Neznaika at Moon

[Neznaika at Moon]] (Незнайка на Луне) is fairy tale by Nikolai Nosov (Носов Николай Николаевич). It is third book of the trilogy about Neznaika and his friends. This fairy tale had been published in Russian in 1965.

The text with hundreds illustrations by Вальк Генрих Оскарович is loaded at Mizugadro as https://mizugadro.mydns.jp/w/Neznaika/NeznaikaMoon.html

Neznaika and Korotyshki

The protagonist Neznaika lives at the planet, similar to the Earth, and the same name "Earth" is used to denote their planed. Neznaika is citizen of tribe called Korotyshki.

Korotyshki look similar to a human, scaled down for an order of magnitude. Their size is specified: "as a small cucumber", that may correspond to size of 10 cm.

The planet, where the korotyshki live, look similar to Earth, and it is called "Earth". There, the plants are similar to those from the real life; but animals, that could be dangerous for korotyshiki, do not exist: no rats, no mouses, no cats, no dogs, no foxes, no big birds - no any animal, who could consider korotyshki as a prey, as a food,.

Korotyshki are immortales and steriles. During many years, covered with the narration, no one korotyshka is born and none dies.

Bodies of Korotyshki have incorporated systems of annihilation of poop and urine. They need to eat, but they never poop, nor urinate. They have no toiletes. Even their cosmic rocket have no any system of utilization or storage of poop or urine. (although, it has storage of oxygen and system of treatment of the carbon dyoxyde).

All korotyshki speak Russian and do not know about other languages.

Korotyshki have basic knowledge about agriculture, machinery, astronomy, musics and medicine, but not history, nor biology, nor chemistry.

There are several cities of korotyshki. At these cities, there is always good warm weather; it never rains there:

.. У нас в Цветочном городе всегда было солнышко.

As transport, korotyshiki use bikes, motorbikes, cars, railroads, balloons and helicopters, bur not airplanes, nor oceanic ships.

In the story, they build the cosmic rockets and perform at least two missions to Moon.

Plot

Neznaika and his frind Ponchik steal the cosmic missile, designed for the flight to Moon, and reach the Moon.

It happens, that the usually visible part of Moon is relatively thin shell of thickness of order of a kilometer. The inner surface of this shell emits light, similar to the solar light, converting some part of the solar radiation into electromagnetic waves of visible range.

There is solid core inside moon, and there, there is oxygen, rivers and oceans, and plants, similar to the Earth plants, but of size scaled down for an order of magnitude.

Also, inside the Moon, Korotyshki live. The lunar korotyshki also speak Russian. Their technological level is compatible to that of korotyshki at the Earth. They have cars, helicopters, trains, wired telephones, but neither computers nor internet nor mobile phones.

The economical system of lunar korotyshki is parody on the capitalism of beginning of century 20: the primitive machines, a lot of manual labor, and bad capitalists and police mistreat the food worker, in a way as it is presented in Sovietism.

Neznaika and Ponchik meet serious troubles, but their friends come to Moon and save them.

Russia, century 21

Life of the lunar korotyshki takes up most of the book's narrative. This part of narration is important for analysis of historic events in Russia of century 21.

The 2 main hypotheses are discussed:

1. Nikolai Nosov is genius profet; he predicted degradation of the USSR to Russia with completely corrupted administration and police. Being afraid of soviet fascists (who could prevent distribution of a cramole book and even to kill the author), Nosov had to use the Aesop language.

2. The Soviet veterans considered utopia by Nosov as a guide to construct the completely corrupted society. The top of Soviet communists, with foal of usurpation of power, used the parodies (Fantomas, "Mad World", Strike First Freddy") and the story Neznaika at Moon. Because of the iron curtain, the Soviet people did not know about existence of real capitalism, different from the parodies mentioned, and, for this reason, had realized the parodies.

