"A Word for the Poor Hussar" by Eldar Ryazanov, summary Automatic translate

This book is a transcript of the famous film’s screenplay, created in 1980. The story disguises a caustic political satire of the bureaucratic apparatus as a light historical vaudeville about nineteenth-century mores. In 1980, the work served as the basis for a two-part feature film. The director adapted the story for the screen, after which the television series won the love of audiences. The film has become a treasure trove of Russian cinema, forever imprinted in the public’s memory thanks to its outstanding acting and direction.

The regiment’s arrival in Gubernsk

The story begins in the nineteenth century. A hussar regiment triumphantly enters the provincial town of Gubernsk. At the head of the line, on a white horse, prances the dashing thirty-eight-year-old Colonel Ivan Antonovich Pokrovsky. The town’s ladies enthusiastically greet the soldiers, showering them with flowers. At the same time, Staff Captain Merzlyaev, an official of the Third Section, arrives in town, accompanied by the secret agent Artyukhov. This visitor from the capital is carrying out a secret government mission, or, in detective parlance, conducting an undercover operation against the garrison. He tests the loyalty of army officers through staged executions. The police hire ordinary citizens to pose as state criminals, and Merzlyaev forces the soldiers to shoot them.

That evening, the elite of Gubernsk gathers at the town theater. A traveling drama troupe is performing a play in which local tragedian Afanasy Bubentsov, smeared with soot, plays the lead role of the Moor Othello. His young daughter, Nastenka, plays Desdemona, playing the role of an ingenue, that is, a naive young woman. At the very height of the action, Cornet Alexei Pletnev, recently demoted to that rank for a duel, appears in the auditorium. The hussar sneaks into the prompter’s box and begins paying Nastenka ridiculous compliments. The young man completely disrupts the flow of Shakespeare’s tragedy.

A noisy altercation ensues. An enraged Bubentsov throws his shoe at the prompter’s box. Pletnev responds with a powerful blow, knocking the actor onto the stage floor. In a fit of rage, Afanasy grabs a prop bow from the wall and fires an arrow. The weapon accidentally hits the local governor’s wife. The performance is completely ruined.

The arrest of Bubentsov and the intrigues of the gendarmes

The city authorities throw Bubentsov in a prison cell. Meanwhile, Merzlyaev interrogates the terrified owner of Pertsovsky’s pet shop. The parrots the merchant bought begin screaming seditious phrases about the Tsar. In the prison basement, they are about to flog Bubentsov with long rods. However, the cunning actor sits down to play cards with the prison executioner, Stepan. The actor screams theatrically, skillfully imitating unbearable physical torment.

The performance is noticed by the lame secret agent Artyukhov. He praises the prisoner’s vocal abilities and suggests him to Merzlyaev for participation in the staged executions. The gendarmes promise to release the actor immediately after the mock execution is over. The actor agrees to shout a few seditious phrases for thirty hryvnia.

Nastenka desperately tries to save her father. She goes to Madame Josephine’s brothel to find Cornet Pletnev and force him to go to the police. A local girl, Zhuzhu, takes out an old lancer’s trumpet and plays the alarm. Hearing the familiar sound, the resting hussars leap from the windows of the brothel straight into their saddles. The soldiers leave the brothel, leaving Nastenka completely alone.

A mock execution at dawn

Merzlyaev pays a visit to Colonel Pokrovsky and forces him to assign soldiers to carry out a secret execution. Alexei Pletnev is assigned to the firing squad. The colonel secretly orders a cornet to accompany the prisoner and prevent any possible escape attempts. Early in the morning, a black prison carriage carries Bubentsov to the site of the mock execution. The prisoner makes a dramatic farewell to nature, greatly irritating Pletnev.

The carriage stops in front of a fallen tree across the dirt road. The cornet mistakes the fallen trunk for an ambush by the revolutionary’s comrades. Pletnev hits the gendarme Artyukhov with the butt of his pistol and demands that the actor immediately disappear into the dense forest. Bubentsov refuses to flee, fearing to expose the young hussar to a military tribunal. Ultimately, Pletnev forces the actor to leave. The hussar ties himself with reins to the trunk of a massive pine tree and shouts for help from passersby.

Search for the fugitive and interrogations

Merzlyaev is furious to learn of the disappearance of his secret agent. A city official orders surveillance posts to be set up. Pertsovsky, the former owner of a pet store, forced to become a police spy — as secret spies were called — tracks Nastenka. Nastenka finds her father in the theater’s spacious costume room, where he is changing into Ivan Susanin’s costume. His daughter advises Afanasy to concoct a coherent story for the police: that the carriage was allegedly attacked by five bandits in black suits.

