Vladimir Obruchev’s "Plutonium," a summary Automatic translate

This book is a classic science fiction novel about a journey into the Earth’s interior. Written in 1915, the author relies on the hollow planet hypothesis and vividly illustrates the succession of geological eras in reverse chronological order.

Organization of the polar expedition

Geology professor Pyotr Ivanovich Kashtanov receives a letter from geophysicist Nikolai Innokentievich Trukhanov. The scientist is assembling an Arctic expedition to explore the uncharted territory north of the Bering Strait.

On January 2, 1914, the future participants gathered at the Metropol Hotel in Moscow. Zoologist Semyon Semyonovich Papochkin, meteorologist Ivan Andreevich Borovoy of the Main Physical Observatory, and botanist Mikhail Ignatyevich Gromeko were present. Trukhanov shared his plan: tidal observations prove the presence of land in the Beaufort Sea. The Canadian government was preparing a voyage to this unknown region. Russian explorers needed to get ahead of their competitors.

In the spring, the participants set sail from Vladivostok on a specially built vessel, the Polar Star. In Petropavlovsk, they purchase thirty sled dogs and hire an experienced musher, Ilya Stepanovich Igolkin. While sailing through the Bering Strait, the travelers spot a Chukchi kayak. They rescue the shipwrecked mining engineer Yakov Grigoryevich Maksheyev. The gold miner joins the explorers.

Descent into the unknown

The ship successfully breaks through the ice of the Beaufort Sea. The explorers discover a mountainous landmass, which they name Fridtjof Nansen Land. The ship remains trapped at the ice barrier. Trukhanov wears a prosthetic leg and is unable to walk on land. A sleigh party of six sets off north.

Having crossed the icefalls of the Russky Ridge, the team begins a long descent across an endless snowy plain. Soon, the instruments begin to show abnormal readings. The mercury barometer goes off the scale. The meteorologist measures the pressure with a hypsothermometer, based on the boiling point of water. The liquid boils at 120, and then at 128 degrees Celsius. The compass constantly trembles, turns, and shows that the team is heading south.

The negative altitude reaches almost ten kilometers. The snow disappears. The detachment emerges onto the brown-black polar tundra. Fog hangs low over the plain, and a reddish disk hangs motionless at the zenith.

Introduction to prehistoric fauna

In the tundra, Kashtanov and Papochkin encounter live elephant-like animals with red fur and enormous tusks. They kill one with an explosive bullet. It turns out to be a real mammoth. A woolly Siberian rhinoceros attacks the camp. Borovoy and Igolkin successfully kill the animal.

Kashtanov opens Trukhanov’s sealed package. The organizer admits he’s long since figured out that the Earth has an internal cavity. The expedition is specifically equipped to search for the polar entrance. It has been decided to name the central subterranean star Pluto, and the discovered world Plutonia.

Igolkin and Borovoy remain in the tundra camp with the dogs. The four explorers launch two canvas boats. They sail south along the river named after Maksheyev.

The air temperature rises. The polar willow gives way to coniferous taiga, deciduous, and tropical forests. The travelers travel back in time. They observe herds of primeval cattle, wild horses, and giant deer. In the forest, Maksheyev kills a cave bear and a saber-toothed tiger.

The vegetation takes on a subtropical character. Scientists encounter mastodons, four-horned rhinoceroses, and giant baluchite. Evergreen myrtles, tall sago palms, and giant ferns grow along the banks. In the river, Gromeko fends off an attack by a predatory crocodile-like lizard.

Dinosaurs and colossal insects

After passing a belt of swamps teeming with colorful dragonflies, the river leads the boats into the endless Sea of Lizards. Long-necked plesiosaurs hunt in the salty waters, engaging in fierce battles over fish. Toothy pterodactyls croak in the sky. The scientists safely cross the sea under sail.

Kashtanov and Maksheyev explore the cliffs in the gorges of the southern coast. They discover monolithic mountains of magnetic iron ore and rich veins of native gold, copper, and silver. Herbivorous dinosaurs graze in the forests: bipedal iguanodons, three-horned triceratops, and stegosauruses, studded with enormous back plates. The scientists observe a predatory ceratosaurus attacking a herd of iguanodons.

