A summary of "The Emigrants" by Alexei Tolstoy Automatic translate

This book is a historical documentary story written in 1931. The plot is strictly based on the original materials of the criminal case about the Stockholm murders, organized among the White émigré community under the guise of political struggle.

Parisian intrigues

In the summer of 1919, the French capital is in the throes of post-war chaos. European politicians are deciding the fate of the defeated countries. Russian refugees are crowded into Parisian hotels. Former dignitaries anticipate the imminent fall of the Bolsheviks. Prince Lvov, Ambassador Nabokov, and banker Denisov openly discuss plans for military intervention. England secretly promises financial support to General Denikin. Liberal politicians hope to build a democracy. Cynical stockbrokers await the return of nationalized factories. Journalist Vladimir Lisovsky supplies scandalous materials to the anti-Bolshevik newspaper "Common Cause." Editor Vladimir Burtsev blindly believes in the infallibility of the White generals. Violent workers’ strikes erupt on the streets of Paris. French metalworkers sympathize with the Russian Revolution and engage in violent clashes with the police. Lisovsky witnesses the workers’ discontent but prefers to make money by fabricating sensations.

International adventurer Alexander Levant finds a fallen former officer, Vasily Nalymov, on the streets. Levant brings him to a country villa in Sèvres. The house is rented by Levant’s mysterious companion, Hadjet Lashe. Three Russian women live in the villa: Vera Chuvasheva, Lili Stepanova, and Marya Leshchenko. They fled a war-torn country and endured the horrors of typhus trains and port brothels. The women are completely dependent on their cruel employers. Vera Chuvasheva openly despises her new employers and is constantly at odds with them. Nalymov develops a deep sympathy for her, and they share their tragic memories. Nalymov easily adapts to the cynical reality, trying not to dwell on anything, preferring to spend time with a bottle of alcohol.

Levant cleverly arranges a meeting between wealthy oilmen Tapa Chermoev and Leon Mantashev and agents of the English magnate Deterding. Levant and Nalymov travel to London during a major transport strike. There, they meet with Deterding himself. The magnate plans to monopolize Caucasian oil in order to deal a crushing economic blow to Soviet Russia. Levant expects to receive a colossal percentage of the upcoming deal. Returning to France, he skillfully gets under Mantashev’s skin. Levant frightens the industrialist with political uncertainty, coercing him into signing the necessary documents for the sale of oil fields. Soon, Hadjet Lashe unexpectedly returns from Reval. He orders the immediate severing of all contacts in Paris. The entire group must quickly relocate to Stockholm to carry out bloody missions.

Creating a fictitious league

In Sweden, Hadjet Laschet launches a large-scale operation. He creates the "League for the Salvation of the Russian Empire" to coordinate anti-Bolshevik forces. Former tsarist officers Izvolsky, Bittenbinder, Ettinger, and General Gisser join this organization. Hadjet Laschet instills in them a grandiose lie. He claims that Soviet couriers have brought the stolen Romanov diamonds to Stockholm. Under the pretext of returning these national treasures, he plans banal robberies and reprisals. Laschet enlists the tacit support of foreign diplomats, promising to hand over the recovered documents to American authorities.

Laschet travels to General Yudenich in Reval. Yudenich’s troops are preparing an armed march on Petrograd. White government ministers engage in unrealistic conversations about philosophy and the salvation of culture. Meanwhile, Laschet asks the generals to allocate funds for secret counterintelligence. He promises Yudenich the powerful support of influential European stock exchanges. Speculators actively swarm around the White Army, selling rotten food, worthless uniforms, and medicine. Laschet, in exchange for bribes, helps Swedish merchants obtain the necessary military concessions. He then returns to Stockholm, fully prepared to begin his reign of criminal terror.

Swedish journalist Carl Byström secretly crosses the Finnish border. A sincere sympathizer of the communists, Byström is detained by a Red Guard patrol, suspected of espionage. In Petrograd, the Swede observes severe hunger, cold, and the arduous, round-the-clock labor of workers at the Putilov factory. Factories are constantly repairing armored trains and forging weapons. Byström is struck by the resilience of ordinary people fanatically defending the besieged city. The Red Army prepares to repel Yudenich’s powerful attack. Byström participates in rallies and stands guard with Red Army soldiers under artillery fire near Pulkovo. The Swede returns home a staunch supporter of the proletariat. He plans to publish incriminating materials in the press. His collected notes disappear during a mysterious robbery of the apartment of his friend, businessman Nikolai Ardashev.