The theater troupe actively helps Bubentsov escape during a surprise search. The actors skillfully imitate the mise-en-scène — the stage arrangement of characters — from an ancient Roman tragedy, attempting to distract the authorities. Artyukhov demands to see his passport, and it turns out that Marcus Tullius Cicero is played by Anna Petrovna Speshneva, and the goat-legged faun is played by Mark Yulievich Movzon. Bubentsov walks across the stage disguised as a peasant carrying a portrait of the emperor, singing a Glinka melody. The spy Pertsovsky finally spots the fugitive. Nastenka secretly visits Pletnev in the regimental hospital, where the cornet skillfully feigns severe bodily injuries. She kisses the hussar to shut him up and whispers to him to confirm his fabricated story.

Pletnev refuses to talk about five attackers. The hussar stubbornly insists there were no fewer than twelve armed enemies. Twelve, and no less. Otherwise, his regimental comrades will ridicule him. Their secret conversation is interrupted by the entrance of Merzlyaev. The staff captain sternly demands an answer from the malingerer. Pletnev obediently delivers the pre-agreed version about horsemen in half-masks, boastfully adding a few fictitious corpses of his own.

Unexpected confessions in prison

During interrogation in the prison office, Merzlyaev confronts Bubentsov and Pletnev face to face. The gendarme reveals a rather unpleasant truth to Alexei: the execution was a cheap theatrical production, and the prisoner is an ordinary comedian. Wanting to save Alexei from inevitable hard labor in Siberia, Bubentsov unexpectedly takes the blame. The actor declares that he is indeed leading a major anti-government conspiracy. Struck by the actor’s sincere nobility, Pletnev asks him for Nastenka’s hand in marriage.

Overhearing this conversation, the girl rushes into the room. She takes full blame, claiming that she personally organized the robbery of the carriage. Merzlyaev understands perfectly well that all three are lying to save each other. However, the capital’s official decides to cynically exploit Bubentsov’s sincere confession. The staff captain files the papers for the case and plans to execute the unfortunate actor for real.

That evening, a gala farewell banquet is held in the park of the governor’s palace in honor of the hussar regiment’s imminent departure. Nastenka takes to the stage and sings a romance dedicated to the heroes of 1912. Pletnev takes the audience’s applause personally. Merzlyaev takes the girl aside and formally proposes marriage. The gendarme promises, in exchange, to fully release her arrested father and give up his brilliant career in the capital. Nastenka openly rejects this blackmail. The next morning, the gendarmes bring Bubentsov to a green hill with three pine trees.

Tragic Shot on the Hill

A detachment of hussars, including Pletnev, receives combat rifles. Colonel Pokrovsky flatly refuses to obey the gendarmerie officer’s orders. The commander takes the heavy rifle from Pletnev and takes the place of the young cornet. Merzlyaev orders the escort to immediately arrest the recalcitrant officer, but the hussars surround the colonel in a tight defensive ring. A tense stalemate ensues.

Bubentsov asks permission to hug his future son-in-law one last time. During their brief embrace, the actor stealthily snatches a loaded pistol from Alexei. Afanasy jumps aside and addresses Merzlyaev. The actor utters bitter words: “There are no noble people in Russia? You’re lying! Enough! It’s a shame there’ll be one less now…” The actor confidently pulls the trigger, aiming the barrel straight at his own heart.

In utter despair, Merzlyaev rushes toward the actor’s lifeless body. The gendarme screams in fear, "That wasn’t an execution, just… I thought I’d scare you!" It turns out the firing squad’s rifles were loaded exclusively with blanks. Distraught with grief, Pletnev lunges at the capital’s guest with a sharp bayonet, but the guards arrive and subdue the cornet. Merzlyaev, in tears, walks away across the endless field, silently cursing the senseless cruelty of it all.

The further fates of the characters

A hussar regiment leaves the hospitable town of Gubernsk to the loud sounds of a dashing military march. A tattered black cat dashes across the path of the mounted column. The orchestra instantly falls silent. Colonel Pokrovsky hesitates to cross the invisible, fatal line. The commander turns his white steed and leads the soldiers down a nearby side street. At the very end, the authors detail the subsequent paths of the main characters.

Nastya Bubentsova happily married Pletnev, left the stage, and went to live with her husband, Pletnevka, his estate. She gave birth to three children: a girl and two boys, the eldest of whom she named Afanasy. The cornet himself was exiled to the Caucasus for an armed attack on gendarmes. Pletnev subsequently read extensively and went to Italy, where he died heroically fighting for the revolutionary Garibaldi. The Italians buried the Russian officer near Rome with great honors. Colonel Pokrovsky served his fatherland honorably, defied bullets, and laid down his life in battle during the Crimean Campaign.

Staff Captain Merzlyaev fell into serious disfavor with his superiors, and the letter "l" was forever removed from his ancient noble family name. Secret agent Artyukhov eventually acquired a gambling house, but one day, drunk, he fell asleep in the bitter cold and froze to death. In the final lines, the Black Cat laments human superstition: "You’d think all the troubles in life are our fault…" The film crew gets into the car and drives away.