Cossack armed forces

The Cossacks are named as one of the forces implicated in the disappearance of Akhtem Mustafayev, whose fate becomes a sustained source of uncertainty for his family and a reason for Sergey Sergeyich to seek answers. The novel offers no direct account of the organization’s structure or an established finding of responsibility; instead, it shows how accusations, partial official responses, and the eventual discovery of Akhtem’s body shape the lives of those left waiting.

Accusations and the Disappearance

Aisylu tells Sergeyich that the Cossacks took Akhtem. She says that three people disappeared on the same day after traveling together by car to the mosque in Bakhchisaray. The car was later found empty, and a young witness reportedly saw the three being pushed into a minibus. Aisylu does not know what happened after that: she can only speculate that they may have been taken to Russia. Her account establishes the Cossacks as the family’s named suspects, while preserving the uncertainty surrounding the men’s subsequent whereabouts.

When Sergeyich later asks an official about Akhtem, Ivan Fyodorovich says the case might concern either the Crimean Self-Defence or the Cossacks and directs Akhtem’s family to the police. Sergeyich remembers the official’s suggestion to speak to Akhtem’s widow, but the official then retracts the implication, saying that the case is not closed and that numerous such cases remain with the police. The exchange offers no resolution and does not establish the Cossacks’ responsibility; it instead places the accusation within a broader landscape of unresolved disappearances and fragmented official answers.

From Suspicion to Discovery

The uncertainty persists until a Tatar tells Sergeyich that Akhtem has been found buried in the woods and had been killed long before. The report changes the family’s situation from waiting for news of a missing person to confronting his death, though the evidence does not identify who killed him. When Aisylu thanks Sergeyich for going to Simferopol, she says that without his visit Akhtem would not have been returned. His journey has therefore helped secure the return of Akhtem’s remains, even though it has not yielded a complete account of the disappearance or confirmed who carried it out.

Narrative Significance

The Cossacks remain present in the story chiefly through accusation and uncertainty, not through a narrated organizational portrait. Aisylu’s account gives the disappearance concrete circumstances—the journey to the mosque, the empty car, and the child’s reported sighting—while the official response redirects the family toward the police and leaves responsibility unsettled. The eventual discovery of Akhtem’s body closes one part of the waiting but does not resolve the central question of culpability. Through this sequence, the novel shows how a named allegation can coexist with an absence of definitive answers, extending the effects of disappearance into family life and Sergeyich’s efforts to help.