Petersburg, January 1826. Ivan Evdokimovich Avrosimov works as a clerk in the highest approved commission, recording the testimonies of the participants in the rebellion on Senate Square. This shy provincial ended up on the commission thanks to the patronage of his uncle, retired staff captain Artamon Mikhailovich Avrosimov, who rendered an unforgettable service to Emperor Nikolai Pavlovich on the day he was sworn in, December 14.
Courage did not leave the clerk until the commission began to interrogate Colonel Pestel. From that moment on, mysterious things began to happen to him. Some mysterious stranger seeks a meeting with him. A member of the committee, Count Tatishchev, pursues Avrosimov in his carriage, asking questions that are extremely uncomfortable: is it possible to fall under the charm of a state criminal - such as Pestel? (The poor hero finds nothing better than to ask the same questions to his serf Yegorushka. He is silent in horror.) The only rest is an unexpected night's adventure with officers (including Pavel Buturlin, Tatishchev’s secretary) and their frivolous girlfriends, whom the clerk takes for decent women and one, Dolphin, in the heat of nightly passion even offers to marry him. Soon there is a meeting with a mysterious stranger. She turns out to be the wife of Pestel’s brother, Vladimir Ivanovich Pestel, who spoke on the side of Nikolai on December 14 against his brother. During a meeting, Avrosimov swears to her to fulfill any request.
During a visit to his uncle, he meets a certain Arkady Ivanovich Mayboroda, the captain who served with Pestel (before whom the clerk himself is already unconsciously reverent), betraying his boss. Avrosimov leads the captain to familiar officers, where he repeats the history of his relationship with Pestel, and at the end of the conversation receives an unexpected slap in the face from Buturlin. The next morning, Mayboroda again appears in the eyes of Avrosimov: he testifies in the committee. After that, our hero is already more specifically discussing with Amalia Petrovna the way to save Pestel, and then wants to get married again - this time with the girlfriend Dolphin, hay girl Miloroda. When he wakes up, he rushes to the duty station, where he receives an order to accompany the arrested second lieutenant Zaikin, who is ready to indicate to the authorities the place of concealment of the “Russian Truth” (the sister, Nastya Zaikina, who is regularly waiting for her brother in the courtyard of the Peter and Paul Fortress, has more than once evoked sincere desire from Avrosimov even something to help her). After giving Pestel questionnaires in his cell, he again meets the Minister of War’s crew on his way home, and Tatishchev, as before, asks the hero extremely unpleasant questions about the secret of Pestel’s charm. Faster would be on the road! The criminal is also accompanied by captain Sleptsov, who offers to spend the night on the road in his estate, Kolupanovka. Half-asleep Avrosimov is constantly a colonel who conducts his dangerous and smart conversations about the fate of Russia - and he is still damn charming!
An evening at the estate — with the singing of a girl’s choir and a sumptuous meal — was a success. At night, Avrosimov and the prisoner confess to each other in sympathy for Pestel. So it comes as no surprise that Zaikin cannot indicate the place where the manuscripts are buried - he simply does not know this. But, succumbing to the pressure of Sleptsov, he points to a man who knows this place exactly: his brother Fedya. He indicates the real place of storage of Pestel’s papers, but he has been too open with the captain, and he also arrests his brother (Avrosimov gives him a slap in the face; the duel was postponed to St. Petersburg). On the way back, the trinity again calls in Kolupanovka. From some not quite clear sense of superiority Sleptsov (already inclined to almost simultaneously demonstrate both the most gentle, it would seem, manifestations of care and courtesy, and the most heinous qualities) pretends the attack of the robbers, and Avrosimov wounds one of the attackers - to the horror of all the rest, confident that no one else had weapons. Zaikin, who called the captain’s joke “bordering on meanness,” asks Avrosimov to hand over the note to his sister Nastya. He fulfills the request. Then he goes to Amalia Petrovna (she is just talking with her husband, Pestel’s brother, - Avrosimov, having accidentally overheard the conversation, understands whom she loves) and offers to arrange an escape from the fortress. A person who has appeared from somewhere in non-existence (a certain Filimonov, Starodubtsev and Gordon) offers their services - first, disinterestedly, then, “for speed”, they require money. Avrosimov refuses: but the escape machine, it seemed, had already spun against his will, however, Amalia Petrovna herself gave all the plans to Tatishchev. The minister sends a note to Buturlin demanding the arrest of Avrosimov - they are just discussing the conditions of the upcoming duel clerk with Sleptsov. During the arrest, Avrosimov denies everything, and he is sent to the village, where, apparently, he marries Nastenka and waits for Myatleva and Lavinia (see “The Journey of Amateurs”).
