The Turkish Gambit

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The Turkish Gambit (Russian: Турецкий гамбит) is the second novel from the Erast Fandorin series of detective fiction novels, written by Russian author Boris Akunin. It was originally published in Russia in 1998. It is subtitled шпионский детектив ("espionage detective"). The English translation, by Andrew Bromfield, was published in 2005.

[edit] Plot summary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The novel is set in 1877. It opens with a young Russian woman of vaguely leftist sympathies, Varvara Suvorova, traveling to meet her fiance Pyotr Yablokov, who has volunteered to fight in the war between Russia and Turkey. She finds herself in a tight spot as she approaches the war zone, but she is rescued by Erast Fandorin, who has been fighting as a volunteer. He accompanies her to Russian army headquarters--Varvara to meet her fiance, Fandorin to deliver an important message. Upon arrival at headquarters, Varvara is reunited with Pyotr, and Fandorin delivers his message: that the Turkish army is advancing towards the Bulgarian town of Pleven, which sits on the road to Sofia and must be taken before the Russian army can advance through Bulgaria and into Turkey.

Varvara sees little of her fiance, who is busy with his duties as an army cryptographer, so she spends her time at the correspondents' club, where she meets various interesting characters: Irish reporter Seamus McLaughlin, French reporter Charles Paladin, Romanian liaison Colonel Lukan, Russian hussar officer Count Zurov (Fandorin's old friend from The Winter Queen), and the charismatic General Sobolev (based on the real-life Mikhail Skobelev). Fandorin, meanwhile, is informed that a Turkish agent, Anwar Effendi, is conducting an intelligence operation against the Russian army and might even have penetrated Russian headquarters. This is confirmed when the telegram directing the Russian army to take Pleven is mysteriously changed to an order to take Nikopol, a strategically irrelevant town. Varvara's fiance Pyotr, being the cryptologist who encoded the telegram, is jailed on suspicion of treason. Fandorin is charged with finding Anwar and uncovering the Turkish plot.

Because of the diversion of the Russian army to Nikopol, Turkish troops arrive in Pleven first. The French reporter, Paladin, sneaks into the Turkish camp and determines that only a small number of troops are in the town. Based on this information, the Russians attack Pleven, only to be bloodily repulsed because Paladin's data were incorrect and the Turks are there in strength. The Russian army settles in for a siege.

The Russians' first attempt to break the siege of Pleven ends in defeat when the Turks, who somehow have advance knowledge of the Russian attack plan, concentrate their artillery on the Russian formations before the Russians have a chance to move forward. Fandorin immediately suspects Colonel Lukan, who predicted to Varvara that the attack would fail. He asks Varvara to follow Lukan back to Bucharest and investigate him, but that effort ends when Paladin kills Lukan in a duel over Varvara's honor.

The second Russian attempt to storm Pleven fails due to more treachery. Sobolev leads his troops in an attack that breaks through Pleven's defenses and actually enters the city, but he is unable to advance further due to insufficient strength. Sobolev sends Count Zurov back to headquarters to request reinforcements, but Zurov never arrives, and Sobolev is forced to withdraw. Later, a search party finds Zurov murdered on the battlefield.

Three attempts to storm Pleven having failed, the Russian and Romanian armies besiege the city. By December, the Turks inside Pleven are starving. Varvara, on her way back from the hospital where she had been sent due to a case of typhus, encounters McLaughlin the Irish reporter, who informs her that he has been given a tip saying that the Turks will surrender that night. She tells Fandorin, who guesses correctly that the Turks are not surrendering but are trying to confuse the Russian army so they can stage a breakout. The Russians attack, the Turks surrender, Pleven is taken, and McLaughlin, who has disappeared, is assumed to be the spy.

Fandorin is dispatched to London to track down McLaughlin. Varvara, who is less and less enthusiastic about her fiance and more and more intrigued by the dashing general, Sobolev, accompanies the army as it advances through Bulgaria to Adrianople. Shortly thereafter, the Turks sue for peace, and negotiations commence. At the Adrianople train station, where Sobolev has his headquarters, Paladin suggests that they ride the train into San Stefano, the undefended northern suburb of Constantinople. Sobolev agrees, and he, Paladin, Varvara, and his entourage all ride in to San Stefano accompanied by one battalion of Russian soldiers. They set up headquarters in a bank building, and Paladin has almost convinced General Sobolev to advance into Constantinople when Fandorin suddenly appears and unmasks "Charles Paladin", the French journalist, as Anwar Effendi, the master Turkish spy.

Fandorin recounts his investigation and notes how no one at Paladin's newspaper had ever seen him and how Paladin's stories for years had been filed from cities where Anwar was known to be. He points out that it was Paladin who had distracted Peter Yablokov from his job encrypting the order to attack Plevna by telling him Varvara had arrived, thus giving Paladin/Anwar the opportunity to change the text from "Plevna" to "Nikopol". Paladin/Anwar admits his identity, but then draws a gun and drags Varvara as a hostage into the bank's vault.

Inside the vault, Anwar tells Varvara that he talked Sobolev into advancing into San Stefano so that the Turkish army could attack there, capture Sobolev, and draw England into a wider war against Russia (an English fleet is off the coast of Constantinople, ready to fend off a Russian attack). However, the Turkish attack is driven off by Sobolev's soldiers, and Anwar, realizing that he is now trapped, lets Varvara out of the vault and kills himself.

Afterwards, the Russians, Romanians and Turks sign the Treaty of San Stefano, ending the war. Varvara and Pyotr board the train back to Russia, and Fandorin is there to say goodbye. Varvara congratulates Fandorin for defeating Anwar, but Fandorin replies that Anwar did achieve his long-term goals: the peace treaty is too generous, and the other powers of Europe will force Russia to settle for less, leaving Russia weakened and impoverished with little to show for the war. Fandorin tries to say goodbye to Varvara but he cannot get the words out, and it is clear that they both have deep feelings for each other. Varvara takes his hand but says nothing, and boards the train, crying as she watches Fandorin while the train pulls away. The novel ends with a newspaper article proving Fandorin right; the European powers object to the treaty and will meet to agree on a new peace settlement that is less favorable to Russia.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Film adaptation

Movie poster for The Turkish Gambit

The Turkish Gambit was made into a movie in Russia in 2005. It starred Yegor Beroyev as Fandorin and Olga Krasko as Varvara Suvorova. Dzhanik Faiziyev directed, and Boris Akunin adapted his own novel into a screenplay.