bochkin), for fifteen rubles and a bottle of vodka, undertakes to organize a real red labor wedding for Prisypkin - a class, sublime, elegant and delightful celebration. Their conversation about the future wedding is overheard by Zoya Berezkina, a worker and Prisypkin’s former lover. In response to Zoya's puzzling questions, Prisypkin explains that he loves someone else. Zoya is crying. The inhabitants of the youth workers' hostel discuss Prisypkin's marriage to the hairdresser's daughter and the change of his surname. Many people condemn him, but some understand him - this is not 1919, people want to live for themselves. Bayan teaches Prisypkin good manners: how to dance the foxtrot (“don’t move your lower bust”), how to scratch yourself unnoticed while dancing, and also gives him other useful advice: do not wear two ties at the same time, do not wear a starched shirt untucked, etc. Suddenly the sound of a shot is heard - it was Zoya Berezkina who shot herself. At the wedding of Pierre Skripkin and Elzevira Renaissance, Oleg Bayan makes a solemn speech, then plays the piano, everyone sings and drinks. The best man, defending the dignity of the newlywed, starts quarrel after quarrel, a fight breaks out, the stove overturns, and a fire breaks out. Arriving firefighters are missing one person, the rest all die in the fire. Fifty years later, at a depth of seven meters, a team digging a trench for the foundation discovers a frozen human figure covered with earth. The Institute of Human Resurrection reports that calluses were found on the hands of an individual, which in the past were a sign of workers. A vote is held among all regions of the federation of the earth, a decision is made by a majority vote: in the name of researching the labor skills of working humanity, the individual is to be resurrected. This individual turns out to be Prisypkin. The entire world press reports with delight about his upcoming resurrection. The news is reported by correspondents of “Chukotskie Izvestia”, “Warshavskaya Komsomolskaya Pravda”, “Izvestia of the Chicago Council”, “Rimskaya Krasnaya Gazeta”, “Shanghai Poor” and other newspapers. The defrosting is carried out by a professor, assisted by Zoya Berezkina, whose suicide attempt fifty years ago failed. Prisypkin wakes up and a bug, defrosted with him, crawls from his collar onto the wall. Having discovered that he was caught in 1979, Prisypkin faints. The reporter tells listeners that in order to ease the transition period for Prisypkin, doctors ordered him to drink beer (“a mixture that is poisonous in large doses and disgusting in small doses”), and now five hundred and twenty medical laboratory workers who drank this potion are in hospitals. Among those who have heard enough of Prisypkin’s romances, performed by him with a guitar, an epidemic of “falling in love” is spreading: they dance, mutter poetry, sigh, and so on. At this time, a crowd led by the director of the zoological garden catches an escaped bug - a rare specimen of an insect that was extinct and most popular at the beginning of the century. Under the supervision of a doctor in a clean room on the cleanest bed lies the dirtiest Prisypkin. He asks for a hangover and demands to “freeze him back.” Zoya Berezkina brings several books at his request, but he does not find anything “for the soul”: books are now only scientific and documentary. In the middle of the zoological garden there is a draped cage on a pedestal, surrounded by musicians and a crowd of spectators. Foreign correspondents, ancient old men and women arrive, and a column of children approaches singing. The director of the zoo in his speech gently reproaches the professor who defrosted Prisypkin for the fact that, guided by external signs, he mistakenly classified him as “homo sapiens” and his highest species - the worker class. In fact, the defrosted mammal is a humanoid malingerer with an almost human appearance, who responded to the announcement given by the director of the zoo: “Based on the principles of the zoo, I am looking for a living human body for constant nibbling and for the maintenance and development of a newly acquired insect in its usual, normal conditions.” Now they are placed in the same cage - “klopus normalis” and “philistines vulgar. Prisypkin hums in a cage. The director, putting on gloves and armed with pistols, takes Prisypkin to the podium. He suddenly sees spectators sitting in the hall and shouts: “Citizens! Brothers! Their! Native! When did you all get unfrozen? Why am I alone in a cage? Why am I suffering?” Prisypkin is taken away, the cage is closed.

Plot [edit | edit code ]

The action begins during the NEP. Ivan Prisypkin “breaks away from the class with a bang” - he strives with all his might for a “beautiful life” after the labors and hardships of the Civil War. He even changes his first and last name to the elegant Pierre Skripkin.

