A summary of Arkady Gaidar’s "The Drummer’s Fate"

This story is a psychological drama about the coming-of-age and moral choices of a teenager left without supervision. Written in 1938, the book reflects the harsh atmosphere of its time: the line between an accidental misdeed and an irreparable mistake is drawn with utmost clarity. The work was successfully adapted for the screen twice: in 1955 by director Viktor Eisymont and in 1976 as a television series.

Life before the disaster

Sergei Shcherbachov recalls his early childhood. His father, a former sapper company commander, moved the family to Moscow after the boy’s mother died on the Volga River. Soon after, his father married a young woman, Valentina. At first, the family lived modestly, but then the elder Shcherbachov was appointed director of a large textile store. Valentina, accustomed to prosperity, became demanding and irritable. Under her pressure, his father committed a crime.

In the spring, he was arrested for embezzling state funds and sentenced to five years in a labor camp. That same day, Seryozha was appointed senior drummer of a Pioneer detachment, but a personal tragedy overshadowed his joy. The boy grieved at the separation, mentally bidding farewell to the parent who had once taught him to find the North Star and sung simple soldier songs.

Loneliness and debt

Two years later, Valentina married Osoaviakhim instructor Lobachov. That summer, the couple went on vacation to the Caucasus. Seryozha, 14, was left alone in an apartment with 150 rubles for a whole month. The teenager had trouble managing his finances. A local hooligan, Yurka Kovyakin, tricked him into small debts. Then Seryozha bought a faulty, old-fashioned camera secondhand. An attempt to refurbish the camera in a workshop required further and quite substantial expenses.

Money was desperately short. Out of desperation, the teenager went to an evening carnival in the park, where he accidentally ran into an old friend, Nina Polovtseva. Her father, a straightforward and honest engineer, had cut off contact with the family after the elder Shcherbachov’s arrest. Seryozha spent his last money on treats and balloons for Nina.

Burglary and theft

In the morning, the boy realized he had no money to pay the laundress who had come, nor to buy back his camera. He decided to open Valentina’s locked desk drawer in the hopes of finding money. Using a file, Seryozha broke the lock, but instead of banknotes, he found a black Browning pistol with a chipped handle. The weapon belonged to his stepmother’s new husband.

A broken key was stuck fast in the lock. In a panic, Seryozha called a junk dealer and sold him Valentina’s fur boa for next to nothing. To cover his tracks, the boy faked a robbery: he hid all his clothes in the bathroom under some old junk and left the front door ajar for three days, waiting for the real thieves to arrive.

He read a lot these days. A book about a young French drummer, unjustly accused of treason but who saved his unit, deeply touched his soul. Seryozha identified with this abandoned hero.

The appearance of a fake uncle

The thieves didn’t show up. Instead, a strange, fat man in yellow boots materialized in the apartment. He introduced himself as Valentina’s brother. The "uncle" proved energetic, ordered everything cleaned up, and generously gave Seryozha money for expenses. Soon, he brought home his friend, old Yakov, a sullen man with a scar on his bald head. The fake relative praised him as a heroic partisan and an old political prisoner.

Seryozha confided in these people. The visitor noticed the broken-in box and listened to the teenager’s halting confessions, but didn’t scold him. He praised the boy for his frankness and promised to take him on a trip. The man bought the teenager some nice clothes, reminiscent of a pilot’s uniform, and they quickly left the capital.

Crime on the train

The trio stopped in Serpukhov and then boarded the train. In the train car, Yakov masterfully faked a heart attack. His neighbors felt deep sympathy for him. The fake uncle arranged for his sick friend to be transferred to a soft-seat car, where a distinguished passenger carrying a leather field bag was traveling. That night, the man sent Seryozha to bring Yakov a hot-water bottle. Unbeknownst to the teenager, the canvas bag contained thick paper used to replace important documents.

The train braked abruptly in the darkness — one of the accomplices had pulled the emergency brake. In the confusion, Yakov committed the theft, and Seryozha, unsuspecting, took the fake hot water bottle back. At the next station, the bandits jumped out of the car. Old Yakov, who turned out to be perfectly healthy and agile, caught up with them just outside the station.

