Gang black cat fact or fiction. The real story of the Black Cat gang. And at this time

The Black Cat gang is perhaps the most famous criminal association in the post-Soviet space. It became such thanks to the talent the Weiner brothers who wrote the book "The Era of Mercy", as well as the skill directed by Stanislav Govorukhin, who shot one of the best Soviet detectives "The meeting place cannot be changed."

However, reality is very different from fiction. In 1945-1946, rumors appeared in different cities of the Soviet Union about a gang of thieves who, before robbing an apartment, draw a kind of “mark” in the form of a black cat on its door. Representatives of crime liked this romantic story so much that "black cats" bred like mushrooms. As a rule, it was about small groups, the scope of which did not even come close to what the Weiner brothers described. Often, street punks performed under the sign of the "Black Cat".

Popular detective genre writer Eduard Khrutsky, according to the scripts of which such films as "According to the criminal investigation department" and "Proceed to liquidation" were staged, recalled that in 1946 he himself was part of such a "gang". A group of teenagers decided to scare a certain citizen who lived comfortably during the war years, while the boys' fathers fought at the front. The policemen, having caught the "avengers", according to Khrutsky, dealt with them simply: "they hit them on the necks and let them go."

But the plot of the Weiner brothers is based on the story of not such unfortunate robbers, but real criminals who took not only money and valuables, but also human lives. The gang in question operated in 1950-1953.

Bloody "debut"

February 1, 1950 in Khimki senior detective Kochkin and local precinct V.Filin made a tour of the area. Entering the grocery store, they noticed a young man who was arguing with the saleswoman. He introduced himself to the woman as a police officer in civilian clothes, but that person seemed suspicious. Two of the young man's friends were smoking on the porch.

When the police officers tried to check the documents, one of the unknown people pulled out a pistol and opened fire. Detective Kochkin became the first victim of a gang that terrorized Moscow and its environs for three years.

The murder of a policeman was an out of the ordinary event, and law enforcement officers were actively searching for the perpetrators. The bandits, however, reminded themselves of themselves: on March 26, 1950, three broke into a department store in the Timiryazevsky district, introducing themselves ... as Chekists. “MGB employees”, taking advantage of the confusion of sellers and visitors, drove everyone into the back room and locked the store with a padlock. The booty of the criminals was 68 thousand rubles.

For six months, the operatives knocked down their legs in search of the bandits, but in vain. Those, as it turned out later, having received a big jackpot, hid. In the autumn, having spent the money, they again went hunting. On November 16, 1950, a department store of the Moscow Canal Shipping Company was robbed (more than 24,000 rubles were stolen), on December 10, a store on Kutuzovskaya Sloboda Street (62,000 rubles was stolen).

Raid next door to Comrade Stalin

On March 11, 1951, criminals raided the Blue Danube restaurant. Being absolutely confident in their own invulnerability, the bandits first drank at the table, and then moved to the cashier with a pistol. Junior lieutenant of militia Mikhail Biryukov I was in a restaurant that day with my wife. Despite this, mindful of the call of duty, he entered into a fight with the bandits. The officer died from the bullets of the criminals. Another victim was a worker sitting at one of the tables: he was hit by one of the bullets intended for the policeman. Panic broke out in the restaurant, and the robbery was thwarted. While fleeing, the bandits wounded two more people.

The failure of the criminals only angered. March 27, 1951 they raided the Kuntsevsky market. Store manager Karp Antonov entered into hand-to-hand combat with the leader of the gang and was killed.

The situation was extraordinary. The last attack took place just a few kilometers from the "Near Dacha" Stalin. The best forces of the police and the Ministry of State Security "shaken" the criminals, demanding to extradite the completely insolent raiders, but the "authorities" swore that they knew nothing.

The rumors that circulated in Moscow exaggerated the crimes of the bandits tenfold. The legend of the "Black Cat" was now firmly associated with them.

The impotence of Nikita Khrushchev

The bandits behaved more and more defiantly. A reinforced police patrol stumbled upon them in the station canteen at Udelnaya station. One of the suspicious men was found carrying a gun. The police did not dare to detain the bandits in the hall: there were a lot of strangers around who could die. The bandits, having gone out into the street and rushed to the forest, started a real shootout with the policemen. The victory remained with the raiders: they again managed to escape.