Returning to the landing site, the researchers find the beach deserted. The tent, weapons, tools, and clothing have vanished without a trace. The dog, named General, is paralyzed by poison. Maksheyev tracks the robbers along deep furrows in the sand. Enormous black ants, up to one meter long, have dragged the property into a twelve-meter-high conical anthill. A direct assault with knife-wielding men would be suicidal. Kashtanov suggests using chemical weapons.

Volcanic eruption and gas attack

To obtain the poison, the team heads to the towering volcanoes named Grumbler and Satan. The scorching black Devil’s Desert stretches around them. Geologists descend into the crater and collect crystals of native sulfur in sacks.

While collecting minerals from the Grumbler crater, a dull rumble is heard. A rapid eruption begins. A scorching cloud of superheated gases and ash erupts from the vent. Soon, the volcano erupts with heavy, red-hot lava and ejects bombs. The researchers are forced to flee from a scorching river of rock, rockfall, and streams of hot mud.

Returning to the anthill, the scientists grind the sulfur into powder. They place the chemical in all the lower entrances of the ant fortress and set it alight. Maksheyev fashions mechanical bellows from fresh iguanodon skin. The hollowed-out limbs of giant horsetails, connected with damp clay, serve as pipes. The suffocating gas fills the galleries, killing the insects. People with torches descend into the ring gallery, find the warehouse, retrieve the stolen items, and swim away.

Captivity among Neanderthals

The northern autumn, with its cold rains and snow, is approaching. The expedition is sailing back to the base camp on the Maksheyeva River to cross the icy ridge.

Reaching a snow-covered hill, they see an abandoned yurt with dusty belongings. Abandoned wooden idols and scraps of paper reveal the truth. Igolkin and Borovoy were captured by a tribe of primitive people. The Neanderthals believed the white aliens to be powerful sorcerers. The savages took them with them when they migrated south.

Four armed travelers put on skis and follow the horde’s trail. The savages live in conical huts, wear animal skins, use bone knives, and don’t know how to make fire.

After waiting for the hunters to leave, the scientists emerge from the forest. They take turns firing blanks from their rifles. The frightened natives prostrate themselves before the thunder lords. Igolkin and Borovoy dress, leave boxes of matches as a gift, and depart with their comrades.

During a nighttime pursuit, the savages attempt to bring back the sorcerers. Kashtanov fires small shot and wounds the primitive girl Katu. The scientists treat her and transport her on a sled. The girl misses raw meat and soon escapes. Catching up with her in the deep snow is impossible.

Confiscation of discoveries

In March 1915, the expedition collected its collections and set out on its return journey by sled. With great difficulty, they overcame icefalls and snowdrifts and reached the outer surface of the Earth. At the cape, they were met by the crew of the Polar Star, which had survived the winter. Trukhanov rejoiced, hearing his hypothesis confirmed.

A scientific discussion is taking place in the wardroom. Trukhanov explains the mechanism of the inner world’s formation. The Earth is hollow inside, and this space is filled with dense air. The hole was formed by the impact of a colossal meteorite during the Mesozoic era. The meteorite became the inner star Pluto, and prehistoric animals migrated inside through the hole.

In August, the ship leaves the ice. In the Bering Sea, the explorers’ path is blocked by the Austrian naval cruiser Ferdinand. The cruiser’s officers report the outbreak of war between Austria-Hungary and Russia. The enemy sailors declare the yacht a prize of war. The commander confiscates the vessel, its supplies, observation diaries, geological samples, photographs, and valuable trophies.

The scientists are dropped off on the deserted coast of Kamchatka. The robbed researchers travel to Japan on a fishing schooner, then return to Vladivostok by steamship. Without physical evidence, the expedition members are forced to conceal the truth about Plutonium, fearing being branded as crazy fantasists. The documents disappear in the maelstrom of wars, and only years later does the diary of one of the participants fall into the hands of its author.