Russian constitution

Boris Yeltsin had to swear allegiance to the country, putting your hand on the Constitution. The Consitution was a thin booklet. In order to make impression on the public, in the last moment, organizers were searching for any book, that can be wrapped in to the cover of Constition. Occasionally, in the case of one of organizers, there was book Neznaika at Moon (he got it for his childern).

So, Neznaika at Moon had been wrapped to the cover of Consitution. Boris Yeltsin put his hand on the Neznaika at Moon and said:

I promis to realize the things written in this book!

Indeed, many things from that book are realized, including the total corruption of the top of the Russian administration.

Police

Quites from book Neznaika at Moon became reason for persecution of critics in Russia in the 21st century.

The following quotes remind the Russian corruption:

.. теперешнего полицейского не отличишь от бандита, так как полицейские часто действуют заодно с бандитами, бандиты же переодеваются в полицейскую форму, чтоб удобнее было грабить. В результате честному коротышке уже совершенно безразлично, кто перед ним: бандит или полицейский.

— А кто такие эти полицейские? — спросила Селёдочка.
— Бандиты! — с раздражением сказал Колосок. — Честное слово, бандиты! По-настоящему, обязанность полицейских — защищать население от грабителей, в действительности же они защищают лишь богачей. А богачи-то и есть самые настоящие грабители. Только грабят они нас, прикрываясь законами, которые сами придумывают. А какая, скажите, разница, по закону меня ограбят или не по закону? Да мне всё равно!

Vestism

The lunar korotuski are vestists; vestism appears as official religion. The following cloths is compulsory to wear at Moon: shirt, hat and shoes.

У нас здесь все можно. Нельзя только не иметь крыши над головой и ходить по улице без рубашки, без шляпы или без башмаков.

English analogies

The movie Futurama can be considered as the English equivalent of Neznaika at Moon

Originality

The society described in Neznaika at Moon has certain features, that differ from realities of post-Soviet Russia:

1. At the Moon, the free distribution of weapon is legal. Everyone, who has money, can defend himself using machine guns, grenades, etc.
In Russia, most of guns are illegal. Even police officer Evsukov Denis Viktorovich (Евсюков Денис Викторович), having the legal gun, uses the illegal gun for asesinations and mass murders; the righteous people have no legal guns to resist against the armored killers.

2. Mister Spruts has no opportunity for aggression to other countries. So, mister Spruts has no regular army. For the same reason, no iron curtain is required to prevent the escape of korotyshkis from the dictatorship of mister Spruts.
At Moon, there is no regular army (although the Island of Fulls can be considered as some equivalent of the Russian army).
However, at the last part of the novel, the cosmic rocket appears (that would allow such escape), and mister Spruts orders the police to run the visitors out, as they are dangerous for his stability.

References

https://mizugadro.mydns.jp/w/Neznaika/NeznaikaMoon.html Незнайка на Луне, in Russian. (1965 - 2000)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunno_on_the_Moon

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_7K-LOK

http://epizodyspace.ru/bibl/fant/nosov/nezn-na-lune-1967/01.html Грандиозная книга! У меня нет издания 1965 г, поэтому я скачал с Сети, сделал вычитку, исправив до сотни ошибок, сделал разбиение абзацев и оформление, как в книге 1967, заново сделал всю графику и обнаружил до двух десятков расхождений текста, но править не стал, хотя текст 1967 г - лучше (в html-коде есть маячки в местах расхождений, но, вероятно не все). Графика сделана с увеличением до 20%.

https://www.mk.ru/editions/daily/article/2008/11/23/11667-papa-neznayki-predskazal-lihie-90e.html Папа Незнайки предсказал лихие 90-е. 23.11.2008 в 17:06. .. “МК” побеседовал с внуком писателя Игорем Носовым. .. Незнайка на Луне” — фактически описание того, что произошло с Россией в 90-е годы. Он описал дикий капитализм, где никто не соблюдает законов. Помните, у деда было “Общество гигантских растений”? Оно сильно напоминает “МММ”. Люди, которые обогатились в 90-е годы, рассказывали мне, что многому научились у Носова… ..