The Trap at the Bal Stanes Dacha

Hadjet Lashe settles women dependent on him at his secluded dacha, Bal Stanes, near Stockholm. He uses the women as live bait for his wealthy victims. Naive Lili lures a young Soviet courier, Varfolomeyev, with a fictitious, pitiful story about selling an antique Persian carpet. Varfolomeyev trustingly travels to the dark dacha. There, he is brutally murdered by members of the League, led by Lashe. His body is hidden in a thick jute bag stenciled with the words "political execution." European newspapers eagerly publish false articles about his treacherous escape.

The next victim is wealthy journalist Levi Levitsky. He’s fabulously wealthy, quite self-assured, and openly enjoys life in expensive restaurants. Lili lures him to her dacha under the pretext of an intimate encounter with Vera Chuvasheva. Vera is in a state of profound nervous exhaustion. She tries to make a desperate signal to Levitsky, but Lasha forcibly pushes her away. Levitsky is dragged up to the second floor.

Reprisals and covering up traces

The bandits torture Levitsky with red-hot fireplace tongs. Izvolsky and Bittenbinder demand that he immediately hand over the key to the bank safe and his checkbook. Levitsky breaks free and, screaming, throws himself out of a second-story window. The killers brutally finish him off on the gravel path in the garden. Nikolai Ardashev is the third to disappear without a trace. Izvolsky tricks him into giving up a large sum of money, tortures him, and kills him. All the corpses are bound tightly with thick ropes and thrown into a deep, cold lake.

Vera Yuryevna is slowly losing her mind from the relentless horror. At night, she hears the muffled screams of tortured victims. Nalymov clearly understands the utter hopelessness of the situation. He guesses that the bandits will soon eliminate them both as unwanted witnesses. Meanwhile, Levant suffers financial ruin on the Paris stock exchange due to the defeats of the White armies. He cowardly betrays Hadjet Lashe and secretly flees the French capital. Nalymov is left alone against the cruel Hadjet Lashe, expecting his imminent death.

The collapse of the gang

Byström overhears a frightened Lili’s drunken conversation in a port nightclub. The journalist learns the exact location of Bal Stanes’s dacha. Nalymov, determined to save Vera at any cost, reveals the League’s dark secrets to Byström. Together, they immediately go to the police station. The police chief is trying his best to hush up the brewing political scandal. The Swedish authorities have long turned a blind eye to the crimes of Russian émigrés, sympathizing with the White Guards.

Byström directly threatens to send an incriminating telegram to the Parisian left-wing press. Fearing a major international scandal, the police nevertheless travel to Bal Stanes. During a quick search, detectives find fireplace tongs with human hair stuck to them. A hidden wall compartment contains empty jute sacks with stenciled messages. Nalymov finds Vera half-dead in a cold room. Hadjet Lashe had deliberately starved the sick woman to death to force Nalymov’s blind obedience.

Nalymov becomes extremely enraged. He hits Lashe in the face with all his might with a heavy cane. Lashe is immediately arrested. Soon, the police, using iron hooks, recover bags containing mutilated bodies from the lakebed. Izvolsky, unable to withstand the intense stress, confesses to the crime during his first interrogation. He completely exposes all his accomplices, pointing to Lashe’s guiding will. A long, high-profile trial begins.

The court finale

The European press is actively trying to steer the case toward psychology and mysticism. Bourgeois newspapers seek to justify the bandits with noble political motives. Renowned lawyers portray Hadjet Lashe as an ideological fighter against communism. Byström passionately acts as the official representative of the victim, Vera Chuvasheva. He proves to the court the base, selfish motives of the criminals. The journalist calls the League a gang of hired killers secretly sponsored by Western interventionists.

Byström openly accuses the imperialists of supporting bloody terror against the proletariat. The court is forced to sentence Lashe to ten years in prison. The other accomplices receive sentences ranging from three to eight years. Vera is sentenced to eighteen months for passively concealing the crime. Nalymov remains in Stockholm, visiting Vera regularly and living a quiet, solitary, and extremely frugal life. Yudenich’s army is finally defeated near Petrograd, and the remnants of its troops are interned in Estonia. The British naval squadron retreats.

Byström writes several powerfully incriminating articles and leaves for Germany forever. The Red Army launches a powerful offensive on all fronts. The émigrés’ dreams of a return to the old order crumble to dust. The war for the young Soviet republic is steadily approaching a victorious conclusion.