vk.com / Sergey Pozdnyakov
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The cover
"In 2017". Credits: V. Strukova, V, Shevchenko; artwork by L. Smekhov. A production by the "Diafilm" studio, 1960.

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"Who isn't fascinated by the future? What will it be like? Who wouldn't like to see into the next century? By reading sci-fi books, studying scientists' estimations and bold engineering projects, we can imagine what the future could look like."

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"So let us peek into the future. Let us travel 50-60 years forward. Perhaps on the eve of the 100th anniversary of the October Revolution schoolchildren, very much like you, will be watching a cinerama about their country's recent past and present during a geography lesson. A film showing how Soviet people are changing the environment for peace and happiness in the world."

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"Here are these schoolchildren in an auditorium in 2017. A special cinematic effect - a 'time magnifier' - lets them watch how the country's new outlook was created."

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"The children saw bridge vaults stretching toward each other over bottomless mountain gorges..."

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"...how precise atomic explosions cut unwanted hills, burrowed channels..."

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"...how the rivers Ob and Yenisei turned around and flowed toward the Caspian sea. This sea, which had been drying up just a while ago, was now taking in new full-flowing rivers."

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"The children heard the announcer's voice: 'And here is the dam across the Bering Strait. Can you see nuclear trains crossing it? The dam is blocking the way of the cold stream from the Arctic Ocean, and the climate in the Far East has improved.'"

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"Then the earth surface melted, so to speak, and one could see what was happening in the earth's womb. Deep inside the volcanoes, underground mole-boats made of special heat-resistant steel were digging mines to eternal sources of energy."

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"Then the earth itself disappeared. In space, photonic rockets, interstellar ships flew toward the closest, yet so distant planetary system of Alpha Centauri almost at the speed of light."

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"When the show ended, Nikolai Borisovich, the geography teacher, reminded the class that tomorrow they would be going on a trip to an underground city of Uglegrad (Coal City) situated North of the Arctic Circle."

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"The next morning, Igor woke up from a light flick on the nose. That was how his wall clock used to wake him up. His father, one of the operators at the Cental Institute of Weather Control, invented the clock for a laugh."

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"Squinting, the boy saw a soft plastic hand that had just woke him up, folding back into the clock case. 'Today I'll see Uglegrad with my own eyes!' Igor thought enthusiastically."

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"His mother wasn't in the kitchen, but she had left a note with a task for a smart cooking machine. 'My favorite kind of breakfast!' the boy rejoiced."

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"Igor carefully turned the machine on and slid the note into a slot. While the machine performed the task, invisible rays scanned the contours of the letters on the note, automatic scoops weighed the ingredients, special knives swiftly cut vegetables."

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"Suddenly, he heard the mother's clear voice from the father's study."

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"His mother was looking [at him] from the screen of the TV-videophone. She was standing on a liner's deck. Here was a kindergarten where her younger children were at the moment. "Did you manage to cook your breakfast?" his mother asked, smiling."

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"'Are you... in the Black Sea?!' Igor asked, surprised. 'I'm on a work trip inspecting the Black Sea floating kindergartens, I thought I'd pay a visit to my kids... Call your father and tell him that I'll be back only tomorrow.'"

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"Half an hour later, Igor was far away from the capital. The Arctic met the newcomers with a furious blizzard. Local workers encircled the Muscovites."

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"A hatch opened before the visitors, and a wide escalator carried them down."

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"After that, everyone drove around the streets of Uglegrad. A delicate linden fragrance was in the air. Looking at the people sunbathing on the beach under a quartz star, it was hard to believe that a blizzard was roaring above them."

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"And on the outskirts of the city, huge steel multi-purpose machines were digging into the rocks. Engineer-in-chief Vladislav Ivanovich told the children a lot of interesting things."

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"'Here, under the ground, we have never ending spring,' he was saying with pride. 'But the freaky weather above us is disrupting the product shipping schedule.'"

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"'Couldn't the flying weather control station that is under construction now deal with the Arctic weather?' Nikolai Borisovich asked. The children were waiting for engineer-in-chief's reply with interest."

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"Currently the flying station’s influence only produces temporary effects. And the only way to ensure a continuous flow of cargo is to build an intercity subway spanning the entire Arctic."

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"This is Zemlevik's new design – a high-speed drilling machine. Powered by recently-discovered meson energy, it’ll work three times as fast as its predecessor."

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"And the flying weather control station will play a very important role. A man in a control room will be pushing buttons while the machine will be heading to destroy hurricanes and quell storms."

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Very soon students learned the full extent of the flying station’s capabilities. While Vladislav Ivanovich was talking to them in his office at the Central Weather Institute in Moscow, the country’s chief weatherman and weather operator on duty, Igor’s father, was discussing emergency reports coming from the Pacific.

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"Reports just came in that the last remaining imperialists who were hiding on a remote island tested a banned meson weapon. The resulting explosion of untold magnitude wiped out the entire island and caused a disturbance in the atmosphere," the head weatherman said.

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"So that’s why our smart forecasting machine predicted a Force 12 storm in the Black Sea despite the fact that yesterday the forecast was favorable!" Yevgeny Sergeyevich exclaimed.

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“This explosion in the South Pacific caused terrible hurricanes and storms. We must move quickly to save the people! Is our flying station ready?” the head weathermen inquired.

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A horrifying thought flashed through Yevgeny Sergeyevich’s mind. Ships… Floating daycare centers. And his wife, Nina and Vitya are there. The hurricane gets closer to them with each passing minute, but the station still cannot be controlled remotely.

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"We’ll request permission for a manned mission," the head weatherman decided. "We’ll be flying the station ourselves. Sure, that will put our lives at risk, but we must save those children, sailors and their ships."

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Permission was granted. And now giant watery columns reaching far into the sky are flashing behind the flying station’s windows.

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Image of the Black Sea coast briefly appeared on a TV screen aboard the station. A giant tornado was ripping roofs off buildings and uprooting ancient trees.

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The head weathermen lowered black glass shields on all of the station’s windows. Lab technicians were manning the console. The fire outside was painful to look at even through the black glass, as the station was emitting mesons of untold energy. The emissions were battling against the tornado.

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When the meson lightning was finally switched off and the black glass shields were raised, the tornado was gone. The flying weather control station saved hundreds of lives.

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The explosion in the South Pacific that posed a deadly threat to the Black Sea coast was also felt in the capital. A grey impenetrable slime was creeping along the depressing sky.

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But the capital was preparing for a celebration. The streets felt lively as Muscovites were eagerly reading the latest newspaper about the new breakthroughs in weather control made possible by Soviet science.

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And suddenly the clouds broke apart and columns of golden light fell upon buildings and parks. The bright corridor in the sky was growing wider.

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The flying weather control station was slowly gliding over the city. The jubilant capital was preparing for the 100th anniversary of the Great October (Socialist Revolution). This momentous occasion coincided with a great victory of Soviet science over nature.

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When Igor’s father emerged from the station, his son found himself unable to escape his father’s unusually firm hug for some time.