"The Era of Mercy" by the Vainer brothers, summary

This book, published in 1975, confronts two irreconcilable views on legality and humanity against the backdrop of harsh post-war Moscow. The authors depict the difficult daily lives of police officers through the eyes of a frontline soldier accustomed to open combat but forced to fight an invisible enemy. The text reveals the conflict between harsh methods and humanism, faith in the power of punishment and the hope for a brighter future.

In 1979, director Stanislav Govorukhin filmed the cult television series " The Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed " based on the novel, which received enormous audience love.

First steps in the police

In the fall of 1945, former reconnaissance company commander Vladimir Sharapov joined the Moscow Criminal Investigation Department. He was assigned to the anti-banditry department, led by Captain Gleb Zheglov. From his first days, Sharapov was immersed in the brutal reality of the criminal underworld. Young operative Vasya Vekshin went to Tsvetnoy Boulevard to meet a criminal who promised to lead the detectives to the dangerous "Black Cat" gang. Vekshin was killed by a shanked knife while sitting on a bench. For Sharapov, this death became a painful lesson, demonstrating the difference between the front and the hidden threat of a peaceful city.

Soon, the task force responds to a false murder call and finds an abandoned infant in the entryway. Sharapov, along with police officer Varya Sinichkina, takes the boy to the Grauerman Maternity Hospital. A mutual attraction develops between Vladimir and Varya, gradually developing into a strong feeling. Vladimir shares his worries with his communal apartment neighbor, Mikhail Mikhailovich Bomze, who lost his son in the war. The old man speculates that cruelty will disappear when the Era of Mercy arrives. Zheglov treats such thoughts with obvious disdain.

Investigation into the death of Larisa Gruzdeva

The team’s primary case is the investigation into the death of Larisa Gruzdeva. She was found shot to death in her room. Zheglov immediately suspects Larisa’s ex-husband, doctor Ilya Gruzdev. The doctor has an obvious motive: an unresolved housing issue and a relationship with another woman, Galina Zheltovskaya. During a search of the doctor’s home in Losinka, the murder weapon — a Bayard pistol — and a recently issued insurance policy in the victim’s name are found. Neighbor Lipatnikov confirms that he saw the doctor leaving the house at the presumed time of the woman’s death. Zheglov is certain of Gruzdev’s guilt and orders him arrested.

Sharapov carefully examines the evidence and begins to doubt it. He notices that Gruzdev smokes Deli cigarettes, crumpling the mouthpieces like the cigarette butts found at the crime scene, but the doctor insists, "I didn’t find Larisa at home." An examination reveals that the teeth marks on the bitten chocolate belong to neither the victim nor her husband. The fingerprints on the wine bottle also turn out to be someone else’s. It also turns out that the end time of the football match, which Lipatnikov’s neighbor relied on, was different.

Studying Larisa’s letters, Vladimir discovers she had a secret lover. Engrid Sobolevskaya, this man’s former girlfriend, names him Fox. The detectives follow a string of petty crimes. During a raid on the Narva restaurant, they detain Manka Obligatsia, on whose wrist Sharapov notices the murdered Larisa’s gold lizard bracelet. The woman confesses to having received the item from the thief Valentin Bisyaev, nicknamed "Kopcheny." Zheglov beats Kopcheny at billiards and discovers he won the bracelet in a card game from the pickpocket Kostya Saprykin, known as "Brick."

Detectives track Kirpich on a trolleybus. During his arrest, Zheglov discreetly slips the stolen wallet into the thief’s pocket to provide irrefutable evidence for the court. This act outrages Sharapov, who refuses to accept deception for a noble cause. The captain confidently replies, "A thief should be in prison!" and refuses to discuss methods of capture. Intimidated, Kirpich reveals that he received the bracelet from Fox at the apartment of fence Verka Modistka.

The pursuit and capture of Fox

At the Modistka house, detectives find a suitcase containing Larisa Gruzdeva’s belongings. Zheglov sets an ambush there. The operation ends in tragedy: the cowardly officer Solovyov is frightened by the armed Fox, allowing him to shoot officer Toporkov and escape. An enraged Zheglov dismisses Solovyov from the police force in disgrace.

To pursue new leads, Zheglov and Sharapov apprehend pickpocket Pyotr Ruchnikov and his accomplice, Volokushina, at the Bolshoi Theater. Through them, the detectives obtain the phone number of Anya, Fox’s partner. The detectives set up an ambush at the Savoy restaurant. Fox appears in the dining room but notices the police just in time. A fight ensues, and the criminal throws his companion, Marianna, through a display window into the street and jumps out after her. A long car chase through the nighttime streets ensues. Police bus driver Kopyrin pursues the Studebaker truck while Zheglov shoots at the tires of the fugitives. Fox’s car crashes through a barrier and falls into the river. The bandit is captured alive.

Infiltration into the gang and the finale

Fox is acting defiantly and refusing to testify. Sharapov decides to outwit the criminal: under the guise of a handwriting test, he forces the arrested man to write a note, which he then uses to create a secret message for the gang. Vladimir takes this letter to meet Anya, posing as a criminal.

The girl brings Sharapov to the secret hideout of the Black Cat gang. The leader, nicknamed Karp and nicknamed Hunchback, suspects Vladimir of being a policeman and threatens him with a painful death. Among the bandits, Sharapov sees Sergei Levchenko, a convict from his front-line company. Levchenko immediately recognizes the former commander but decides to remain silent, sparing him in memory of his rescue during the crossing of the Vistula. That night, Levchenko suggests Vladimir escape, but Sharapov refuses to leave without results. He manages to convince the bandits to come to Fox’s rescue, kidnapping him from the back room of a grocery store during a forensic experiment.

In the morning, a truck carrying the criminals pulls up to the store. They descend a sloping concrete ramp into the basement. Vladimir, remembering the layout of the utility room, manages to duck behind the thick iron door of the storeroom, locking the bolt Zheglov had thickly greased. The lights go out. The captain announces over the ventilation system that both exits are blocked and demands they surrender their weapons. Realizing their hopelessness, the bandits comply.

While loading the prisoners into a prison van, Levchenko suddenly pushes aside the guard and runs across the vacant lot toward the railroad tracks. Sharapov shouts after him, begging him to stop, and rushes to intercept Zheglov to stop him from shooting. Zheglov cold-bloodedly shoots the fleeing man with his rifle. Vladimir is shocked by the death of the man who saved his life and openly tells the captain that he can no longer work with him. Zheglov, however, is absolutely certain he is right: it was a bandit who was killed, not a human being.

With a heavy heart, Sharapov returns to the Administration building on Petrovka Street. In the lobby, he stumbles upon a mourning portrait of Varya Sinichkina, surrounded by flowers. She died the previous night while arresting armed criminals. Crushed by grief, Vladimir goes outside and wanders unconscious in the snow, recalling their conversations about the coming era without fear. Awakening late that evening in his empty office, he picks up the phone and asks information for the number of the Grauerman Maternity Hospital so he can find the boy he and Varya adopted.