

Arkasha Pryakhin, the son of a cook, is accepted by the "ladies' committee" as a free pupil at the gymnasium. Treasury discipline, reigning in this educational institution, methodically kills in students a genuine love of knowledge. Gymnasium students, resisting the soulless school system, invent all sorts of pranks, sometimes very evil. Once, when Arkady refused to name the perpetrator of the mischief, he was expelled from the gymnasium.

Vladimir Gardin
Nikita Pavlovich Kamyshev
Dmitry Konovalov
Warden, 'Tsap-Tsarapych'

Andrei Kostrichkin
Tarakanius, teacher of latin

Matvei Lyarov
Priest
Georgy Vatolin
School Principal, 'Rybii Glaz'