On his wedding day, Skripkin finds himself frozen in the basement of the house. He is defrosted and revived after 50 years. A new, bright communist life reigns all around: there is no need and exhausting work, diseases and natural disasters have been defeated, people have forgotten what drinking, smoking and foul language are. Skripkin-Prisypkin has only one place in this world: an exhibit in the zoological garden, where those who wish can familiarize themselves with the vices of a bygone era. Prisypkin's only companion turns out to be a bug, which was accidentally defrosted along with the hero.

Analysis [edit | edit code ]

Main topic[edit | edit code ]

"The Bedbug" is an anti-philistine play that combines "grotesque-realistic and fantastic plans." Thanks to this technique, the contrast between Prisypkin’s actions and the vital interests of people of the future is more strongly felt. Mayakovsky had previously demonstrated his faith in the “workshop of human resurrections” (for example, in the poem “About This”), but in “The Bedbug” he for the first time decides to move forward 50 years a person who “passes under the label ‘philistineus vulgaris’” [6 ] . This element of autoparody, when pathos is replaced by a sad mockery of one’s own projects, means, according to the remark of literary critic Evgeniy Yablokov, that “romantic dreams come to an end” [7].

Mayakovsky did not strive to look like a seer and prophet who knew in advance the details of everyday life in 1979, so he created pictures of the future with a certain amount of irony: for example, they contain artificial trees on which plates with tangerines, apples, and bottles of perfume are laid out. Since light mockery was not understood by all readers and viewers of “The Bedbug,” the author’s dualism served as a reason for criticism [8].

Criticism [edit | edit code]

According to literary critic Alexander Mikhailov, Mayakovsky’s opponents used a well-known technique - “to criticize not for what the author reflected, but for what he did not show” [9]. Thus, the publicist N. Osinsky reproached the author for insufficiently broad coverage of the life of the working class in the late 1920s; cultural figure Richard Pickel was dissatisfied with the fact that Prisypkin’s image was not developing “at work, in a team, in public activities” [9].

Literary critic Staffan Mokulsky considered it necessary to note that the blow to the philistinism was delivered weakly, “the aiming point was chosen incorrectly,” and there was an “anti-Soviet scent” in the pictures of the future [9].

Theater critic David Talnikov, whom Mayakovsky characterized a year earlier in his poem “The Galloper for Writers” as a person who loves to teach [10], called the play “primary hack work” [9].

During the controversy surrounding “The Bedbug,” opposing opinions were also expressed. A review was published on the pages of the magazine “Young Guard” (1929, No. 2), the author of which called the play a harsh cartoon exposing the “abomination of philistinism” [11].

Literary roll call [edit | edit code ]

Dmitry Bykov not only saw in the plot of “The Bug” a roll call with the play “Bathhouse” - he recalled (with reference to Viktor Shklovsky) that in 1927 Mayakovsky met a poetess in a Rostov hospital who, like Zoya Berezkina, tried to shoot herself. She had her own “Prisypkin” in her life, who drove the girl to attempt suicide—the RAPP acted in his role [12].

The polemic that took place a year earlier on the pages of Komsomolskaya Pravda between Mayakovsky and the poet Ivan Molchanov, who wrote a poem about a man who demands compensation for being “tired of life” [13], became the reason for a parody quotation in “The Bedbug.” The desire voiced by Prisypkin to “relax by a quiet river” is a direct reproduction of lines from Molchanov’s poem “At the Cliff” [14].

Essays

A satirical depiction of a contemporary in the drama of V.V.
Mayakovsky (based on the plays “Bedbug” and “Bathhouse”) Humor and satire in the plays “Bedbug” and “Bathhouse” The play takes place in Tambov: the first three paintings - in 1929, the remaining six paintings - in 1979.

Former worker, former party member Ivan Prisypkin, who renamed himself Pierre Skripkin for euphony, is going to marry Elzevira Davidovna Renaissance, a hairdresser’s daughter, a hairdresser’s cashier and a manicurist. With his future mother-in-law Rosalia Pavlovna, who “needs a professional ticket in the house,” Pierre Skripkin walks around the square in front of a huge department store, buying from hawkers everything he thinks is necessary for a future family life: a toy “dancing people from ballet studios,” a bra, taken by him for a cap for a possible future twins, etc. Oleg Bayan (formerly Bochkin), for fifteen rubles and a bottle of vodka, undertakes to organize a real red labor wedding for Prisypkin - a class, sublime, elegant and delightful celebration. Their conversation about the future wedding is overheard by Zoya Berezkina, a worker and Prisypkin’s former lover. In response to Zoya's puzzling questions, Prisypkin explains that he loves someone else. Zoya is crying.