Head of the Moscow City Party Committee Nikita Khrushchev threw thunder and lightning at law enforcement officers. He seriously feared for his career: Nikita Sergeevich could well have been asked for rampant crime in the capital of "the world's first state of workers and peasants."

But nothing helped: neither the threat nor the attraction of new forces. In August 1952, during a raid on a tea shop at Snegiri station, bandits killed Kraev's watchman who tried to resist them. In September of the same year, criminals attacked the Beer-Water tent on the Leningradskaya platform. One of the visitors tried to protect the saleswoman. The man was shot.

On November 1, 1952, during a raid on a store in the Botanical Garden area, bandits wounded a saleswoman. When they had already left the scene of the crime, a police lieutenant paid attention to them. He knew nothing about the robbery, but decided to check the documents of suspicious citizens. The police officer was mortally wounded.

call

In January 1953, bandits raided a savings bank in Mytishchi. Their booty was 30 thousand rubles. But at the moment of the robbery, something happened that made it possible to get the first lead leading to the elusive gang.

The employee of the savings bank managed to press the “panic button”, and the phone rang in the savings bank. The bewildered robber grabbed the phone.

- Is it a savings bank? the caller asked.

“No, the stadium,” the raider replied, cutting off the call.

The duty officer at the police station called the savings bank. This short dialogue drew attention MUR employee Vladimir Arapov. This detective, a real legend of the capital's criminal investigation, later became the prototype of Vladimir Sharapov.

And then Arapov became alert: why, in fact, did the bandit mention the stadium? He said the first thing that came to mind, but why did he remember the stadium in particular?

After analyzing the places of robberies on the map, the detective discovered that many of them were committed near sports arenas. The bandits were described as young men of athletic appearance. It turns out that the criminals could not be related to crime at all, but to be athletes?

Fatal barrel of beer

In the 1950s, this was unthinkable. Athletes in the USSR were considered role models, but here it is ...

The operatives were ordered to start checking sports societies, paying attention to everything unusual that happens near the stadiums.

Soon an unusual incident occurred near the stadium in Krasnogorsk. A certain young man bought a barrel of beer from the saleswoman and treated everyone. Among the lucky ones was Vladimir Arapov, who remembered the "rich man" and began checking.

At first glance, it was about exemplary Soviet citizens. treated me to beer student of the Moscow Aviation Institute Vyacheslav Lukin, excellent student, athlete and Komsomol activist. The friends who accompanied him turned out to be workers from the defense factories of Krasnogorsk, Komsomol members and labor shock workers.

Student of the Moscow Aviation Institute Vyacheslav Lukin. A photo: Frame youtube.com

But Arapov felt that this time he was on the right track. It turned out that on the eve of the robbery of the savings bank in Mytishchi, Lukin really was at the local stadium.

Gradually they unraveled the whole tangle, reaching out to the leader, who turned out to be a 26-year-old shift foreman of defense plant No. 34 Ivan Mitin. An exemplary worker, by that time he had been presented to the Order of the Red Banner of Labor for success in labor.

Shift foreman of defense plant No. 34 Ivan Mitin. A photo: Frame youtube.com

Mitin established the most severe discipline in the gang, forbade any bravado, and rejected contacts with "classic" bandits. And yet, Mitin's scheme failed: a barrel of beer at the stadium in Krasnogorsk led the raiders to collapse.

"Ideologically wrong" criminals

At dawn on February 14, 1953, operatives broke into the house of Ivan Mitin. The detained ringleader behaved calmly, during the investigation he gave detailed testimony, not hoping to save his life. The shock worker understood perfectly well that there could be only one punishment for what he had done.

When all the members of the gang were arrested, and the report of the investigation lay on the table of the top Soviet leaders, the leaders were horrified. Eight members of the gang were employees of a defense plant, all shock workers and athletes, the already mentioned Lukin studied at the Moscow Aviation Institute, and two more were cadets of military schools at the time of the defeat of the gang.

Cadet of the Nikolaev Naval Mine-Torpedo Aviation School Ageev, who before entering was Mitin's accomplice, a participant in robberies and murders, had to be arrested with a special warrant issued by the military prosecutor's office.

The gang accounted for 28 robberies, 11 murders, 18 wounded. During their criminal activities, the bandits stole more than 300 thousand rubles.

