The Green Van

“The Green Van” is a novella by Aleksandr Kazachinsky. The plot is based on real events; the main character prototypes were Aleksandr Kozachinsky and Yevgeny Petrov, known as the coauthor of the books “Twelve Chairs” and “The Golden Calf.”

The story takes place in post-revolutionary Odessa and its surroundings. A new head of the police station arrives in the small town of Severinovka—Voldya, an 18-year-old former gymnasium student. By order of the head of the operations department, he, together with a local man, junior officer Grishchenko, and 2nd-class agent Shestakov, fights local moonshiners, horse thieves, and speculators. But Voldya dreams of a career like Sherlock Holmes and puts his methods to use while investigating all these minor offenses.

In 1983, a Soviet two-part feature TV film titled “The Green Van” was made at the Odessa Film Studio based on Aleksandr Kazachinsky’s novella of the same name. The main roles were played by Dmitry Kharatyan, Aleksandr Demyanenko, Borislav Brondukov, Aleksandr Solovyov, and other actors.