The inhabitants of the youth workers' hostel discuss Prisypkin's marriage to the hairdresser's daughter and the change of his surname. Many people condemn him, but some understand him - this is not 1919, people want to live for themselves. Bayan teaches Prisypkin good manners: how to dance the foxtrot (“don’t move your lower bust”), how to scratch yourself unnoticed while dancing, and also gives him other useful advice: do not wear two ties at the same time, do not wear a starched shirt untucked, etc. Suddenly the sound of a shot is heard - it was Zoya Berezkina who shot herself.

At the wedding of Pierre Skripkin and Elzevira Renaissance, Oleg Bayan makes a solemn speech, then plays the piano, everyone sings and drinks. The best man, defending the dignity of the newlywed, starts quarrel after quarrel, a fight breaks out, the stove overturns, and a fire breaks out. Arriving firefighters are missing one person, the rest all die in the fire.

Fifty years later, at a depth of seven meters, a team digging a trench for the foundation discovers a frozen human figure covered with earth. The Institute of Human Resurrection reports that calluses were found on the hands of an individual, which in the past were a sign of workers. A vote is held among all regions of the federation of the earth, a decision is made by a majority vote: in the name of researching the labor skills of working humanity, the individual is to be resurrected. This individual turns out to be Prisypkin. The entire world press reports with delight about his upcoming resurrection. The news is conveyed to correspondents

you "Chukotskie Izvestia", "Warshavskaya Komsomolskaya Pravda", "Izvestia of the Chicago Council", "Rimskaya Krasnaya Gazeta", "Shanghai Poor" and other newspapers. The defrosting is carried out by a professor, assisted by Zoya Berezkina, whose suicide attempt fifty years ago failed. Prisypkin wakes up and a bug, defrosted with him, crawls from his collar onto the wall. Having discovered that he was caught in 1979, Prisypkin faints.

The reporter tells listeners that in order to ease the transition period for Prisypkin, doctors ordered him to drink beer (“a mixture that is poisonous in large doses and disgusting in small doses”), and now five hundred and twenty medical laboratory workers who drank this potion are in hospitals. Among those who have heard enough of Prisypkin’s romances, performed by him with a guitar, an epidemic of “falling in love” is spreading: they dance, mutter poetry, sigh, and so on. At this time, a crowd led by the director of the zoological garden catches an escaped bug - a rare specimen of an insect that was extinct and most popular at the beginning of the century.

Under the supervision of a doctor in a clean room on the cleanest bed lies the dirtiest Prisypkin. He asks for a hangover and demands to “freeze him back.” Zoya Berezkina brings several books at his request, but he does not find anything “for the soul”: books are now only scientific and documentary.

In the middle of the zoological garden there is a draped cage on a pedestal, surrounded by musicians and a crowd of spectators. Foreign correspondents, ancient old men and women arrive, and a column of children approaches singing. The director of the zoo in his speech gently reproaches the professor who defrosted Prisypkin for the fact that, guided by external signs, he mistakenly classified him as “homo sapiens” and his highest species - the worker class. In fact, the defrosted mammal is a humanoid malingerer with an almost human appearance, who responded to an advertisement given by the director of the zoo: “Based on the principles of the zoo, I am looking for a living human body for constant nibbling and for the maintenance and development of a newly acquired insect in its usual, normal conditions.” Now they are placed in the same cage - “clopus normalis” and “philistines vulgar. Prisypkin hums in a cage. The director, putting on gloves and armed with pistols, takes Prisypkin to the podium. He suddenly sees spectators sitting in the hall and shouts: “Citizens! Brothers! Their! Native! When did you all get unfrozen? Why am I alone in a cage? Why am I suffering? Prisypkin is taken away, the cage is closed.

The location of the play is Tambov. The main character is Pierre Skrypky, who marries Elvira Renaissance. While the main character and his future mother-in-law are choosing everything they need for family life on the square and discussing an imminent wedding, their conversation is overheard by Zoya, his former lover. After Pierre explains everything to her, Zoya runs away in tears.

In the hostel, all of Pierre's friends and acquaintances give him practical advice on family life, self-care, and so on. Some, of course, condemn him, but our main character does not pay attention to them. But suddenly a shot is heard, and soon everyone finds out that Zoya Berezkina shot herself.

And now the long-awaited wedding, everyone is having fun and drinking, but the best man begins to pick one argument after another and it comes to a fight. During the fight, a fire breaks out, firefighters arrive on the scene, but it turns out that all the wedding participants died in the fire, except for one, who mysteriously disappeared.

