[en] Data are presented on inelastic cross sections and multiplicities of pions minus produced on collisions of protons, deuterons, helium-4 and carbon-12 nuclei at 4.2 GeV/c per nucleon in the propane bubble chamber witn tantalum and carbon plates. Average multiplicities and dispersions of multiplicity distributions are compared with those in nucleon-nucleon interactions. Deviation of C-Ta interaction data from universal dependence of dispersion on multiplicity is observed. Pion multiplicities are found proportional to the number of nucleons from incident nucleus which interacted in the target. The results are not in contradiction with the assumption that nucleons from the incident nucleus interact independently in the target. For C-Ta interactions the average radius of the pion emission volume has been determined by the interference method to be r=(3.3+-0.6) fm