Summary of "The Air Seller" by Alexander Belyaev

This book, published in 1929, is the first in Russian science fiction to detail the use of global climate weapons and the monopolization of vital natural resources by private corporations. The plot is built on a stark clash between cutting-edge humanistic science and the greedy interests of the global financial elite.

The book’s title story was adapted for the screen in 1967 by director Vladimir Ryabtsev at the Odessa Film Studio.

Fight on the air

An ordinary Soviet employee is suddenly transported from early twentieth-century Moscow to a distant communist future. He finds himself in the vast Radiopolis — a settlement devoid of the familiar cramped buildings and controlled entirely by directed radio waves. The hero meets the historian El, the brilliant engineer Lee, and the pilot Ea. These new comrades tell their visitor from the past about the global confrontation between socialist Eurasia and capitalist America.

The Americans use devastating death rays, instantly incinerating peaceful cities, while the communists defend themselves with invisible energy armor. The hero takes part in a combat expedition to the Red Sea coast, where a downed American spy is exposed. Later, a colossal battle of machines unfolds on the shores of the Atlantic. Giant land tanks and flying ships are controlled remotely from control panels.

The hero infiltrates the enemy’s citadel — a gigantic American skyscraper city where the rich hide on the upper floors. The local bourgeoisie has degenerated into frail, big-headed dwarfs. The Muscovite easily scatters the feeble enemies with his strong arms, saving his companions from certain death. The American tycoons attempt to escape in high-altitude airplanes, jumping out of windows with parachutes, but are destroyed in an aerial battle. At the climax, the hero awakens in his home — all the events turned out to be a feverish delirium during a protracted illness.

Eternal bread

Biochemistry professor Breuer invents a special organic substance capable of endless self-reproduction by absorbing nutrients from the atmosphere. He gives the first sample of "eternal bread" to a poor fisherman named Hans for testing. The old man breaks his promise to the scientist to keep the secret and begins selling the rapidly rising dough profitably to fellow villagers. Word of the miraculous product quickly reaches the leading merchants Rodenstock and Kriegman. The magnates buy up the dough stocks and organize mass production, hoping to dominate global food markets.

However, the cell division process spirals out of control. The gray mass fills houses, floods streets, and spills into the ocean, threatening to cover the Earth with a sticky, impenetrable layer. Global panic ensues, and the established economy collapses. An angry mob of fishermen besieges Breuer’s house. The scientist flees and ends up in a Berlin prison. There, he and his former assistant, Schmidt, frantically search for a chemical antidote. The researchers successfully develop a special fungus that instantly consumes the dough, dissolving it into dry gray dust. The planet is spared from complete suffocation.

A man who lost his face

The brilliant but physically deformed comedian Antonio Presto suffers from constant ridicule. The renowned film actress Hedda Lux haughtily rejects his marriage proposal, literally choking with hysterical laughter at the sight of his passionate confessions. Insulted, Presto turns to the Russian physiologist Sorokin. The doctor administers intensive hormone therapy and manipulates his pituitary gland. Presto’s physique completely changes. From a clumsy dwarf, he transforms into a tall, slender youth, but his former cinematic glory is forever lost.

The public categorically refuses to accept the new tragic actor. The influential film magnate Pitch cynically cancels his lucrative contract. Out of revenge, Presto throws a lavish farewell dinner. He secretly spikes the guests’ wine with powerful hormonal extracts from Dr. Sorokin. Hedda Lux begins to grow rapidly, Pitch develops a plump layer of fat, and the actress’s new fiancé shrinks to the size of a child. The victims of this cruel prank are urgently admitted to Sorokin’s clinic. The doctor restores their normal appearance. American authorities impose a strict ban on medical experiments. Sorokin leaves America forever, and a renewed Presto heads to Europe to seek a new calling.

Air seller

Soviet meteorologist Georgy Klimenko and his faithful companion Nikola discover an anomalous crater at the pole of cold in Yakutia. A huge crater is sucking in Earth’s atmosphere with monstrous force. The explorers fall into the abyss and become prisoners of a secret underground base. The base is run by a shrewd businessman named Bailey. The businessman uses powerful ammonia refrigeration units to liquefy colossal volumes of air. He methodically engineers an artificial oxygen deficit on the planet, hoping to dictate political terms to world leaders. Klimenko is forced to work in a chemical laboratory under the strict supervision of the captive Swedish scientist Engelbrecht. The professor’s daughter, Eleanor, falls passionately in love with the meteorologist.

Nikola makes a daring nighttime escape through a garbage chute and transmits classified information to the Soviet government. Red Army units immediately converge on the crater. Bailey defends herself by generating deadly hurricanes. Eleanor, wanting to free her father from blackmail by a businessman, commits a courageous suicide. She emerges, lightly clothed, into a cave of absolute cold and turns into an ice statue.

Overwhelmed by grief, Engelbrecht openly attacks the base’s owner. Soviet sappers break through the granite rock and rush into the bunker. Frantic with fear, Bailey swallows solid balls of compressed air, exploding from within. Billions of cubic meters of liquid oxygen are released. Earth is saved from destruction.

Golden Mountain

American reporter Clayton arrives in the Altai foothills on a special mission. His main goal is to locate the talented Soviet physicist Mikulin. This scientist designs high-voltage cathode devices and successfully synthesizes pure gold from cheap alloys through nuclear fission. His overseas client, Dodd, orders Clayton to blow up the laboratory. American stockbrokers hope to save the capitalist financial system from the global devaluation of gold reserves.

Clayton fakes a heart attack, infiltrates Mikulin’s farm, and witnesses grand experiments. The reporter develops a deep affection for the selfless physicist and falls unrequitedly in love with his lab assistant, Elena Lor. The American visitor sabotages Dodd’s cruel order by burying explosives in a dense forest.

Losing patience, Dodd organizes a nighttime armed raid on a peaceful farm. Mikulin uses his invention for defensive purposes, sending a deadly high-voltage current straight through the air. The energy wave instantly kills Dodd and sends the hired bandits fleeing in panic. Utterly disillusioned with his former ideals, Clayton remains in Altai forever, helping to advance Soviet science.

Underwater farmers

Agronomist Volkov, energetic Komsomol member Vanyushka Toporkov, and veteran taiga hunter Konobeev organize a cutting-edge state farm in the Far East for growing healthy seaweed. Engineer Guzik designs portable electric batteries, lightweight diving suits, and underwater crawler tractors. A team of enthusiasts sinks sealed steel domes to the ocean floor and builds a dry and comfortable home there — Hydropolis. Soon, the state farm begins producing hundreds of tons of valuable chemical raw materials.

Japanese businessman Tayama suffers colossal losses due to successful Soviet competitors. He unsuccessfully attempts to bribe Volkov. The embittered businessman refits a submarine with underwater streamers and secretly destroys the state farm’s ocean crops at night. One day, Vanyushka Toporkov accidentally clings to the protruding hook of an enemy submarine and is captured on a Japanese schooner. A local driver, secretly sympathetic to communist ideas, organizes an escape.

Soon, an embittered Tayama directs a heavy submarine straight at Hydropolis, intending to ram its steel walls. The resourceful Guzik sends a powerful current through the dome’s hull, turning the building into a giant electromagnet. The submarine becomes firmly attached to the magnetic belt. The Japanese sailors stage an armed mutiny against their master. The disgraced businessman commits the traditional hara-kiri right in front of the Soviet workers. The state farm continues its peaceful, shock work, and a happy Vanyushka proposes to the young researcher Elena Pulkova.