Three Fat Men (Russian: Три Толстяка, "Tri Tolstiaka") is a Russian and Soviet children's story written by Yury Olesha in 1924, published 1928.[1] The book tells the story of a revolution led by the poor against the rich (Fat Men) in a fictional country. This country is described in a realistic spirit, without magic and fairy-tale creatures, but some fantastic elements are still present. It was considered the first revolutionary fairy tale in Soviet literature for its depiction of a popular uprising against a corrupt government. Early critical reaction was varied, with V. Boichevsky describing it as a "sugarcoated" presentation of revolution in an article "How Stories For Children Should Not Be". Anatoly Lunacharsky, however, saw in it "heart-felt apologetics by the artistic intelligentsia accepting the revolution".
Konstantin Stanislavki and the Moscow Art Theatre premiered a dramatic version of the story in May 1930. A ballet version with music by V. Oransky was presented in 1935. It has also been turned into an opera (composer, V. Rubin, 1956), a film, cartoon movies, diafilm (filmstrip), several comic versions, several radio versions, and a computer game.
There is a revolutionary situation in the country of the Three Fat Men - discontent among the poor part of society. Clashes between the rebels and the guard of the Three Fat Men break out every now and then. The leaders of the revolutionaries are the gunsmith Prospero and the aerial gymnast Tibul. The great scientist of the country, Doctor Gaspar Arneri, sympathizes with the people, although he himself is a fairly wealthy man. Prospero is arrested and put in a cage in a menagerie, but Tibul remains free. Gaspar hides Tibul in his house and, using a washable solution, repaints him as a black man for temporary camouflage. The next day, the "negro" accidentally learns about an underground passage from the palace of the Three Fat Men. This secret is revealed to Tibul by a seller of balloons, who the day before had the imprudence to fly into the palace kitchen on his balloons and only bought his freedom from the cooks who threatened to hand him over for a bunch of his balloons. Meanwhile, the mutinous palace guards damage the mechanism of the wonderful doll of the Tolstyakovs' heir, the boy Tutti. When the doll was in good working order, it was no different in appearance from a living girl and even grew identically to Tutti. As the best mind in the country, Doctor Gaspar is ordered to repair the doll in one day and one night under threat of severe punishment. He cannot do this for technical reasons and takes the doll to the palace to honestly surrender, but loses it on the way. The search for the doll leads him to a van of traveling artists, and there he meets a little circus performer Suok, who is like two peas in a pod, like the broken doll. On the initiative of Tibul, also a member of the circus troupe, she agrees to replace the doll and help the revolutionaries save Prospero from the palace menagerie. Moreover, the doctor, having agreed with Suok, demonstrates to the Fatties that the doll will die irrevocably if they do not cancel the execution of the captured rebels, and the execution is canceled so as not to upset Tutti with the death of the doll.
The girl manages to free Prospero: she takes the key to his cage from Tutti, whose neck the Fatties hung it on, believing that this way the key will be in the best condition. Freeing Prospero from the menagerie, Suok notices a dying creature in one of the cages, similar to a humanoid wolf. He introduces himself as Tub, a scientist who once borrowed the image of the doll from Suok for Tutti. Before his death, the unfortunate prisoner confesses that in fact Suok and Tutti are separated twins, from the moment when they were 4 years old and they were kidnapped from their home by the guards of the Three Fatties. The same scientist refused to make Tutti's heir an iron heart instead of a human one (the Fatties needed an iron heart so that the boy would grow up cruel and ruthless). After spending eight years in the menagerie cage, Tub turned into a creature resembling a wolf - he was completely covered in fur and had fangs. Scientists Tub died, cried desperately and left a note to tell the truth. Suok discovers Prospero and frees him.
Prospero and Suok try to escape from the palace. The gunsmith succeeds, but Suok does not. She is arrested and sentenced to death. To prevent Tutti from interfering with the execution of the false doll with his crying, special spies put the boy to sleep for several days with a sleeping pill. Nevertheless, everything works out well for the brave girl and the revolutionaries: the guards, who went over to the side of the people, replace the girl with the doll they found just before the execution. The Three Fat Men are overthrown, and Suok and Tutti are finally reunited and perform together, becoming the circus performers Suok and Tutti.