The Cutlass

On holiday in a Ukrainian village with his mother and grandmother, teenager Misha Polyakov asks his friend Genka to come back with him to Petrograd. A White gang under Nikitsky, also called Nikolskiy, hits the house where Commissioner Polevoy is staying. They want a cutlass Polevoy keeps. Misha saves the commissioner, hears the weapon's history, and is told to keep it and solve what is hidden in it. Back in Petrograd, Misha and his friends work on a text ciphered into the handle.