"Energetic People" by Vasily Shukshin, summary

This satirical novella for the theater was created in 1974. It is a detailed description of the daily life and psychology of wealthy speculators during the era of stagnation, masterfully justifying their schemes with concerns about the economy. The play gained immense popularity thanks to its successful theatrical production by Georgy Tovstonogov at the Leningrad Bolshoi Drama Theater in 1974.

Feast and flights

Aristarkh Kuzkin manages a store, and his wife, Vera Sergeyevna, works as a saleswoman at the Sapphire jewelry salon. The couple lives in a three-room apartment, densely furnished with expensive, hard-to-find items. Aristarkh regularly hosts raucous drinking parties with a group of his friends. These energetic individuals are constantly engaged in illegal activities. Currently, they are celebrating their latest haul: five car tires are lying right in the hallway. The guests are drinking champagne and eating gourmet caviar.

The guests have drunk heavily and are indulging in strange amusements. They pretend to be migratory birds, flapping their arms and cooing as they flock from one room to another. Aristarkh leads the merry company, dramatically bidding farewell to his beloved birch trees. Vera Sergeyevna deeply disdains these drinking sessions. She locks herself in her room and turns the television up to maximum volume to interrupt their drunken revelry. The companions quickly tire of flying, and Bryukhaty suggests taking the train. He honks loudly, skillfully imitating a locomotive, and the group rolls into Vera’s apartment in train cars.

The wife greets them with hostility and openly calls them parasites. The men hastily retreat to the next room, where the Common Man demands regular vodka instead of vintage cognac. Vera Sergeyevna, meanwhile, writes a scathing statement to the city prosecutor. She details her husband’s illegal income, stolen car parts, and late-night drinking sprees. She categorically demands an end to the speculators’ improvisations. The cause of her uncontrollable rage was not only banal fatigue but also intense feminine jealousy.

Economic justification

In the morning, Aristarkh is suffering from a severe hangover. He accidentally finds a copy of the application under his glass of water and runs to his wife in utter terror. Vera has dressed and is about to mail the document through a street mailbox. She gleefully shows him a note from a certain Sonya, found in her husband’s jacket. Aristarkh tries pathetically to get out of it, calling Sonya by his old bearded friend’s student nickname, but she doesn’t believe him. The man forcibly takes her purse containing the application.

Aristarkh securely locks the door and launches into a lengthy, scholarly lecture. He confidently delivers a lengthy economic lecture to his wife, explaining that a rational state deliberately allows theft. He describes his illicit income as a perfectly legitimate reward for his demonstrated commercial initiative. Tires, according to his twisted logic, don’t even exist, having been manufactured at the factory overtime from scrapped materials. Vera Sergeyevna remains deaf to his arguments and bluntly promises her husband hard labor as a digger in a penal colony.

Negotiations and threats

Aristarkh urgently calls his companions on the phone. Upon learning of the threat of imminent arrest, they collectively decide to dissuade Vera individually. The fat man enters first. He plays the role of a worldly-wise advisor and vividly recounts his own real-life prison sentence. His wife had once also helped put him away, but was ultimately left penniless, deprived of her home and all her valuables. Vera refuses to succumb to the cunning manipulations of the hardened old convict.

Snub-Nosed is the next to enter the room, timidly. He immediately falls to all fours, whines pitifully for mercy for the sake of her five underage children, and offers Vera a mutually beneficial deal. He fervently promises to find her a gorgeous artist lover with a huge nose, so he can take cruel revenge on the unfaithful Aristarkh with his branching horns. He tearfully assures her that a secret affair will brighten her dull life. The indignant hostess throws the negotiator out with loud screams.

Baldy opts for cold, legal pressure. He calmly explains to Vera the harsh norms of Soviet criminal law. All the imported furniture, crystal, and her expensive astrakhan fur coat were purchased with dirty, stolen money. Baldy categorically declares that they will all go to jail together, since she knowingly used the stolen goods for many years. Vera confidently counters this threat, naively claiming that the money for the expensive items was provided by her honest, working-class parents.

Armed blackmail

The terrified swindlers decide to take extremely drastic measures. They plan to stage a meticulously staged bloody massacre in order to physically force the woman to sign a retraction. Snub-Nosed grabs a huge kitchen knife, Aristarkh a sharp meat cleaver, Belly grabs a heavy metal candlestick, and Dark-Headed arms himself with a soft sofa cushion. Baldy wisely remains empty-handed, allowing him to believably play the role of a frightened peacemaker.

An armed, enraged mob aggressively storms Vera Sergeyevna’s apartment. They advance slowly, threatening to chop her into tiny pieces and carry her out in sturdy shopping bags if she refuses to sign the document. Vera immediately leaps onto the windowsill of the open window. She desperately promises to jump from the second floor and break both her legs, but to tell the police the whole truth. The men are horrified by their own wild behavior and flee in disgrace.

The perfect way out

Deep gloom and sharp mutual insults reign among the men’s company. Suddenly, a Simple Man appears with a heavy case of high-quality cognac. He instantly learns of the impending mass arrest, cries long and touchingly over the treasured glass bottles, and then resolutely approaches Vera. He asks only one brief legal question about the rightful owner of the apartment. The prospect of the complete confiscation of the luxurious cooperative housing forces the adamant woman to give serious thought.

The cunning Chernyavy suddenly finds the perfect escape and makes a hasty escape. He soon returns triumphantly with a striking woman — his real-life lover, Sonya. Chernyavy has lucratively promised her a hard-to-find Yugoslav bookcase for a small theatrical favor. Sonya obediently goes to Vera and confidently takes the blame for the love note. She openly lies that she wanted to break up someone else’s family out of banal feminine revenge, since the faithful Aristarchus coldly rejected her ardent feelings.

The deceived women reconcile and find common ground with surprising speed. Sonya emerges from the bedroom as the absolute victor and forcefully forces Aristarkh to kneel before everyone present. The humiliated husband timidly asks his triumphant wife for forgiveness. A satisfied, Belly Man deftly organizes a humorous round dance. The respectable adults clasp their little fingers tightly and chant a funny children’s rhyme about eternal peace and a silly quarrel. The dangerous family conflict seems completely resolved.

Fatal ending

The rescued speculators quickly set a sumptuous festive table. They sincerely rejoice at their preserved freedom, drink French cognac, and philosophically discuss the sublime love and pure respect for one’s neighbor. Peaceful Vera asks her guest to fetch the necessary bottle opener from the nearby cabinet. The woman obediently leaves and suddenly bursts back, clutching the shiny object tenaciously with both hands, as if it were a genuine service weapon.

Sonya screams wildly, "Hands up! I’m from the OBEHS!" The relaxed party instantly freezes with primal, animalistic terror. The steel bottle opener really does look a lot like a police pistol. Sonya laughs heartily and long at her successful joke. The terrified men gradually come to their senses, nervously wiping away their cold sweat and vying with each other to share their dark thoughts in the moment of mortal terror. Suddenly, a sharp, unusually long ringing of the doorbell rings out.

Vera Sergeyevna confidently opens the door, waiting for her neighbor to pick up some new patterns. Three stern police officers, in both uniforms and civilian clothes, stand silently at the door. They sternly ask everyone to remain seated and immediately present their passports. One of the detectives immediately notices the stolen tires piled in the hallway. The speculators freeze in a deathly, oppressive silence. A commoner slowly looks into the audience and quietly asks who really wrote the denunciation.