Not an ounce of romance

The case of the Mitin gang did not fit into the ideological line of the party so much that it was immediately classified.

The court sentenced Ivan Mitin and one of his accomplices to death Alexandra Samarina, who, like the leader, was directly involved in the killings. The rest of the gang members were sentenced to terms ranging from 10 to 25 years. Student Lukin received 25 years, served them completely, and a year after his release he died of tuberculosis. His father could not bear the shame, went crazy and soon died in a psychiatric hospital. Members of the Mitin gang broke the lives of not only the victims, but also their loved ones.

There is no romance in the history of Ivan Mitin's gang: this is a story about "werewolves" who, in the light of day, were exemplary citizens, and in their second incarnation turned into ruthless murderers. This is a story about how low a person can fall.

The most mysterious gang of the Stalin era, the "Black Cat" for 3 years, with its daring raids, did not give rest to Muscovites. Taking advantage of the difficult post-war situation and the gullibility of citizens, Mitin's gang "teared off" large sums of money and left unscathed.

A series of "Black Cats"

In post-war Moscow, the crime situation was alarming. This was facilitated by the lack of essential food among the population, hunger, a large number of unaccounted for trophy and Soviet weapons.

The situation was aggravated by the growing panic among the people; for the appearance of frightening rumors, one high-profile precedent was enough.

Such a precedent in the first post-war year was the statement of the director of the Moscow auction that he was threatened by the Black Cat gang. On the door of his apartment, someone began to draw a black cat, the director of the mostorg began to receive threatening notes written on notebook sheets.

On January 8, 1946, the MUR investigation team went to the alleged crime scene to ambush the intruders. At five in the morning they were already caught. They were several students. Volodya Kalganov, a seventh-grader, was the boss. The future screenwriter and writer Eduard Khrutsky was also in this "gang".

The schoolchildren immediately admitted their guilt, saying that they simply wanted to intimidate the “grabber”, who lived comfortably in the rear while their fathers fought at the front. Of course, the case was not given a go. As Eduard Khrutsky later admitted, "they hit him on the neck and let him go."

Before that, there were rumors among the people that before robbing an apartment, thieves draw a “black cat” on its door - an analogue of a pirate “black mark”. Despite all the absurdity, this legend was enthusiastically picked up by the criminal world. In Moscow alone there were at least a dozen "Black Cats", later similar gangs began to appear in other Soviet cities.

Basically, these were teenage groups, which, firstly, were attracted by the romance of the image itself - the “black cat”, and secondly, they wanted to throw the detectives off their trail with such a simple trick. However by 1950, the activity of the "Chernokoshkinites" had come to naught, many were caught, many simply grew up and stopped swaggering, flirting with fate.

"You can't kill policemen"

Agree, the story of the "Black Cat" bears little resemblance to what we read in the book of the Weiner brothers and saw in the film by Stanislav Govorukhin. Nonetheless, the story about the gang that terrorized Moscow for several years was not invented.

Ivan Mitin's gang became the prototype of the book and cinema "Black Cat".

Over the three years of its existence, the "Mitintsy" committed 28 robbery attacks, killed 11 people and wounded 12 more. The total income from their criminal activities amounted to more than 300 thousand rubles. The amount is solid. A car in those years cost about 2000 rubles.

Mitin's gang declared itself loudly - from the murder of a policeman. On February 1, 1950, senior detective Kochkin and district police officer Filin were making their rounds when they caught Mitin and an accomplice in preparation for a robbery attack on a store in Khimki. A shootout ensued. Kochkin was killed on the spot. The criminals managed to escape.

Even among criminals with experience there is an understanding that "militiamen cannot be killed", and here - a shot without warning at close range. The MUR realized that they would have to deal with a new type of criminal, with cold-blooded lawless people.

This time they robbed the department store Timiryazevsky. The booty of the criminals was 68 thousand rubles.

The criminals didn't stop there. They made one daring raid after another. In Moscow, talk began to circulate that the "Black Cat" had returned, and this time everything was much more serious. The city was in panic. No one felt safe, and the MUR and the MGB took the actions of the Mitintsy as a challenge to them personally.

Khrushchev on a string

The murder of a policeman Kochkin was committed by the Mitinites shortly before the elections to the Supreme Soviet. The rosy informational agenda of those days, with assurances about the growth of the economy, that life was getting better, crime was eradicated, ran counter to the robberies that had occurred.