Life in Kyiv

Soon, Yakov separated from the group, and the couple arrived in Kyiv. They settled in an empty kindergarten building on the high bank of the Dnieper. A half-crazy old woman and her bearded son looked after the house. The man promised to send the teenager to a midshipman’s school in Odessa, but for now, he told him to wander around and make friends on the nearby streets.

At the playground, Seryozha befriended the blond-haired Slavka Grachkovsky. The boy was enthusiastically building a model wind turbine. His father, a military engineer, had once parachuted with his son from a burning airplane. The supposed uncle showed great interest in the family. He persuaded Seryozha to visit Slavka, inspected their home, and questioned the teenager in detail about the engineer’s schedule.

Alarming discoveries

A few days later, Yakov secretly returned to Kyiv. Seryozha began to notice a series of oddities. He tried to copy his poems on his guardian’s paper, but the ink disappeared without a trace. The owner of the paper flew into a rage upon seeing this. Later, a deranged old woman stole shaving powder and a man’s red suspenders from the guests. This provoked a violent row, during which Yakov nearly beat the old woman with a stick.

The teenager decided to check the information about the midshipman’s school. The information desk officially told him there was no such institution in Odessa. Then he saw a newspaper ad for a boy with descriptions that matched his own. The listed phone number belonged to his former Moscow apartment. Panicked, Serezha shaved his head and covered his birthmark with toothpaste, believing the police were looking for him for stealing a gorget and breaking into a desk.

The truth is revealed

At Slavka’s house, Seryozha encountered a friend’s weeping grandmother. She told him that Slavka’s father had been attacked in the forest and stabbed in the back. The scattered facts in the boy’s mind came together into a clear picture. The fake uncle and Yakov had turned out to be ruthless spies. They had cynically used the child as a disguise to gain access to engineer Grachkovsky’s secret military developments.

Seryozha called the Moscow number on the long-distance line. A casual remark from the operator told him that the bandits were right there in their Kyiv home. He overheard the spies’ tense conversation: they were planning to flee immediately, fearing imminent exposure.

Confrontation in the Garden

The boy found the very same Browning pistol he’d stolen from the Moscow apartment in Yakov’s briefcase. He’d secretly removed the weapon and hidden it in a thicket of large burdock near a ruined stone gazebo. As the spies walked out into the garden with their belongings, heading for the secret path, an inner voice of conscience uttered, "Straighten up, drummer boy! Stand up and don’t slump!"

The teenager straightened up, drew his pistol, and blocked the bandits’ path. The enemies confidently advanced straight toward him. Seryozha fired three times, forcing Yakov to stumble back. The experienced saboteur was quicker and shot the boy right in the throat. The teenager fell to the damp ground, losing consciousness to the sounds of gunfire and explosions that erupted in the garden.

Return to the Light

Seryozha woke up in a clean hospital room in the holiday village of Irpen. His wound was gradually healing. A major from the state security service came to him and explained the details of the operation. The house had been surrounded by security officers in advance, the spies had been neutralized, and engineer Grachkovsky had survived and was recovering quickly. The gang had been keeping an eye on the military specialists for a long time, and a fake relative had skillfully manipulated the trusting, lonely teenager.

Soon, a joyful Slavka arrived at the kindergarten to visit the recovering Seryozha. He brought the promised flashlight and some treats from his grandmother.

The arrival of Seryozha’s father came as a real shock. For his selfless work on the canal construction site — he saved the structure from a flood, suffering a severe head wound and losing half a finger — he was released early. Upon learning of his son’s disappearance, he placed an ad in the newspaper and came to Kyiv.

The family was reunited. They boarded a plane and flew to Moscow. That evening, from a great height, Seryozha gazed at the millions of lights of the vast city. The boy argued with his father about which songs were truly soldierly and which were simply human. Life was beginning anew, a pure and honest future awaited them.