"Dunno on the Moon" by Nikolai Nosov, summary Automatic translate

This book is a 1965 fairy tale novel about an interplanetary expedition by short people from Earth into the interior of the Moon. The author reveals the underbelly of monopolies, joint-stock companies, stock trading, and the police apparatus, skillfully weaving a satire of capitalism into children’s literature. For this text, the author received the N.K. Krupskaya State Prize of the RSFSR in 1969. An animated series of the same name was made based on the work in 1997.

This story is the third book in the "Adventures of Dunno and His Friends" series. It is preceded by "The Adventures of Dunno and His Friends" and "Dunno in the Sunny City."

Preparation and flight

In Flower City, Znayka puts forward a pancake theory about lunar craters. The scientific community rejects this hypothesis. Later, Znayka flies to the moon and brings back a piece of a luminous stone — lunite. While cleaning her room, Znayka places the lunite next to a piece of magnetic iron ore. The contact between the minerals completely eliminates gravity in the house, generating a local anomaly. The shorties float around the rooms. Vintik and Shpuntik nail their shoes to the floor to cook, and boiling water flows out of the kettle in a giant bubble. Znayka constructs a portable zero-gravity device.

The construction of a spaceship unites all the inhabitants. The rocket consists of several sealed shells and compartments containing a huge supply of Earth seeds: giant watermelons, cucumbers, and wheat. Dunno and Donut are expelled from the expedition for bad behavior.

The offended little guys sneak onto the launch pad at night. Donut, frightened by the darkness, tries to leave the ship, but in the push-button cabin, he accidentally presses the electronic launcher. The rocket flies off to the moon with only two uninvited passengers on board.

Having landed on the Moon, Dunno and Donut don metal spacesuits and head outside. They find a cave with icy stalactites. Dunno slides down a smooth icy tunnel and falls into a deep well leading to the Moon’s interior. Donut, terrified of being alone, flees to the safety of the rocket.

In the sublunary world

Dunno’s fall is slowed by a built-in parachute hood. He makes a hard landing in a clearing. The local world surprises him with dwarf plants. The inner surface of the lunar shell glows in the sunlight. Dunno eats a small raspberry in a private garden, for which the servant Fix throws him into a steel trap. The garden’s owner, Mr. Klops, sets the intruder on a pack of ferocious dogs. Fleeing through the garden beds, Dunno finds himself on the streets of the lunar city of Davilon.

That evening, he eats a hearty dinner at a restaurant without a cent in his pocket. The waiter calls the police. Policeman Figl brutally shocks Dunno with an electric baton and puts him in a closed van. At the police station, Judge Wrigl and Policeman Migl measure the arrested man’s head with a special device. They mistake Dunno for the notorious robber Krasavchik.

Having failed to receive the required bribe, the police throw Dunno in a filthy prison cell. The arrested runts ridicule Dunno for his stories of giant terrestrial vegetables. Only the dark-eyed Miga believes the tales. The unemployed Kozlik tells his friends about the terrifying Stupid Island. There, homeless runts breathe poisoned air, degenerate, and turn into ordinary sheep. In the morning, the police throw Dunno and Kozlik out into the street with a bang.

The Scams of the Lunar Rich

The friends visit Mr. Julio, the owner of a firearms store, with a note from Miga. Julio posts bail, freeing Miga from prison. The trio decide to create a joint-stock company for giant plants. The swindlers plan to sell attractive shares to poor villagers, promising them a fabulous harvest. The proceeds will be used to build a new aircraft. Dunno is hired as a cashier in the office.

The company’s shares are in unprecedented demand among the residents of Davilon. The chairman of the large capitalist council, billionaire Spruts, fears the collapse of his business: if the poor grow giant fruits, they will stop toiling in factories. Spruts sends his cunning manager, Krabs, to Miga and Julio. Krabs offers the swindlers a bribe of one million ferthings to flee the city. Having stolen the collected funds, Miga and Julio abandon Dunno and Kozlik to their fate.

Notorious Brechenville miser Scooperfield arrives in Davilon on a barge to buy up stocks cheap. He’s willing to eat four dinners in a row to save a single farthing. Krabs tricks Scooperfield into a dense forest and ties him tightly to a tree with a rope. Scooperfield endures the bites of forest ants and bedbugs for a long time. Fugitives Miga and Julio accidentally find him and demand a huge ransom for his rescue. Freeing himself from the ropes, Scooperfield hits Julio over the head with a bone cane and flees.