The MUR took all necessary measures to ensure that these incidents did not become public knowledge.

Mitin's gang declared itself just three months after Nikita Khrushchev, who came from Kyiv, became the head of the Moscow Regional Committee. At that time, information about all high-profile crimes lay on the table of the highest officials of the state. Joseph Stalin and Lavrenty Beria could not have been unaware of the Mitintsy. The newly arrived Nikita Khrushchev found himself in a delicate situation, he was personally interested in finding the Mitintsy as soon as possible.

In March 1952, Khrushchev personally came to the MUR in order to arrange a "dressing".

As a result of the visit of the "high authorities", two heads of district departments were arrested, and a special operational headquarters was created in the MUR to deal with the case of the Mitin gang.

Some historians believe that the case of the "Mitintsy" could play a decisive role in the history of the confrontation between Khrushchev and Beria. If the Mitin gang had not been exposed before Stalin's death, then Beria could have ended up in the place of the head of state.

The head of the MUR museum, Lyudmila Kaminskaya, said bluntly in the film about the Black Cat: “They were kind of fighting. Beria was removed from business, he was sent to lead the nuclear power industry, and Khrushchev oversaw all law enforcement agencies. And, of course, Beria needed Khrushchev to be insolvent in this post. That is, he was preparing a platform for himself to remove Khrushchev.

Production leaders

The main problem for the detectives was that they initially looked in the wrong place and the wrong ones. From the very beginning of the investigation, the Moscow criminals, as one, “went into denial” and disavowed any connection with the Mitintsy.

As it turned out, the sensational gang consisted entirely of production leaders and people far from the criminal "raspberries" and the thieves' circle. In total, the gang consisted of 12 people.

Most of them lived in Krasnogorsk and worked at a local factory.

The leader of the gang, Ivan Mitin, was a shift foreman at defense plant No. 34. Interestingly, at the time of his capture, Mitin was presented with a high government award - the Order of the Red Banner of Labor. 8 out of 11 members of the gang also worked at this plant, two were cadets of prestigious military schools.

Among the "Mityans" was a Stakhanovite, an employee of the "five hundredth" factory, a member of the party - Pyotr Bolotov. There was also a MAI student Vyacheslav Lukin, a member of the Komsomol and an athlete.

In a sense, sports became the connecting link of accomplices. Krasnogorsk after the war was one of the best sports bases near Moscow, there were strong teams in volleyball, football, bandy and athletics. The first gathering place of the Mitintsy was the Krasnogorsk Zenit stadium.

exposure

Only in February 1953 did the MUR officers manage to get on the trail of the gang."Mitintsev" summed up the banal indiscretion. One of them, Lukin, bought a whole barrel of beer from the Krasnogorsk stadium. This aroused legitimate suspicions among the policemen. Lukin was put under surveillance. Gradually, the number of suspects began to grow. Before the arrest, it was decided to confront him. MUR officers in plain clothes brought several witnesses to the stadium and led the suspects in the crowd to the company, who were identified.

Mitintsev were arrested not like in the movie. Detained without too much noise - in the apartments.

One member of the gang, Samarin, was not found in Moscow, but later he was also detained. He was found in Ukraine, where he was in prison for fighting.

The court sentenced Ivan Mitin and Alexander Samarin to capital punishment - the death penalty by firing squad, the sentence was carried out in Butyrka prison. Lukin was sentenced to 25 years in prison. A day after his release, in 1977, he mysteriously died.

On that day, February 1, 1950, there was a severe frost. Senior detective A. Kochkin and local police officer V. Filin were making a detour around the territory in Khimki and decided to turn to a grocery store. Meanwhile, there were three. Two went out to smoke, and the third again entered the hall. When asked by the cashier, the young guy replied that he was a police officer in civilian clothes, but the vigilant saleswoman told the policemen who entered about her suspicions. A. Kochkin stopped two guys - tall, with an elongated face, and another with flaxen hair and eyes almost like water. They were Mitin and Samarin. - I will ask for your documents.

