"Hell’s Mine" by Nikolai Svechin, summary Automatic translate

This book is a historical detective story published in 2024. The plot unfolds in the summer of 1914 against the backdrop of the looming First World War. The author shifts the action from the imperial capital to the remote taiga wilderness of Kolyma. The harsh reality of life on the Siberian outskirts is depicted with absolute historical accuracy. The author accurately describes the real mechanisms of illegal gold mining a century ago.

Conflict with management and exile

State Councilor Alexei Nikolaevich Lykov apprehends a dangerous robber, Abramov. The criminal weighs nearly 150 kilograms and had brutally maimed a woman the day before. The detective beats the bandit with his bare hands. The head of the Brune-de-Saint-Hippolyte Police Department considers this act an abuse of power. Interior Minister Maklakov decides to punish the wayward policeman.

The generals send Lykov on a long mission to the Yakutsk region. The region’s governor asks the capital for help. A gang of escaped convicts has settled in the mountains of the Kolyma basin. They set up a machine gun and repelled a Cossack attempt to liquidate the camp. The detective must travel over 10,000 kilometers.

A secret agreement with a bandit

The leader of the criminal underworld, Illarion Rudaitis, nicknamed Sorokoum, learns of the assignment. He offers the policeman a deal. The leader of the Siberian convicts, Alexander Kozhukhar, nicknamed Sashka the Macedonian, has organized a predatory gold mine on the Kuhuman and Berelekh rivers. Every autumn, Kozhukhar shoots the hired prospectors. He takes their metal for himself and conceals the deposit from outsiders.

Sorokoum’s brother, Mikhail, is in Makedonets’s camp. Rudaitis asks Lykov to rescue his relative alive. He provides the detective with his personal bodyguard, fugitive murderer Pyotr Rybushkin, to assist him. The State Councilor takes his assistant, Sergei Azvestopulo, with him. The colleagues steal dynamite cartridges from the District Court’s evidence warehouse. They obtain repeating rifles from the military and head east.

Preparation in Yakutsk

The travelers reach Irkutsk by train. They then travel down the Lena River by steamboat. Acting Governor Naryshkin confirms the absence of soldiers in the region. The local police force consists of a small number of Cossacks. The assessor in Verkhne-Kolymsk accepts bribes from bandits. Lykov decides to act independently, without the involvement of military commands.

While waiting to depart, the detective restores order to the streets of Yakutsk. He single-handedly apprehends the gang of robber Vaska Kharius. He then prevents an armed robbery at the merchant Everstov’s Public Bank. The robbery was being planned by exiled rebel soldiers. Lykov also eliminates two fugitives who shot and killed a local Cossack.

Search for a guide

Political exile Mukushev recommends an experienced tracker to the detectives. Ivan Volkoboy is mining precious metals in the taiga. The prospector’s true intentions are revealed. Sashka the Macedonian stabbed Ivan’s parents to death many years ago. Volkoboy pursues the criminals out of blood feud. He agrees to serve as the squad’s guide for free, demanding the right to participate in combat.

The travelers purchase packhorses. They stock up on warm clothing, wolfskin sleeping bags, and provisions. To throw off suspicion, Lykov spreads a rumor that he will take the long northern route through Verkhoyansk. The detachment itself secretly takes the shortcut through Oymyakon.

Crossing swamps and mountains

The expedition sets out in early July. The well-trodden route quickly gives way to impassable swamps. The horses become bogged down in the peat mud. The travelers carry dozens of kilograms of luggage on their backs. They cross the deep, turbulent Aldan and Tompo rivers. Summer icy slush and forest fires complicate the journey. Clouds of midges and mosquitoes exhaust the animals.

Ataman Kozhukhar learns of the punitive expedition from a bribed clerk in the regional government. He dispatches three seasoned killers to meet the detectives. Former army intelligence officer Lykov detects the tail in time. He sets an ambush on a mountain trail. The police shoot two of the pursuers and capture the third, who is handed over to the ulus head.

