"The Victims Have No Claims" by Arkady and Georgy Vainer, summary Automatic translate

This book is a classic Soviet crime novel, written in 1986. It intertwines a crime story with the moral and ethical issues of society. The most important plot point lies in the paradoxical situation: a man voluntarily takes the blame for a murder. He does so to protect the real criminals, while the victims try their best to hush up the case. The story was originally titled "Drive Around Hit-and-Run Cats and Dogs" — a direct quote from the text, an instruction from an army driving instructor to the protagonist.

Also in 1986, director Bolat Shmanov filmed a screen adaptation of the same name at the Kazakhfilm studio. The film proved to be quite successful, attracting over ten million viewers in Soviet cinemas.

New duties of the investigator

Senior prosecutor Boris Vasilyevich Subbotin takes his wife Lila to Moscow for advanced training. Upon returning to work, he takes over the case of his colleague, Pyotr Vereshchagin. Vereshchagin is being promoted. One of the cases requires urgent resolution. Driver Alexander Stepanov is accused of intentionally running over a group of people. Vasily Drozdenko died in the incident. Suren Egiazarov, the maitre d’ at the Central Restaurant, suffered severe fractures in both legs.

Stepanov is in pretrial detention and fully admits his guilt. The accused claims he got into an argument with a group of strangers in the parking lot of a kebab shop. He allegedly started a fight, got behind the wheel of his old Pobeda, and drove into the crowd. Subbotin visits Stepanov in his punishment cell. He was sent there for fighting with his cellmates. The investigator notices unusual behavior in the detainee: Stepanov is bragging, angry, and slurring his testimony. He shows no remorse, despite verbally expressing his readiness to face harsh punishment.

Meetings with victims

Subbotin goes to the hospital to see Suren Egiazarov. The maitre d’ is in traction, but in a good mood. He’s listening to a Japanese tape recorder and receives an attractive waitress, Marina. She’s dressed in a US Air Force uniform, prompting Subbotin to ironically call her a pilot. Egiazarov mistakes the investigator for a Gosstrakh agent and behaves with utmost ease. Upon learning the truth, he’s not the least bit embarrassed. The victim offers Subbotin money for his troubles and begs him to release Stepanov. He justifies his request by citing a sudden outburst of philanthropy. Marina, the waitress, assures the investigator that she personally witnessed the fight. However, she confuses the names, proving the falsity of her testimony.

Later, Subbotin visits the Central Restaurant to question the other picnic participants. He demands testimony from director Eduard Vinokurov and chef Valery Karmanov. They are well-fed, confident men with extensive connections. Karmanov claims that Stepanov attacked them without provocation. The investigator finds Vinokurov in an elite bathhouse. The restaurant director, surrounded by an obliging entourage, persuades Subbotin to abandon unnecessary investigations. He offers to enjoy a sumptuous feast and close the case quickly. Subbotin declines the treat, feeling a growing dislike for the group.

Hidden Evidence

While talking with food truck driver Alexey Plakhotin, Subbotin notices new inconsistencies. Plakhotin openly lies about the fight. The investigator forces him to take off his shirt and discovers terrible bruises on his body. The driver clumsily defends himself, citing a fall. Subbotin orders a forensic examination to document the injuries.

The investigator then goes to the scene of the crime — a roadside barbecue joint. Akhmet Sadykov, a skilled cook, works there. Subbotin questions Valya, the security guard at a nearby boarding house, and Abdrazakov, a vacationer. Witnesses confirm that the fight began before Stepanov’s car began backing up. Subbotin personally measures the distance with a tape measure. The distance from the barbecue to the turnoff is exactly 118 meters. Abdrazakov also adds a frightening detail: he clearly saw a gleaming blade in the hands of one of the attackers.

Subbotin organizes a search for clues in the adjacent grove. The boys, including the investigator’s son, Marat, find a heavy kitchen cleaver in the mud. An old craftsman named Ferapontov makes custom knives. He examines the blade, recognizes his trademark, and confirms the investigation’s suspicions. This enormous cleaver, weighing six hundred grams, was forged specifically for Chef Karmanov. The real murder weapon has been found.

Pressure on the investigation

At home, Subbotin faces an equally difficult challenge. He lives modestly with his son Marat and mother-in-law, Valentina Stepanovna. On his son’s birthday, the investigator returns from work to find the child with an incredibly expensive gift. Marat had been given a portable Japanese tape recorder. It turns out the generous donor is Oleg Karmanov, the son of the chef under investigation.

Subbotin immediately grasps the hidden meaning of this gift. It’s a veiled bribe, an attempt to buy loyalty through the children. Boris Vasilyevich is adamant. He forces his upset son to return the gift immediately. The investigator explains to the boy the age-old rule of honest people: one should only accept things that one is capable of giving oneself. This episode underscores Subbotin’s absolute incorruptibility.

They also try to influence the investigator in other ways. Subbotin accidentally meets his childhood friend, Senka Tolstopaltsev. He runs an apartment renovation company and has made connections and money. Senka, out of old friendship, offers to renovate the Subbotins’ modest apartment in a luxurious way. During the conversation, the key point is revealed: Tolstopaltsev is acting on direct orders from Eduard Vinokurov, attempting to appease the recalcitrant lawyer. Subbotin harshly suppresses these advances.

Reconstruction of events

The crime scene begins to come together. Subbotin realizes that the restaurant mafia is engaged in large-scale meat theft. The driver, Plakhotin, owed Vinokurov and Karmanov money for goods he sold on the side. That night, the criminals brutally beat the debtor in the parking lot. Alexander Stepanov, driving by, saw the beating and rushed to his aid. The restaurateurs attacked him. Karmanov attempted to strike the young man with a large cleaver.

Stepanov retreated to the forest, leading the attackers away from his car. His younger brother, Vadik, was asleep inside the Pobeda. He was a seventeen-year-old mathematics student who couldn’t drive at all. Awakened by screams, the terrified Vadik saw armed men. He got behind the wheel and tried to drive closer to save his brother, but in his panic, he misplaced the pedals. The car crashed into the crowd.

Alexander Stepanov took full responsibility. Full responsibility to save his brother from prison. The restaurateurs readily supported this theory. They had absolutely no need for a thorough investigation. Police attention could have exposed their meat-smuggling schemes and attempted murder. A conspiracy of silence emerged, with the victims shielding the fake killer.

The denouement of the story

Subbotin recruits OBKhSS operatives, the department for combating theft of socialist property, to join the operation. They apprehend Plakhotin and Akhmet red-handed while unloading the stolen meat. Overwhelmed by fear, Plakhotin confesses to everything. He testifies about the thefts, the beating over a debt, and the attempted murder of Stepanov. Karmanov chased the young man with a knife on direct orders from Vinokurov.

Prosecutor Shatokhin had previously demanded the swift closure of the obvious case due to pressure from above. This young boss, a fan of a healthy lifestyle, was afraid of ruining the statistics. Now he supports Subbotin. The boss signs a decree releasing Stepanov from custody. Subbotin summons Vadik Stepanov to his office and confronts him. The boy admits to driving the car. He did so out of fear and a complete lack of technical know-how. He took the wheel because his older brother always protected him from any harm.

The investigator releases Alexander. Vadik remains for formal questioning and a confrontation with the mafia. The criminal case against the restaurant embezzlers is brought to justice. That evening, a distraught Pyotr Vereshchagin enters Subbotin’s office. Subbotin’s honest investigation ruins Vereshchagin’s career. It was Pyotr who initially accepted the false version and nearly sent an innocent man to prison. Vereshchagin admits his colleague’s rightness and silently leaves, slamming the door.