"Corrupt Beasts" by Polina Dashkova, summary

Polina Dashkova’s action-packed novella "Corrupt Beasts" (also published under the title "Chechen Puppet") was written in 1996 and first published in 1997. The plot combines the drama of the Caucasian wars of the 1990s, a cynical conspiracy by corrupt officials during the gubernatorial elections, and the unexpected love story of a young Moscow student and a talented surgeon forced to operate on wounded militants.

Lonely rest and salvation

Nineteen-year-old Masha Kuzmina, a student at the Shchepkin Theatre School, arrives on the Black Sea coast. Her classmate and boyfriend, Sanya Sharko, has stayed in Moscow for a television shoot, promising to return later. A lonely vacation in the resort town turns into a series of troubles: a poorly maintained room, the landlady’s rude son, and persistent street harassment. That evening, Masha is attacked by two drunken thugs on a deserted street. She is saved by a gray-haired man driving by in a black Toyota — forty-five-year-old Vadim Nikolaevich Revenko, a surgeon at the regional hospital. He scares off the thugs and gives Masha a ride home.

Meanwhile, in Moscow, GRU General Frolov sends Colonel Gleb Evgenievich Konstantinov to the coast. Officially, the colonel is going on vacation to the Solnechny Bereg sanatorium to visit his longtime lover, ballerina Elizaveta Belozerskaya, and their illegitimate son, Arseny. In reality, the intelligence officer faces a government mission: to discover which gubernatorial candidates are being financed by Chechen armed groups and to neutralize the dangerous terrorist Aslan Akhmedzhanov hiding in the mountains.

Secret bases and compromising information

A year and a half ago, Revenko fell into forced dependence on militants. At gunpoint, he was driven across the Chandra River to a mountain village, where he operated on dying Chechens. Since then, the surgeon has been regularly called to the underground hospital. Recently, he saved the life of Akhmedzhanov himself. The doctor is deeply troubled by his situation, knowing that the people he healed will return to murder and terrorist attacks. The only bright spot in the village for him is a mute, shell-shocked old man, Ivan, who scrubs the floors. The doctor feeds him and secretly speaks to him in Russian.

The old man is actually former sailor Andrei Klimushkin. Many years ago, he and a fellow sailor were drugged at the train station and sold into slavery. Due to beatings and drugs, Andrei lost his memory and speech. But the doctor’s care awakens the prisoner’s consciousness. During a secret meeting between Akhmedzhanov and gubernatorial candidate Vyacheslav Ivanov, a militant cameraman records the transfer of a $500,000 bribe for the election campaign. While cleaning the room, Andrei hides a tape containing incriminating evidence and secretly hands it to Revenko, saying, "Andryukha is alive!" That night, the militants brutally beat Andrei, trying to learn what happened to the tape, and then beat him to death.

Freight train and captivity

Masha learns that Sanya has been hospitalized with appendicitis and won’t be coming, and the money transfer is impossible to collect. Left penniless due to a theft at the station, she decides to travel to Moscow on freight trains. By mistake, she boards a train heading toward the Caucasus border. Jumping out while the train is moving, Masha falls into the hands of militants from Akhmed Saidov’s unit.

The terrorists confiscate the girl’s documents, abuse her, and prepare to sell her to a local resident as a slave. Revenko suddenly bursts into the barn. Threatening the militants with the confiscated machine gun and paying a $500 ransom, he rescues the student and takes her home. A deep, mutual feeling blossoms between Vadim and Masha.

Provocations and death of witnesses

Akhmedzhanov suspects the doctor of stealing the video recording. A bribed police captain, Anatoly Golovnya, is sent to Revenko. The captain attempts to recruit the surgeon and coerce him into confessing. The doctor sees clear symptoms of Graves’ disease in the policeman and advises him to seek medical attention. The captain is being followed by local television journalist Matvey Pertselai, who is secretly collaborating with military intelligence. The journalist passes information about Golovnya’s connection to the Karavella bar to Colonel Konstantinov.

FSB officers violently kidnap Golovnya while collecting money at a bar. The captain suffers a thyrotoxic crisis from the intense stress. In the infirmary, the policeman dies from a sudden injection from a nurse. The gangsters then kill journalist Pertselay: while swimming at the city beach, he is drowned by militants disguised as divers.

The role of Yulia Voronina and the massacre

Masha accidentally finds a shampoo bottle in the bathroom, into which Vadim had soldered the tape. The doctor tells her the whole truth about the operations in the mountains and the incriminating evidence against Ivanov. Masha realizes that the bandits won’t leave the surgeon alive until the tape resurfaces in someone else’s possession.

The student comes up with a daring plan. Transformed with a red wig, blue contacts, bright makeup, and a short dress, Masha poses as Yulia Voronina, a reporter for a Moscow newspaper. She visits Vyacheslav Ivanov’s office under the pretext of an interview. After charming the womanizing politician, Masha goes to his private restroom and tapes a duplicate videotape to the toilet lid.

That night, the militants search Ivanov’s office, find the tape, and take the politician to the mountains. The panicked former official claims the incriminating evidence was planted by a red-haired journalist, allegedly staying at the Solnechny Bereg sanatorium. Akhmedzhanov personally kills Ivanov with a shot to the back of the head, and his accomplices dump his body in a grove near the border.

A chance meeting at the market

At the city market, Masha unexpectedly runs into her teacher, Elizaveta Belozerskaya. Vadim, Arseniy, and Colonel Konstantinov approach their table. The doctor and the colonel are already acquainted: Revenko had previously provided emergency assistance to Arseniy right at the border, setting the boy’s dislocated arm. Sensing someone watching, the officer quietly arranges a late-night meeting with the doctor on the beach.

However, the market is being monitored by waitress Larisa Velichko, who informs both the intelligence services and the gangsters. Information about the surgeon’s contact with the colonel immediately reaches Akhmedzhanov.

The assault on Gagua and the finale

Realizing their house is being watched, Vadim and Masha attempt to escape to the airport. On the way, the doctor manages to run into the sanatorium’s security gate and pass a note to Konstantinov through the guard, asking him to pick up a tape labeled "Cruel Romance" and referring to the village of Gagua. As they exit the gate, armed militants seize Vadim and Masha and take them to a mountain base.

In Gagua, bandits tie up hostages and lock them in a barn. After receiving a note and viewing a recording showing FSB officer Yuri Lazarev among the bandits’ partygoers, Konstantinov dispatches a special forces unit to the village.

During the assault, the base is engulfed in flames. Special forces soldier Vasily Blinov frees the prisoners from their ropes, but is soon killed by a sniper’s bullet. Masha and Vadim make their way through the forest to the highway. In a forest clearing, Akhmedzhanov catches them. In hand-to-hand combat, the Chechen stuns the doctor by slamming him into a rock, catches up with the fleeing Masha, and holds a knife to her throat.

Colonel Konstantinov and his men arrive and take aim at the leader. The terrorist uses the girl as cover. Masha shouts a quote from the film "Speed" to the special forces in English: "Shoot the hostage!" Junior Lieutenant Zakharchenko instantly shoots the girl in the hem of her wide shorts. Masha falls, clearing the line of fire, and the special forces give chase to the wounded militant. Doctors save Masha and the doctor, who has regained consciousness.

By winter, Vadim and Masha were already living together in the Moscow region. Revenko was working as a surgeon at the Sklifosovsky Institute. At the end of December, the family gathered for Masha’s student premiere at the Maly Theater, where the suspicious face of the escaped bodyguard flickered among the audience, a reminder of the nightmare they had just experienced.