50 years later, workers digging a trench discover a frozen human body there. All sorts of meetings and discussions are held and in the end they decide to resurrect the person. The professor unfreezes the man, and it turns out to be Pierre Skripkin. When he realizes that he is in 1979, he immediately faints, a resurrected bug crawling off his collar. The professor is assisted by Zoya, familiar to the reader, who strangely did not die 50 years ago.

During the rehabilitation process, Pierre is given beer, and he sings romances with a guitar in the hospital. After which, by the way, everyone is in an unusual state of falling in love. The bug was caught and is now subject to study as a very rare and ancient specimen.

Pierre becomes depressed and asks to bring books, but books at this time are only scientific and cannot lift Pierre’s mood. He asks the professor to freeze him back.

The bug is in a cage and is subjected to all sorts of studies. Many people come to see it, children, scientists and many others. The director of the zoo begins to think that their entire team mistakenly classified Pierre as a human species, and even in the worker class. After which Pierre has to live in the same cage with a bug.

Production [edit | edit code ]

The production of The Bedbug on the stage of the Meyerhold Theater was preceded by a reading. Mayakovsky read his play in front of the troupe so expressively that the director invited Igor Ilyinsky (the first performer of the role of Prisypkin) to listen to the author separately [18].

The re-reading - no longer for the actors, but for the artistic and political council of the theater - was successful; the play was recognized as “a significant phenomenon of Soviet drama,” called “the Soviet “Inspector General”” and proposed to be included in the repertoire [18].

Work on the play took place over six weeks. Immediately after the premiere, which took place on February 13, 1929, Mayakovsky went abroad. On the way, he received a telegram in which the creators of the play asked to replace one of the lines [14].

According to the recollections of Ilya Ilf’s daughter Alexandra, the satirical magazine “Chudak”, published in 1928-1930, published an article “The Fight of Champions”, the author of which considered the expected premiere of “The Bug” as a competition in which “stage wrestling technique” should go against “techniques of dramatic text” [19].

When working on the play, Meyerhold used the style of posters and theatrical propaganda. In each of the characters, according to theater critic Alexei Morov, a certain dominant feature stood out. In the image of Prisypkin, the emphasis was on “monumental servility.” Rosalia Pavlovna Renaissance, his mother-in-law, has taken “NEPman enterprise” to the point of absurdity. The bride Elzevira Davidovna was distinguished by “phenomenal stupidity.” Oleg Bayan emphasized his tendency to fawn [20].

The play ran on stage for three years, and during this time the opinions of critics who initially did not accept the play changed. Now the reviewers are talking about "The Bedbug". One of the reviewers, in connection with the change in the mood of readers and spectators, noted that with the help of the production, “not only Prisypkin, but also the theater began to ‘freeze off’” [9]. Nevertheless, complaints remained - they concerned mainly the second part of the performance. Thus, the people of the future, according to critics, looked in Meyerhold’s interpretation as “too rational, dry creatures.” At the same time, the final scene, in which Prisypkin is demonstrated in a zoo cage, was perceived as an undoubted success of the director [20].

The success was largely due to the performance of Igor Ilyinsky. His Prisypkin was an example of “colorful stage grotesque” [9]; The character’s remarks became aphorisms that all the regulars of the “Moscow salons” knew by heart [21].

The play takes place in Tambov: the first three paintings - in 1929, the remaining six paintings - in 1979.

Former worker, former party member Ivan Prisypkin, who renamed himself Pierre Skripkin for euphony, is going to marry Elzevira Davidovna Renaissance, a hairdresser’s daughter, a hairdresser’s cashier and a manicurist. With his future mother-in-law Rosalia Pavlovna, who “needs a professional ticket in the house,” Pierre Skripkin walks around the square in front of a huge department store, buying from hawkers everything he thinks is necessary for a future family life: a toy “dancing people from ballet studios,” a bra, taken by him for a cap for a possible future twins, etc. Oleg Bayan (formerly Bochkin), for fifteen rubles and a bottle of vodka, undertakes to organize a real red labor wedding for Prisypkin - a class, sublime, elegant and delightful celebration. Their conversation about the future wedding is overheard by Zoya Berezkina, a worker and Prisypkin’s former lover. In response to Zoya's puzzling questions, Prisypkin explains that he loves someone else. Zoya is crying.

Summary of Mayakovsky's comedy "The Bedbug"

1928 Summary of the comedy Read in 5 minutes, original - 1.5 hours

The play takes place in Tambov: the first three paintings - in 1929, the remaining six paintings - in 1979.

