"The Flying Ship" by Andrei Belyanin, summary

The humorous detective-fiction novel "The Flying Ship," written in 2000, combines elements of Russian fairy tales and classic police investigations. The narrative combines fairy tale motifs, police work, and conversational humor. The work is the third installment in the "Secret Investigation of Tsar Pea" series, which also includes "The Secret Investigation of Tsar Pea" (1999) and "The Conspiracy of the Black Mass" (1999). For this entire series, the author received a special prize from the Kharkiv University of Internal Affairs at the "Star Bridge" international festival in 2000.

Theft of secret blueprints

For six months now, Moscow police junior lieutenant Nikita Ivashov has been heading a detective department in the ancient, semi-fairytale town of Lukoshkino. He is assisted by the magic expert Baba Yaga and a two-meter-tall, immensely powerful, yet trusting junior officer, Mitka Lobov. The department’s daily routine is well-established, and order in the town is maintained by the joint efforts of the police and Foma Yeremeyev’s Streltsy squad.

The Tsar invites Nikita into his chambers and shows him secret blueprints, as well as a working miniature model of a flying ship with fluttering wings. The aircraft was designed by local craftsmen for aerial travel and trade. The Tsar hides the documents in a silver chest under a secret hatch in the red corner beneath the icon and wears the key around his neck.

Two days later, Tsar Gorokh angrily rushes to the police station: the blueprints have been stolen directly from the locked chest. Ivashov and Baba Yaga inspect the crime scene. The expert finds no traces of black magic, but the chest smells of a strange woman. Suspected is the Tsar’s mistress, Ksenia Sukhareva, the janitor’s daughter.

The first victims and a parallel investigation

Mitka tries to interrogate the gypsy women at the market, but starts a brawl by dragging the entire camp to the police station and getting the guards drunk. Nikita summons Ksenia’s father, the janitor Nikolai Stepanovich Sukharev, for a talk. The janitor turns out to be a former Sorbonne auditor who reads the classics in the original. He assures the police officer that his daughter is a bit stupid, but not involved in the theft.

The next morning, Nikolai Sukharev is found dead. Baba Yaga determines the poisoning was a rare foreign poison — cyanide ("blue poison") — spiked into his tea. The killer killed the man who had been in police custody.

The boyars, led by Bodrov, persuade Gorokh to assign a parallel investigation to the holy fool Pashka Psurov and the scandalous clerk Filimon Gruzdev. The clerk and Psurov issue an ultimatum to the townspeople, threatening torture for anyone who fails to return the drawings by noon.

The outraged Lukoshkinites gather at the Tsar’s court. Nikita Ivashov persuades the Tsar to reverse the boyars’ arbitrary rule and calm the people. The Tsar extends the police investigation by three days.

The destruction of a brothel on the Kobylinsky tract

Nikita is approached by a dark-skinned beauty named Olena, the niece of a tannery owner. She asks him to find a gold ring with a pink stone set in a five-petal daisy, stolen at the market.

That evening, Ivashov, Mitka, and Foma Yeremeyev’s strelets set out on a raid on Seliverst Poganov’s inn on the Kobylinsky Highway. A criminal element has gathered at the den. Nikita notices Olena’s stolen ring on the hand of the maid Nastasya.

Nastasya lures the police officer up to the second floor and throws him into the "well of death" under the revolving bed. Nikita grabs a wall pole with his belt and climbs up. Down below, Mitka single-handedly disperses Poganov’s entire gang.

The innkeeper Poganov is detained. The morning before leaving for town, Poganov drinks a mug of water and instantly dies from cyanide. The maid Nastasya manages to escape from the restroom.

The Indian Maniac and the Devil on the Currant

Mitka brings a detainee, covered in soot and tar, to the station. It turns out he’s Pashka Psurov, who’d been following Mitka and picking his pocket. Baba Yaga uses a spell to force the clerk Filimon to use only swear words.

Nikita tries to interrogate Ksenia Sukhareva, but the girl repeats one phrase: "I don’t remember anything." From an old denunciation by the clerk Filimon, the lieutenant recalls a detail: Ksenia brought an unknown, dark-haired friend into the royal bedroom.

That night, the patrol catches the "cat maniac." It turns out to be the same Pashka Psurov, who, after the bathhouse, put wet washcloths on his bald head, drank moonshine, and attacked the cat with an axe.

Ivashov and his musketeers set out for the Smorodina River to search for Nastasya. At the mill site, the lieutenant encounters the devil. After defeating the devil in judo and outwitting him in a game of "nuts," Nikita learns the truth. The kidnapping is being carried out by a powerful enemy hiding underground and a black-haired girl who changes her appearance.

The death of Xenia and the appearance of Koschei

Returning to Lukoshkino, Ivashov learned of Ksenia Sukhareva’s death. She had been poisoned with cyanide in her room, slipped into her tea. The killer had eliminated the last witness who had seen the dark-haired guest.

The Lukoshkin residents, having learned of the station’s closure, stage a rally in front of Gorokhov Dvor, demanding the district police officer be reinstated. Gorokhov tasks Nikita with finding the criminals.

During interrogation, Deacon Filimon describes Ksenia’s dark-haired companion. That night, an invisible assailant attacks the squad. Nikita throws out a bucket of water, revealing wet footprints. The chase leads to a tannery, where Nastasya dies in a skirmish with Olena.

That same night, Koschei the Deathless himself arrives at the squad with a three-meter-long black sword. The Streltsy and Mitka hold off the attack. A rooster, accidentally fed drunken barley by Mitka, crows at midnight. Koschei, mistaking the rooster’s crow for the coming of dawn, retreats.

The finale and throwing salt

Clerk Filimon and Psurov bring the planted plans to the tsar, attempting to attribute the success to the boyars’ investigation. Ivashov guesses that Koschei discarded the plans as unnecessary, as the flying ship had already been completed in the tannery’s courtyard.

Olena turns out to be a demon and Koshchei’s main accomplice. She helped poison witnesses and lead the police on false trails.

Koschei attempts to fly away on the ship he’s built. According to the program’s rules, the craft circles the sky and descends to the same point. Nikita Ivashov, Tsar Gorokh, the Streltsy, and the townspeople shower the ascending craft with chunks of unground salt from the city warehouses. Under the weight of the salt blocks, the flying ship lands on the ground.

Koschei the Deathless, covered in salt and weakened, is chained and sent to an underground dungeon. Olena gives Nikita the cap of invisibility and disappears, promising to return. Order and law are restored in Lukoshkino.