Science Fiction
Discovery
Moscow
1920s
Science
Disease
Apocalypse
Survival
Experiments
USSR
Intrigue
PLOT
The action takes place in the USSR in the summer of 1928. Vladimir Ipatyevich Persikov, professor of zoology at the IV State University and director of the Moscow Zoological Institute, completely unexpectedly makes a scientific discovery of enormous importance: in the eyepiece of a microscope, with a random movement of the mirror and lens, he sees an extraordinary ray - “the ray of life”, as the professor’s assistant, Privatdozent Petr Stepanovich Ivanov, later calls it. Under the influence of this beam, ordinary amoebas behave in the strangest way: they reproduce furiously, overturning all the laws of natural science; the newly born amoebas furiously attack each other, tearing each other to shreds and swallowing them; the best and the strongest win, and these best are terrible: twice the size of ordinary specimens and, moreover, distinguished by some special malice and agility. Using a system of lenses and mirrors, Privatdozent Ivanov constructs several chambers in which he receives the same, but more powerful, beam, magnified outside a microscope, and the scientists conduct experiments with frog eggs. Within two days, thousands of tadpoles hatch from the eggs, growing in a day into such vicious and voracious frogs that one half immediately devours the other, and the survivors, within two days, without any beam, produce a new, completely countless offspring. Rumors of Professor Persikov's experiments leak to the press.
At the same time, a strange, unknown to science, chicken disease breaks out in the country: infected with this disease, a chicken dies within a few hours. Professor Persikov joins the emergency commission to combat the chicken plague. Nevertheless, within two weeks, every single chicken in the Soviet Union has died out.
Alexander Semyonovich Rokk, recently appointed head of the Krasny Luch demonstration state farm, appears in Professor Persikov's office with a "paper from the Kremlin" inviting the professor to place the chambers he has designed at his disposal "to improve poultry farming in the country." The professor cautions Rokk, saying that the properties of the ray have not yet been sufficiently studied, but Rokk is absolutely confident that everything will be fine and he will quickly hatch beautiful chickens. Rokk's men take away three large chambers, leaving the professor with his first, small chamber.
Professor Persikov orders tropical eggs from abroad for his experiments—anacondas, pythons, ostriches, and crocodiles. Meanwhile, Rokk orders chicken eggs from abroad to revive chicken farming. Then something terrible happens: the orders get mixed up, and a parcel containing snake, crocodile, and ostrich eggs arrives at the Smolensk state farm. Unsuspectingly, Rokk places the unusually large and strange-looking eggs in the chambers, and immediately all the frogs in the vicinity of the state farm fall silent, all the birds, including sparrows, up and fly away, and dogs in a neighboring village begin to howl mournfully. A few days later, crocodiles and snakes begin to hatch from the eggs. One of the snakes, which has grown to an incredible size by evening, attacks Rocco's wife, Manya, who becomes the first victim of this monstrous misunderstanding. Rocc, who witnessed this tragedy, suddenly turns gray and reports to the GPU headquarters. He recounts the monstrous incident at the state farm, but the GPU agents dismiss his story as a hallucination. However, upon arriving at the state farm, they are horrified to see a huge number of giant snakes, as well as crocodiles and ostriches. Both GPU agents are killed.
Terrible events are unfolding in the country: artillery shells the Mozhaisk forest, destroying crocodile egg deposits, battles with ostrich flocks rage in the vicinity of Mozhaisk, and vast hordes of reptiles approach Moscow from the west, southwest, and south. The human toll is incalculable. The evacuation of Moscow begins, the city is full of refugees from the Smolensk province, and martial law is declared in the capital. Poor Professor Persikov dies at the hands of an enraged mob, who blame him for all the misfortunes that have befallen the country.
On the night of August 19th-20th, an unexpected and unheard-of frost, reaching -18 degrees Celsius, lasts for two days and saves the capital from a terrible invasion. Forests, fields, and swamps are littered with multicolored eggs, covered in strange patterns, but now completely harmless: the frost has killed the embryos. Countless corpses of crocodiles, snakes, and ostriches of incredible size rot across vast expanses of land. However, by the spring of 1929, the army put everything in order, cleared the forests and fields, and burned the corpses.
The whole world continues to talk and write about the extraordinary ray and the catastrophe for a long time, however, no one has been able to obtain the magic ray again, not excluding Privatdozent Ivanov.