Mitin sharply retorted:
- And who are you?
At that moment, Samarin pulled out a revolver from his bosom and fired at point-blank range. Detective Kochkin fell dead in the thick snow. The second militiaman began feverishly to get the weapon from a holster. Mitin and Agafonov rushed to run across the deserted dark highway and a moment later they heard another shot. But it was not the policeman who fired, but Samarin, who missed for the second time. Everyone reached Krasnogorsk on their own, and only in the morning it became known that all three had survived. So their first bloody tattoo was applied to the white snow. But tomorrow was a new day - and yesterday's bandits joined the ordinary Krasnogorsk life. This life between the plant and the stadium covered them more reliably than any "raspberry" of Tishinka or Vakhrushinka. Samarin worked as an engraver at KMZ, he knew his specialty very well and even became the winner of the socialist competition. His girlfriend, Aurora N., a student at a factory school, was of Spanish origin. Then in Krasnogorsk there was a whole community of Spaniards, still children evacuated to the USSR during the war with Franco. Despite the lack of information about the criminals, the MUR immediately felt the presence of a dangerous, strong beast, and day and night tried to get on its trail. The investigation was carried out in secrecy: the murder of a policeman happened a few weeks before the elections to the Supreme Soviet. Newspapers were full of pre-election commitments and achievements in the economy: electric plants in unison demonstrated their selfless love for the great Stalin, and at the Zarya factory they found a way to use old film for the production of ladies' combs, powder boxes and pins. In this situation, the tragic death of a policeman right in front of people would have exposed too grim reality. Measures were taken to keep rumors of a bloody attack from intruding into Moscow's agitation fuss. MUR accepted the challenge. On March 26, Samarin, Mitin and his old friend Grigoriev entered the department store in the Timiryazevsky district.
- Everyone stand! We are from the MGB!
Psychologically, they calculated exactly. Visitors rooted to the floor. The general confusion allowed all three to quickly take over the crowd. Grigoriev, who remained at the entrance to the store, in a military overcoat without shoulder straps, aroused confidence among passers-by and, in which case, he could divert attention without suspicion. After the robbery, the criminals drove the visitors into the back room and locked the store with a padlock. The booty turned out to be a fortune - 63 thousand rubles. In the autumn of 1950, the gang, together with a new member, Bolotov, the leader of the Tushino plant, flew into the department store of the Moscow Canal Shipping Company. Visitors were dumbfounded by the sight of a monster with bulging eyes - afraid of being recognized, Bolotov cut out a mask from a gas mask. In his hands he had a training grenade, which Mitin armed him with, and at the sight of her the cashier fainted. Taking the money, Mitin threw away small bills.
- In ten minutes, call the right place.
Still on edge from the November case, three weeks later the gang robbed a store on Kutuzovskaya Sloboda Street. The unfortunate cashier was in shock, she looked at them as if spellbound and repeated: "I'm afraid, I'm afraid ..." Mitin ordered irritably:
- Turn away! Climb into the oven - head!
The stove was not lit.
The gang was heard again on March 11, 1951. Hoping for easy prey, Mitin, Averchenkov and Ageev, armed with two barrels, entered the "Blue Danube" on the Leningrad Highway (the beer house was so called for its bold blue color) - they entered as visitors, hiding their pistols in their pockets. After spending time talking over vodka and beer, Mitin leaned back in his chair and gave himself up to heavy drunken anguish. Finally, almost forcing himself to wake up, he pulled out a pistol and threateningly approached the cashier. He was like a train that lost control, flying down a slope and sweeping away everything in its path. Spilling someone else's blood seemed as easy as spilling vodka. At one of the tables sat junior police lieutenant Mikhail Biryukov with his wife. According to some reports, he had a weapon with him, according to others, he handed it over to the duty officer. One way or another, his bold rebuff cost him his life - two shots were fired, and the young policeman was killed. The second bullet struck to death a factory worker at a nearby table. The raised cry and panic did not allow the robbery to take place. Mitin rushed out of the room. Noticing in the dark a man and a woman moving towards him, he fired again - fortunately, both were only wounded. The woman barely had time to jump into the entrance of the nearest house, when the last bullet lodged in the door. Before the Murovites had time to develop search versions, as already on March 27, 1951, Averchenkov and Mitin, armed with ViS-35, TT pistols and a revolver, crashed into a crowd of buyers of the Kuntsevsky auction. Ageev was left at the entrance. And he calmly explained that there was a stock-taking in the store. Mitin went up to the glass box of the cash register and demanded money, but the cashier still did not understand what was happening:
- What about the director?
- It was agreed with the director, - Mitin answered and pulled out the door to the cashier.
The cashier screamed, her hair turning white in front of everyone. Having taken the money, Mitin entered the director's office and led the three men who were there to the trading floor. One of them, director Karp Antonov, jumped out the next door. Mitin burst in after him, with a pistol cocked. A fierce, desperate struggle ensued. The table overturned with a crash, but the director firmly held the drum of the pistol. Mitin headbutted him in the face and fired point-blank.