Former worker, former party member Ivan Prisypkin, who renamed himself Pierre Skripkin for euphony, is going to marry Elzevira Davidovna Renaissance, a hairdresser’s daughter, a hairdresser’s cashier and a manicurist. With his future mother-in-law Rosalia Pavlovna, who “needs a professional ticket in the house,” Pierre Skripkin walks around the square in front of a huge department store, buying from hawkers everything he thinks is necessary for a future family life: a toy “dancing people from ballet studios,” a bra, mistaken by him for a cap for a possible future twins, etc. Oleg Bayan (formerly Bochkin), for fifteen rubles and a bottle of vodka, undertakes to organize a real red labor wedding for Prisypkin - a class, sublime, elegant and delightful celebration. Their conversation about the future wedding is overheard by Zoya Berezkina, a worker and Prisypkin’s former lover. In response to Zoya's puzzling questions, Prisypkin explains that he loves someone else. Zoya is crying.

The inhabitants of the youth workers' hostel discuss Prisypkin's marriage to the hairdresser's daughter and the change of his surname. Many people condemn him, but some understand him - this is not 1919, people want to live for themselves. Bayan teaches Prisypkin good manners: how to dance the foxtrot (“don’t move your lower bust”), how to scratch yourself unnoticed while dancing, and also gives him other useful advice: do not wear two ties at the same time, do not wear a starched shirt untucked, etc. Suddenly the sound of a shot is heard - it was Zoya Berezkina who shot herself.

At the wedding of Pierre Skripkin and Elzevira Renaissance, Oleg Bayan makes a solemn speech, then plays the piano, everyone sings and drinks. The best man, defending the dignity of the newlywed, starts quarrel after quarrel, a fight breaks out, the stove overturns, and a fire breaks out. Arriving firefighters are missing one person, the rest all die in the fire.

Fifty years later, at a depth of seven meters, a team digging a trench for the foundation discovers a frozen human figure covered with earth. The Institute of Human Resurrection reports that calluses were found on the hands of an individual, which in the past were a sign of workers. A vote is held among all regions of the federation of the earth, a decision is made by a majority vote: in the name of researching the labor skills of working humanity, the individual is to be resurrected. This individual turns out to be Prisypkin. The entire world press reports with delight about his upcoming resurrection. The news is reported by correspondents of “Chukotskie Izvestia”, “Warshavskaya Komsomolskaya Pravda”, “Izvestia of the Chicago Council”, “Roman Krasnaya Gazeta”, “Shanghai Poor” and other newspapers. The defrosting is carried out by a professor, assisted by Zoya Berezkina, whose suicide attempt fifty years ago failed. Prisypkin wakes up and a bug, defrosted with him, crawls from his collar onto the wall. Having discovered that he was caught in 1979, Prisypkin faints.

The reporter tells listeners that in order to ease the transition period for Prisypkin, doctors ordered him to drink beer (“a mixture that is poisonous in large doses and disgusting in small doses”), and now five hundred and twenty medical laboratory workers who drank this potion are in hospitals. Among those who have heard enough of Prisypkin’s romances, performed by him with a guitar, an epidemic of “falling in love” is spreading: they dance, mutter poetry, sigh, and so on. At this time, a crowd led by the director of the zoological garden catches an escaped bug - a rare specimen of an insect that was extinct and most popular at the beginning of the century.

Under the supervision of a doctor in a clean room on the cleanest bed lies the dirtiest Prisypkin. He asks for a hangover and demands to “freeze him back.” Zoya Berezkina brings several books at his request, but he does not find anything “for the soul”: books are now only scientific and documentary.

In the middle of the zoological garden there is a draped cage on a pedestal, surrounded by musicians and a crowd of spectators. Foreign correspondents, ancient old men and women arrive, and a column of children approaches singing. The director of the zoo in his speech gently reproaches the professor who defrosted Prisypkin for the fact that, guided by external signs, he mistakenly classified him as “homo sapiens” and his highest species - the worker class. In fact, the defrosted mammal is a humanoid malingerer with an almost human appearance, who responded to an advertisement given by the director of the zoo: “Based on the principles of the zoo, I am looking for a living human body for constant nibbling and for the maintenance and development of a newly acquired insect in its usual, normal conditions.” Now they are placed in the same cage - “clopus normalis” and “philistines vulgar. Prisypkin hums in a cage. The director, putting on gloves and armed with pistols, takes Prisypkin to the podium. He suddenly sees spectators sitting in the hall and shouts: “Citizens! Brothers! Their! Native! When did you all get unfrozen? Why am I alone in a cage? Why am I suffering? Prisypkin is taken away, the cage is closed.

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