Ivan Okhlobystin’s "The Garbage Man," a summary

Ivan Okhlobystin’s story was published in 1996. It served as the literary basis for a popular film script, depicting the clash of two opposing worldviews against the backdrop of a snowy provincial town. In 2001, the story was successfully adapted into a film by director Georgy Shengelia. The film of the same name, starring Alexei Guskov and Olesya Sudzilovskaya, earned high praise from audiences and became a notable event in cinema.

Arrival in the province

One winter day, a red Opel races down a slippery highway toward an unnamed provincial town. Behind the wheel sits a young woman from Moscow, wearing a fluffy fur coat. While talking on the phone, she expresses extreme irritation with the task at hand. A risky overtaking maneuver nearly results in a collision with a huge truck. The woman throws the radio out the window and continues on her way.

Early one morning, she encounters the local garbage man. He’s dressed in an impossibly clean blue jumpsuit and methodically empties trash cans into a plastic bag. The girl treats him with open disdain and ridicule. The garbage man responds with unfailing politeness and calm.

A girl checks into the only local hotel. Out of boredom and a desire to provoke a conflict, she dumps the contents of the nearby trash cans onto a cleared section of the street at night. In the morning, a garbage man clears the scattered trash, responding to the girl’s taunts with philosophical dignity.

Getting to know each other and playing

After work, the garbage man collects his salary from the ZhEK office, a housing maintenance organization. His boss asks him to help carry a coffin containing a deceased person from a neighboring apartment, offering him extra income. He declines, citing his fear of the dead and his desire to only clean up trash. He then returns home, buys an expensive tequila, and drinks it with salt and lemon.

That evening, the girl goes to a local restaurant wearing a revealing outfit. She deliberately attracts the attention of a gang of criminals and asks one of them to beat up the janitor. The next morning, a burly young man approaches the garbage man but suddenly recognizes him. The man is terrified and immediately flees. Surprised by this reaction, the girl invites the hero back to her room.

The garbage man arrives in an impeccable suit, reminiscent of a diplomat or a Prohibition-era gangster. They begin a psychological game. Each takes turns recounting the other’s biography, drawing on personal observations. The garbage man accurately describes the girl’s cynical journey from her hometown to the capital, her studies at a theater school, and her desire to win at any cost. The girl guesses his lonely childhood, his passion for books, and his service in the paratroopers. The evening ends without intimacy. The garbage man leaves, leaving the girl furiously smashing a crystal glass against the wall.

Reception at the mayor’s

After visiting the girl, the hero heads to the Three Bogatyrs Casino. He places all his chips on the red square and wins. Then he doubles his bet to black and wins again. Next, he places a huge pile of chips on the zero square — the roulette wheel’s zero spot. The ball lands in the correct pocket. The spectators and the croupier, running the game at the table, are amazed by his luck. However, on his next turn, he returns all his winnings to the red square. The ball lands on zero. The Garbage Man loses everything, laughs heartily at his fate, and leaves the establishment.

The next day, the hero catches the girl interviewing a local banker, Oleg. The banker and the garbage man exchange polite but tense glances. The hero invites the girl to a restaurant. There, he performs a virtuoso parody dance with an obese local, Galya. The girl joins in, demonstrating her brilliant choreographic skills.

Later, they travel to a ship frozen in the river ice. There, the local mayor, Pyotr Ivanovich, has thrown a rousing reception. The mayor treats the garbage man with great respect. It turns out that the mayor’s son, Kirill, sings a touching song, the lyrics to which the hero himself wrote.

Revealing the secret

On the way back in an armored limousine, the girl continues the game they started earlier. She reveals the garbage man’s true past. In his youth, he served in the assault brigade — a combat unit of the paratroopers in Angola. Later, his beloved wife was brutally murdered. In response, the hero began methodically tracking down and eliminating those responsible.

Over time, he became a professional hitman — a contract killer, eliminating crime bosses and gangsters. He called his victims "human trash." Later, he realized the futility of violence. Eliminating criminals only made room for new ones. He then decided to renounce weapons entirely, cleanse his soul, and bring order to his small plot of land by becoming a street cleaner.

The garbage man confirms her story. They arrive at his secret residence. It’s a huge basement, luxuriously furnished with antique furniture — a secret room hidden behind the door of an inconspicuous closet on Semyonovskaya Street.

Refusal and farewell

The girl lays fifty thousand dollars in front of the hero. It’s an advance payment from clients in the capital who want to hire him for another assassination. She offers him the money and a permanent getaway to the seaside. The garbage man flatly refuses. He decides to stay in his city and continue physically cleaning the streets of filth.

Realizing the mission has failed, the girl takes a nickel-plated pistol from her purse. In a fit of rage, she shoots bottles, plates, and mirrors in the basement. The garbage man watches with interest. After emptying the cartridges, she throws the gun on the floor and leaves the basement. The hero takes a broom and carefully sweeps the glass shards, along with the pistol, into the trash.

In the morning, the girl calls her employers and lies: "He took the money." She leaves the city and on the way stops her car near a garbage man. They have a final conversation. The girl asserts that she will achieve wealth and absolute happiness. The garbage man remarks that after death, she will be immediately forgotten. The girl mocks his attempts to change the world and promises that they will erect a monument to him on Semi-Semenov Street, but then they too will be forgotten. When asked about her name, she replies: "Helen. Or maybe Isabelle. I don’t know yet."

The car speeds away. The garbage man sits down on the curb next to a dirty, ragged tramp and offers him a cigarette. The tramp lifts his swollen face and replies in a low, well-modulated voice, "Thank you, I don’t smoke."