Discovery
Moscow
1920s
Science
Disease
Apocalypse
Survival
Experiments
USSR
Intrigue
PLOT
The action takes place in the USSR in the summer of 1928. Vladimir Ipatyevich Persikov, professor of zoology at the IV State University and director of the Moscow Zoological Institute, completely unexpectedly makes a scientific discovery of enormous importance: in the eyepiece of a microscope, with a random movement of the mirror and lens, he sees an extraordinary ray - “the ray of life”, as the professor’s assistant, Privatdozent Petr Stepanovich Ivanov, later calls it. Under the influence of this beam, ordinary amoebas behave in the strangest way: they reproduce furiously, overturning all the laws of natural science; the newly born amoebas furiously attack each other, tearing each other to shreds and swallowing them; the best and the strongest win, and these best are terrible: twice the size of ordinary specimens and, moreover, distinguished by some special malice and agility. Using a system of lenses and mirrors, Privatdozent Ivanov constructs several chambers in which he receives the same, but more powerful, beam, magnified outside a microscope, and the scientists conduct experiments with frog eggs. Within two days, thousands of tadpoles hatch from the eggs, growing in a day into such vicious and voracious frogs that one half immediately devours the other, and the survivors, within two days, without any beam, produce a new, completely countless offspring. Rumors of Professor Persikov's experiments leak to the press.
At the same time, a strange, unknown to science, chicken disease breaks out in the country: infected with this disease, a chicken dies within a few hours. Professor Persikov joins the emergency commission to combat the chicken plague. Nevertheless, within two weeks, every single chicken in the Soviet Union has died out.
Alexander Semyonovich Rokk, recently appointed head of the Krasny Luch demonstration state farm, appears in Professor Persikov's office with a "paper from the Kremlin" inviting the professor to place the chambers he has designed at his disposal "to improve poultry farming in the country." The professor cautions Rokk, saying that the properties of the ray have not yet been sufficiently studied, but Rokk is absolutely confident that everything will be fine and he will quickly hatch beautiful chickens. Rokk's men take away three large chambers, leaving the professor with his first, small chamber.
Professor Persikov orders tropical eggs from abroad for his experiments—anacondas, pythons, ostriches, and crocodiles. Meanwhile, Rokk orders chicken eggs from abroad to revive chicken farming. Then something terrible happens: the orders get mixed up, and a parcel containing snake, crocodile, and ostrich eggs arrives at the Smolensk state farm. Unsuspectingly, Rokk places the unusually large and strange-looking eggs in the chambers, and immediately all the frogs in the vicinity of the state farm fall silent, all the birds, including sparrows, up and fly away, and dogs in a neighboring village begin to howl mournfully. A few days later, crocodiles and snakes begin to hatch from the eggs. One of the snakes, which has grown to an incredible size by evening, attacks Rocco's wife, Manya, who becomes the first victim of this monstrous misunderstanding. Rocc, who witnessed this tragedy, suddenly turns gray and reports to the GPU headquarters. He recounts the monstrous incident at the state farm, but the GPU agents dismiss his story as a hallucination. However, upon arriving at the state farm, they are horrified to see a huge number of giant snakes, as well as crocodiles and ostriches. Both GPU agents are killed.
Terrible events are unfolding in the country: artillery shells the Mozhaisk forest, destroying crocodile egg deposits, battles with ostrich flocks rage in the vicinity of Mozhaisk, and vast hordes of reptiles approach Moscow from the west, southwest, and south. The human toll is incalculable. The evacuation of Moscow begins, the city is full of refugees from the Smolensk province, and martial law is declared in the capital. Poor Professor Persikov dies at the hands of an enraged mob, who blame him for all the misfortunes that have befallen the country.
On the night of August 19th-20th, an unexpected and unheard-of frost, reaching -18 degrees Celsius, lasts for two days and saves the capital from a terrible invasion. Forests, fields, and swamps are littered with multicolored eggs, covered in strange patterns, but now completely harmless: the frost has killed the embryos. Countless corpses of crocodiles, snakes, and ostriches of incredible size rot across vast expanses of land. However, by the spring of 1929, the army put everything in order, cleared the forests and fields, and burned the corpses.
The whole world continues to talk and write about the extraordinary ray and the catastrophe for a long time, however, no one has been able to obtain the magic ray again, not excluding Privatdozent Ivanov.