Maciej Ceglowski and Peter Gadjokov at Idlewords have been updating their ongoing translation The Golden Calf, Ilf & Petrov's 1930 Soviet comic novel about con men in pursuit of an underground millionaire and his suitcase full of hard currency:
A year before Panikovski broke the treaty by crossing over into someone else’s operating territory, the first automobile had appeared in the city of Arbatov. This automotive trailblazer was a driver named Kozlevich.
It was a decision to start a new life that had put him in front of the steering wheel. Adam Kozlevich’s former life had been a sinful one. He had consistently violated the Criminal Code of the RSFSR[16], specifically section 162-10, concerning questions of covert seizure of property (theft).
This section has many subsections; but the sinful Adam had no knowledge of Subsection A (theft perpetrated without the use of mechanical aids). He found this too primitive. Nor did he like Subsection D, with its penalties of up to five years’ incarceration. He preferred not to spend long periods in jail. And since he had been interested in technology ever since he was a boy, he gave himself up body and soul to Subsection B (covert seizure of property, perpetrated with the use of mechanical aids, repeatedly, or in collusion with other parties, at train stations, on steam vessels, in train cars or in hotels).
But Kozlevich was unlucky. They caught him when he used their beloved mechanical aids, and they caught him when he did not. They caught him at train stations, ports, on steam vessels and in hotels. They caught him in train cars. They even caught him when, in utter despair, he began seizing property in collusion with other parties.
[Spaceeba, Dana!]
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