Red Hats

[Muireann Maguire]

Dear all,

I am translating a short story by Alexander Chayanov, 'The Tale of the
Hairdresser's Mannequin'. I have been foiled for some time by an idiom I
can't trace in any of the dictionaries I use (and which has also puzzled a
native speaker). The hero is trying to trace the originals of the
mannequins, and has initiated a pan-European search for a person called
Chantrain who may have more information about them. This is what Chayanov
writes (as I've had problems with visibility of my Cyrillic text in previous
posts, I will also provide a transliteration):
Poiski Shantrena, na kotorye byli snariazheny neskol'ko krasnykh shapok,
podvigalis' medlenno.
Поиски  Шантрена,  на  которые  были снаряжены несколько красных шапок,
подвигались медленно. 
I suspect that 'krasnye shapki' are private detectives of some sort. Can
anyone confirm or dispel this suspicion? To date I have a nonsensical
translation, 'The search for Chantrain, for which several red hats were
equipped, progressed slowly'.

With thanks in advance,

Muireann Maguire

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