Gang members:

Ivan Mitin

Alexander Samarin

Vyacheslav Lukin

Stepan Dudnik

On an investigative experiment in Rublevo. In the center - the accused V. Lukin

Georgy Vainer, scriptwriter of the film “The meeting place cannot be changed”: “Although Sharapov is a collective image, he has a prototype - Volodya Arapov, who later became the head of the MUR department. He participated in the capture of the famous Mitin gang, which we personified as the "Black Cat".

The most mysterious gang of the Stalin era did not step into Moscow from a smoky raspberry card. And not from the zone - the forge of bandit personnel. Ten guys - ten black cats - went hunting on the streets of Moscow directly from the red honor roll of the defense plant in Krasnogorsk near Moscow. They were a gang by choice, not by lifestyle. They were seen in person, they were known by name. They did not inspire fear in anyone. Despite the mass production of the famous Zorkiy camera, the main production of the Krasnogorsk plant was special products: topographic and panoramic aerial cameras, infrared guidance systems, night sights for artillery, tanks and the Kalashnikov assault rifle. The city has stepped far from its childhood - the small village of Krasnaya Gorka. The life of the city was closely connected with the defense industry, and its Zenit stadium was the sports base of the Moscow region, the heart of Krasnogorsk, with strong teams in hockey, football, volleyball, and athletics. A young company often gathered in the wooden pavilion of the stadium: Ivan Mitin, a tall guy from Aviation Plant No. 34, a fair-haired engraver from KMZ Alexander Samarin and his friend Agafonov, a factory team hockey player Vyacheslav Lukin, Grigoriev and Korovin, also from KMZ. The stadium was a place of communication - they discussed sports here, talked about life in general. Dates were made here. Russia did not survive long without a tower. A two-year moratorium on the death penalty was lifted in January 1950. And almost immediately, like a terrible challenge, a police officer was murdered in the capital. The MGB was shaking. The Kuntsevo store was located just a few kilometers from Stalin's Near Dacha. Abakumov created an intelligence network in the capital, in which, it seemed, even a small fish could not slip through unnoticed. But just a big unknown fish bypassed his nets. Memos about the next raid flew to his desk. Reports of agents and employees of the MGB did not miss another thing: Muscovites are in a panic, rumors about an elusive gang of raiders are flying uncontrollably. In Moscow, many believe that the "Black Cat" has returned. Commissar of State Security of the third rank Makariev considered it necessary to convey this information to Abakumov in a memorandum. He made no secret of the fact that the MGB was hesitant about what line to work out in the current situation. But the minister knew how to rid the people of the weakness of doubt: “Don't know what to do? Jail everyone for spreading anti-Soviet rumors!” In the spring of 1951, Professor J. Etinger died in Lefortovo. He died in prison, after interrogations by the senior investigator for especially important cases, Ryumin. In a panic, Ryumin writes a denunciation letter to Stalin, in which he accused the Minister of State Security Abakumov of deliberately killing a prisoner. Say, in this way Abakumov sabotages the investigation of the anti-state conspiracy and dissociates himself from the course of the great Stalin. The case of Abakumov was started in the spring of 1951, but he still did not suspect anything and read the reports about the elusive gang. Her impunity and namelessness undermined the authority of the detective department.