Golden Sands

After a month and a half of arduous travel, the caravan descends to the Ayan-Yuryakh River basin. Volkoboy shows Azvestopulo the construction of a portable washing machine. The prospector calls this wooden washing machine a butara. He explains the principles of prospecting for gold in river sediments. Soon, the detectives discover a trap made of shale slabs in the stream.

In half an hour, they collect half a kilogram of large nuggets from the bottom. Ivan refuses his share, demonstrating his indifference to enrichment. The money-hungry Sergey takes everything they find. The team resumes its journey toward the Berelekh River.

Reconnaissance in force

Lykov leaves his comrades and goes on foot reconnaissance. In the forest, he encounters a bear. The detective scares off the predator with a blank shot. At the mouth of the Berelekh, he finds dead workers and a sluice trough. A secret guard post is discovered near the river. Four thugs are sitting in the bushes playing cards.

The detective sneaks up on the bandits. He kills all four with a Finnish knife. Lykov overhears the exact time the next guard arrives. The detachment moves its camp closer to the scene of the battle. The next morning, the detectives eliminate the arriving mounted guard. They don the clothes of the dead and ride to the mine.

Storming the Macedonian camp

The team arrives at the gold mines. The bandits don’t recognize the trick. Lykov breaks the neck of a guard at the headquarters. Rybushkin fires a flare into the sky. Mikhail Rudaitis kills a guard and hides behind a woodpile. Azvestopulo throws dynamite cartridges into the barracks. The building catches fire, burying the criminals.

The state councilor attacks Kozhukhar’s fortified house. He takes out the machine gunner with a precise shot to the head. A firefight ensues. Volkoboy takes a bullet to the forehead and dies instantly. Lykov throws a stick of dynamite with the cap removed through the headquarters window. Waiting for the detonation, the ataman and his henchmen fall to the floor. The detective bursts into the building and calmly guns down the enemies.

Trophy section

The battle ends with the gang’s complete elimination. It turns out that Kozhukhar managed to sell the metal to a Chinese smuggler. The sand was taken to the Sea of Okhotsk a week ago. Only 16 kilograms of gold remain at the mine. Azvestopulo is furious at the lost profits. His boss advises him to search for the money in the headquarters’ basement.

Sergei finds a stash of banknotes and coins, totaling 240,000 rubles. Lykov allows his assistant to keep all the money. They prepare the remaining gold and the machine gun for delivery to the authorities. Rudaitis and Rybushkin gather the frightened workers and reveal the dead leader’s plans. The prospectors agree to continue mining under the new leadership.

Return to the capital

The detectives bury Ivan Volkoboy on the riverbank. In September, they set out on their return journey. At the post station, the travelers learn of the outbreak of war. The director of the Brune-de-Saint-Hippolyte Police Department orders his subordinates to report to Petrograd immediately.

In the fall, the police officers reach the coast of the Sea of Okhotsk. They board a destroyer from the Siberian Flotilla and head to Vladivostok. The train carries them across the country. Along the way, the detectives see captured soldiers and read newspaper lists of murdered officers. The empire is rapidly descending into chaos. Sorokoum gives Lykov an expensive painting as a token of gratitude for saving his brother.

The department is overloaded with the search for German spies. The success of the Kolyma expedition goes virtually unnoticed. Lykov meets with General Taube at the Commander-in-Chief’s Headquarters. The general speaks of a shortage of ammunition and the army’s heavy losses. In the winter of 1914, news arrives from Kolyma. The surviving members of Macedonian’s gang have tracked down and shot Pyotr Rybushkin.

The book’s epilogue describes the fates of historical figures. Governor Kraft died in the fall of 1914. Acting Governor Naryshkin and Advisor Berezkin were later executed by the Bolsheviks. The author recounts the beginning of the large-scale industrial development of the Kolyma region’s riches. In the 1930s, the Susuman mines filled with tens of thousands of prisoners. A powerful gold mining industry grew out of these bones, paying for the country’s enormous military expenditures during the Great Patriotic War.