"Kara Raid" by Arkady and Georgy Vainer, summary Automatic translate

This book is a historical adventure novel, published in 1983. The most important detail of the text is its blend of authentic facts about the polar campaigns of the young Soviet state with a tense detective storyline. Fictional characters act alongside real-life politicians such as Leonid Krasin and General Yevgeny Miller. The writers accurately convey the atmosphere of the brutal clashes between intelligence agencies, the famine, and the cold of those years.

The fall of the Northern Front

In the winter of 1920, the White Army suffers a crushing defeat. The front is broken. General Miller, commander of the Northern Army, and Chief of Staff Marushevsky hastily flee their residence in Arkhangelsk. Captain First Rank Pyotr Chaplitsky, the former head of counterintelligence, openly mocks their panic.

The officers break through to the port in an armored car. Red Army soldier Konstantin Tyuryapin, along with Pomor partisans, sets up an ambush at an old barn. An unequal battle ensues with the commander-in-chief’s personal escort. Tyuryapin orders the surviving boy, Gervasy, to flee, and he himself dies heroically, throwing grenades at the feet of the White Guards.

The port is in chaos. Thousands of people are trying to board departing ships. Miller boards the icebreaker Minin and sets sail. That morning, Red Army units under the command of Alexander Samoilov enter Arkhangelsk.

Preparing the expedition

In freezing Moscow, People’s Commissar Leonid Krasin summons naval officer Nikolai Shestakov. The republic is suffocating from food shortages. Thirty railways are at a standstill. Enormous reserves of Siberian grain, over a million poods, have accumulated at the mouths of the Ob and Yenisei rivers. Shestakov receives orders to assemble a flotilla and break through the ice of the Arctic Ocean. Krasin explains the plan: to break the economic blockade by establishing intermediary trade with individual European merchants.

The sailor turns to hydrologist Konstantin Neustroev, who sailed with Stepan Makarov, for help. The old captain recalls the merchant Sidorov’s failed attempts to discover the Northern Route and agrees to lead the caravan. Neustroev’s daughter, Lena, secures the right to join the voyage as a nurse. Nikolai, sailor Ivan Sokolkov, and the Neustroev family set sail for Arkhangelsk. Upon arrival, Shestakov presents Commander Samoilo with the Order of the Red Banner and organizes a May Day community service to repair old ships.

Sabotage in Arkhangelsk

Chaplitsky refuses to flee abroad. He hides in an abandoned warehouse with Ensign Sevryukov and Captain Bers. Chaplitsky orders Sevryukov to make his way to London to contact Miller. The Punisher kills sailor Yakimov and Nenets musher Kononka, seizes a mail team, and escapes to the Finnish border.

The counterintelligence agent himself moves into the house of a local merchant, Solonitsyn. He assembles a gang of former officers and criminals. The group begins a systematic campaign of terror. Captain Bers infiltrates the coal carrier "Russel" with a magnetic bomb. The Chekists attempt to detain him during a document check. The bomb detonates, the vessel sinks, and the terrorist dies in the explosion.

The expedition is running out of fuel. Shchekutyev, the caravan’s communications chief and a longtime colleague of Shestakov’s, suggests raising coal from the old ships Pechenga and Albatross, sunken in the roadstead. Divers Fyodor Garkovets and Vasily Zirkovenko work at a depth of twenty meters in icy water.

That night, Chaplitsky’s saboteurs open the seacocks on the lighter "Trud," spilling fuel oil into the sea and setting it ablaze. A wave of flames engulfs the diving boats. The sailors manage to rescue their comrades from the water and pull the vessels away from the deadly flames.

London negotiations

Leonid Krasin, along with Viktor Nogin, is conducting complex negotiations in England. The Soviet delegation needs to purchase steam locomotives, saws, axes, and medicine in exchange for future Siberian goods. British officials and Russian émigrés are delaying the signing of contracts. At a press conference, Krasin harshly retorts to journalists’ attacks on tsarist debts, recalling the sale of Alaska.

General Miller orders the newly arrived Sevryukov to sabotage a deal with the Zakupsbyt cooperative. Sevryukov bursts into the firm’s London office and cold-bloodedly shoots a young typist for refusing to comply. Scotland Yard police quickly track down the killer. Inspector Cummings apprehends Sevryukov right as he leaves the press club. Escaping arrest, the former warrant officer jumps from a police car and throws himself under the wheels of a double-decker bus.

Despite opposition from emigrants, Krasin succeeded in establishing the Soviet international joint-stock company ARKOS and obtaining loans.

Betrayal and trap

Chekist Andrei Boldyrev investigates a series of acts of sabotage. He sets up an ambush on the tugboat "Pronizitelny," where the convoy’s navigational charts are stored. That night, Chaplitsky and his bandits attack the vessel. The Red Army soldiers eliminate the group, but the leader manages to escape.

Vaska Gerasimov, a Nenets man encountered by chance in the city, recognizes Chaplitsky as the officer who executed his relatives. He leads Boldyrev to the merchant Solonitsyn’s house. Chaplitsky escapes through a window along the ledge, but the Chekists find a map of the ships’ locations in his room.

Boldyrev discovers the identity of Chaplitsky’s informant. The traitor turns out to be Shchekutyev. Driven by hatred for the new government and noble pride, he transmitted the flotilla’s secret coordinates to the enemy. Shchekutyev’s radio messages were intercepted by the British heavy armored cruiser Cornwall. A pirate ship under the command of Captain Smiles is already waiting for the unarmed grain convoy near the Kara Strait.

Mortal combat

Realizing the hopelessness of the situation, Shestakov makes a radical decision. He hands over command to Neustroev and orders the caravan to be led safely across the Yugorsky Shar.

Shestakov himself transfers to the small, old tugboat Truvor. Radio operator Alexei Soldatov, Ivan Sokolkov, Fyodor Garkovets, and Vasily Zirkovenko volunteer to join him. At the last minute, Shestakov discovers Lena on board. She had secretly hidden in the cabin, wishing to share her beloved’s fate.

The Truvor approaches the British cruiser. Shestakov orders the national flags and international signals raised. The radio operator transmits in plain text. Captain Smiles spots the tug and opens fire with heavy guns.

The tugboat’s crew responds with its single machine gun. British shells shatter the Truvor. Ivan Sokolkov, Fyodor Garkovets, and Lena perish on the blood-soaked deck. The wounded Shestakov fires at an approaching British longboat carrying a search party with his Hotchkiss machine gun. A direct hit sends the tugboat to the bottom of the Arctic Ocean.

The return of the caravan

By drawing the cruiser’s attention to themselves, the Truvor’s crew enabled the rest of the flotilla to escape pursuit. In August, the ships returned safely to Arkhangelsk from Ust-Port. Thousands of pounds of Siberian grain, furs, flax, and resin were delivered to their destination. The population of the North was saved from imminent famine.

Chaplitsky, realizing the complete collapse of his plans, loses his mind. Donning an old uniform with the Orders of the Legion of Honor and St. George, he steps out into the streets of the red city to meet his end.

A stone pyramid rises on a rugged granite cliff near the Kara Strait. Carved into it are the names of Nikolai Shestakov, Lena Neustroyeva, and the sailors of the tugboat Truvor, who gave their lives to save the people.