Pictured is Vladimir Arapov. 1950 (from the archive of retired major general V.P. Arapov). In the meantime, Mitin now rarely left Krasnogorsk without a pistol in his pocket, even when he visited his father, who worked in the forestry in Kratov. On this day, without finding him on the spot, he got off at the Udelnaya station together with Ageev and Averchenkov to buy a drink in the station cafeteria. In connection with the strengthening of the protection of trains and to maintain law and order, police officers were now often seen at the stations. However, the three bandits noticed them only when they had already settled down at the table. Ageev got nervous:
- We must leave. There are too many police here!
But Mitin didn't even flinch, calmly took off his jacket and continued to drink. The evening was hot. He was wearing trousers and a summer shirt, and the TT pistol was clearly visible in his pocket. Mitin's calmness was almost defiant. The policemen realized that the case was taking a dangerous turn.
Ivan, let's go! They saw the trunk of garbage! Ageev insisted. - I know.
The police did not want to endanger others and did not apprehend the suspicious group inside the restaurant. They watched as Mitin and Ageev calmly passed by. Coming to the platform, Mitin quickly jumped onto the railway track and turned towards the forest.
- Stop! The policemen rushed after him.
Mitin pulled out a pistol, and a real firefight unfolded. He was on the verge of death, but the bullets stubbornly flew past. All three managed to escape. MUR failed again.
Soon after these events, Ageev, with an impeccable record, entered the Naval Mine-Torpedo Aviation School in Nikolaev. Bandit vacancy was free. But not for long. Mitin brought to work the twenty-four-year-old Nikolaenko, who was restless after a prison term.
Information from the MUR and the MGB about the elusive gang was demanded by the head of the Moscow City Party Committee, Nikita Khrushchev. He gathered the heads of all police departments for a special meeting and threatened them with demotion and arrest. The threat was not unfounded. The MGB actually arrested the heads of the two police departments on whose territory the robberies took place.
However, acting through arrests and intimidation was like firing blanks. Khrushchev knew that Beria likes to step on sore corns: in the capital they rob, like in Civil, they kill like in a war, the police cannot catch insolent raiders for the third year, and the first secretary is unable to ensure the safety of Muscovites. Khrushchev was losing catastrophically in the struggle for Moscow positions. It is not known whether Beria described the criminal situation in reports to Stalin.
“I think Stalin knew,” says Vladimir Arapov. - When I was investigating the murder of a major military engineer, I accompanied Beria several times in his Buick to the Middle Dacha. High-profile crimes were always reported.

Another crime scene - Susokolovskoe highway (on the left - the territory of the Botanical Garden)

The store in Kutuzovskaya Sloboda where the raid was carried out. 1953
In the photo, another crime scene - Susokolovskoye highway (on the left - the territory of the Botanical Garden). In August 1952, the gang broke into a tea shop at the Snegiri station. The tea room just sounds innocent. In those days, strong drinks were not served in canteens, and you could buy alcohol in teahouses, so the cash desk worked briskly. When the tall, dark figure of Mitin blocked the entrance and a sharp cry was heard: “On the floor!” Everyone seemed to be numb from surprise and horror. Mitin drew his weapon and in a matter of seconds forced everyone to obey. But the watchman H. Kraev rushed into the back room and tore a gun from the wall. Mitin fired. Kraev died on the same day in the hospital. There were about four thousand at the box office. For many, a fortune. For the Mitinites, the risk is wasted. A month later, Lukin and Mitin took an electric train to Moscow to choose a new point for the robbery. A suitable object soon appeared - the "Beer-Water" tent on the Leningradskaya platform. Having met on a deserted platform, all three entered the tent building. Averchenkov locked the door from the inside and remained at the entrance, while Lukin demanded the money from the cashier and, pulling her own leather suitcase towards him, threw the money into it. The customer at the nearest table stood up.
- What are you doing, mother t ... - The shot cut off his indignation and life itself. Then another visitor rushed to Mitin and received a bullet in the head.
- What are you doing there? Lukin, an exemplary MAI student, shouted over his shoulder.
Mitin ran out with Lukin to the platform and at the last minute jumped onto the departing train. Getting off at the next station, they crossed the bridge over the Skhodnya. Swinging, Lukin threw the bag as far as possible into the dark river, and she swallowed the evidence. The photo shows the store in Kutuzovskaya Sloboda, where the raid was made. 1953 The bandit madness continued. Late in the evening of November 1, 1952, Mitin, Lukin, Bolotov and Averchenkov approached a store near the Botanical Garden. Another shadow from the Krasnogorsk plant fell onto the site illuminated by an electric lantern - Korovin, "an excellent student of military and political training with good prospects." It must be said that in October 1952, the Council of Ministers of the USSR decided to entrust the protection of trade and industrial enterprises to the police. But no one guarded the Timiryazevsky store. There was a small queue at the checkout. Mitin loudly ordered everyone to lie down on the floor. The cashier was indignant and fearlessly refused to give money. Bolotov shot her in the shoulder. Having cleared the cash desk for twenty-four thousand rubles, the bandits went out into the street and quickly moved along the deserted Susokolovsky highway. Two, one of whom was Lukin, lagged behind. A militia lieutenant passing by nearby called out to them and asked them to light a cigarette. Suspecting something was wrong - by the looks, by the vodka, by the snippets of conversations - he demanded to see the documents. Turning around at the noise, Mitin decided that the lieutenant was making an arrest, and interrupted the conversation with a shot. Mortally wounded, the lieutenant fell prone, and Mitin disappeared in the direction of the Botanical Garden.