Terrible panic breaks out in Davilon. Spruts’ newspapers publish exposés. Outraged shareholders storm the office, break down the doors, and empty the safes. Dunno and Kozlik barely manage to climb down a rope through a window. Left penniless, they leave by train for the city of San Komarik.

Struggle for survival

They are refused work in all the restaurants. Kozlik earns a pittance at a street stall, getting hit in the face with rubber balls. Dunno and Kozlik spend the night in the cheap "Economicheskaya" hotel, where greedy vending machines demand coins for electricity, water, a bed, and even a bar of soap. Later, they move to the damp basement of the "Tupichok" flophouse. Gray rats crawl there and biting insects swarm.

A rat bites the goat and makes him seriously ill. Dunno gets a job as a dog sitter for the wealthy Mrs. Lamprey. He bathes the white poodle Roland and the little dog Mimi, brushes their fur, and takes them to the grooming salon. Dunno gives the money he earns to the doctor for treating his friend. Mrs. Lamprey finds Dunno in a filthy flophouse and drives him away with a scream.

Soon, Skupperfield arrives at the flophouse. He’s recruiting free workers for his pasta factory. The old workers have gone on strike against their meager wages. Skupperfield brings in new workers, but the strikers fight back. In the chaos of the night, Dunno and Kozlik are thrown into the cold river. They lose their shoes and hat. The police catch the frozen friends under a bridge for violating the vagrancy law. They are sent in the damp hold of a ship straight to Stupid Island.

The fate of Donut and the rescue expedition

Meanwhile, Donut destroys all the Earth’s food supplies in the rocket on the lunar surface. Without waiting for Dunno, he jumps into an icy well. Donut lands by parachute near the sea near the town of Los Paganos. He discovers large crystals of table salt on the sandy shore. Moonwalkers have no idea what salt tastes like. Donut begins selling it briskly to customers at coastal restaurants. He instantly becomes rich, hires hungry workers, and builds a salt factory.

Large landowners notice his financial success, build their own gigantic factories, and drastically reduce prices. Donut goes bankrupt. He becomes a simple waterwheel operator and joins the secret Society of Free Wheel Operators.

On the mainland, Znayka and his colleagues discover the missing spacecraft. They hastily construct a new multi-stage spacecraft. Znayka, Fuchsia, Selyodochka, Professor Zvezdochkin, and Engineer Klyopka fly to the Moon. They find the empty first rocket, descend through an icy tunnel, and penetrate the Moon’s interior. Local police open fire on the arriving astronomers. Engineer Klyopka is shot in the arm.

Znayka immediately deploys the zero-gravity device. Dozens of police officers lose their footing, fly into the air, and tumble helplessly over the fields. The Earthlings set up camp and build Space Town. A brave villager named Kolosok makes his way to them. Znayka gives him giant seeds and small zero-gravity devices for reliable protection from the police. Donut arrives at Space Town on a tracked all-terrain vehicle and tearfully tells his friends about Dunno’s sad fate.

Return to Earth

Having learned the secret of weightlessness, the lunar workers drive out the factory owners en masse. The workers confidently operate the machines and mechanisms themselves. Scooperfield’s Pasta Factory begins producing cheap goods. The former rich lose their power and their servants. Spruts lives in mountains of garbage, fries eggs over a fire made from broken furniture, and sleeps in an empty chest. He shouts, "I’ll tear them to pieces for this! Shatter them!" and teams up with Julio to take revenge on the earthlings. They plant crates of dynamite under the new spaceship and blow it up.

A powerful explosion seriously damages the rocket’s casing. Znayka organizes a rescue expedition. The Earthlings reach Los Paganos by boat and rescue the prisoners of Silly Island. Among the rescued are Dunno and Kozlik, who had been spending their days riding carousels and watching pointless movies. Dunno suffers from severe homesickness. His illness is sapping all his physical strength.

The cosmonauts use an old rocket, securely parked on the outer surface of the Moon. Before departure, Znayka gives the lunar astronomers Alpha and Memega precise blueprints of the ship and a rich supply of lunite. Dressed in spacesuits with propellers, the travelers ascend through an icy tunnel. Doctor Pilyulkin stubbornly fights for the weakened Znayka’s life. In the cramped cabin of the old rocket, the patient’s heart suddenly stops. Pilyulkin quickly applies an oxygen bag and performs artificial respiration.

The rocket successfully launches toward the mainland. The flight proceeds smoothly. The spacecraft makes a soft landing near Flower City. Vintik and Shpuntik carry the ailing Dunno out into the fresh air. Barely touching his boots to the ground, Dunno falls to his knees and, with tears in his eyes, kisses the green grass. The healing power of his native land instantly restores his robust health and ringing laughter.