The Adventures of Shipov, or ancient vaudeville by Bulat Okudzhava. Short summary

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A colonel of the Gendarme Corps of the Tula Province is to verify information according to which teachers from the school founded by Count Tolstoy have made a speech of an outrageous nature.

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A letter is received by the Colonel of the Gendarme Corps of Tula Province. Information has been received that Count Leo Tolstoy is inviting teachers who have been forced to leave the University to teach in the peasant school which he has founded.

These teachers, of whom there are already about ten, have made outrageous speeches. The Colonel must inquire into the truth of this statement and report the results to the superintendent of the Imperial Chancery.

Late at night a fight breaks out at Yevdokimov’s tavern, as a result of which one of the visitors is injured. The innkeeper refuses to let the suspects out. A man in a pea coat comes out of a dark corner and explains that he has taught his pal a lesson.

The policeman comes up to the brawler and recognizes him as his benefactor, Mikhail Ivanovich Shipov. He orders the tavern-keeper to take his friend’s body out into the frost to recover and make sure it does not freeze.