Detective Arapov's intuition

Punishment

Recognition of a thief in law

And now a few details about - "And now hunchbacked!, I said humpbacked!"

The Black Cat gang is perhaps the most famous criminal association in the post-Soviet space. It became such thanks to the talent of the Weiner brothers, who wrote the book "The Era of Mercy", as well as the skill of director Stanislav Govorukhin, who shot one of the best Soviet detectives, "The meeting place cannot be changed."

However, reality is very different from fiction.

In 1945-1946, rumors appeared in different cities of the Soviet Union about a gang of thieves who, before robbing an apartment, draw a kind of “mark” in the form of a black cat on its door.

Representatives of crime liked this romantic story so much that "black cats" bred like mushrooms. As a rule, it was about small groups, the scope of which did not even come close to what the Weiner brothers described. Often, street punks performed under the sign of the "Black Cat".

The popular writer of the detective genre Eduard Khrutsky, according to the scripts of which such films as “According to the Criminal Investigation Department” and “Proceed to liquidation” were staged, recalled that in 1946 he himself was part of such a “gang”.

A group of teenagers decided to scare a certain citizen who lived comfortably during the war years, while the boys' fathers fought at the front. The policemen, having caught the "avengers", according to Khrutsky, dealt with them simply: "they hit them on the necks and let them go."

The “bandits” from the “Black Cat” were a group of teenagers of the third, fifth and seventh grades who decided to scare their neighbor and wrote him a note of threatening content, explains Lyudmila Kaminskaya, head of the Museum of the History of the Moscow Department of Internal Affairs of the KC of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for Moscow. “They made themselves tattoos with ink, and in the note they drew a black cat, after which this name stuck to the“ gang ”.

The rumor about the mysterious "Black Cat" spread throughout Moscow very quickly, turning into a real "brand". Taking advantage of the loud glory of a non-existent gang, Moscow youngsters committed petty thefts, hooligans, and intimidated the townspeople. The so-called "guest performers" - visiting thieves - were hiding behind the "Cat".

But the plot of the Weiner brothers is based on the story of not such unfortunate robbers, but real criminals who took not only money and valuables, but also human lives. The gang in question operated in 1950-1953.

"As for the Weiner brothers and their romance, they simply took advantage of this high-profile name. The prototype of the gang, whose affairs were described in the Era of Mercy, was the Tall Blond Gang. However, there are discrepancies with reality here too: the leader of the gang, Ivan Mitin was not humpbacked at all, but on the contrary, he was distinguished by high growth, ”said Lyudmila Kaminskaya.

Bloody debut.

On February 1, 1950, in Khimki, senior detective Kochkin and local police officer V. Filin made a round of the territory. Entering the grocery store, they noticed a young man who was arguing with the saleswoman. He introduced himself to the woman as a police officer in civilian clothes, but that person seemed suspicious. Two of the young man's friends were smoking on the porch.

When the police officers tried to check the documents, one of the unknown people pulled out a pistol and opened fire. Detective Kochkin became the first victim of a gang that terrorized Moscow and its environs for three years.

The murder of a policeman was an out of the ordinary event, and law enforcement officers were actively searching for the perpetrators. The bandits, however, reminded themselves of themselves: on March 26, 1950, three broke into a department store in the Timiryazevsky district, introducing themselves as ... Chekists.

“MGB employees”, taking advantage of the confusion of sellers and visitors, drove everyone into the back room and locked the store with a padlock. The booty of the criminals was 68 thousand rubles.

For six months, the operatives knocked down their legs in search of the bandits, but in vain. Those, as it turned out later, having received a big jackpot, hid. In the autumn, having spent the money, they again went hunting. On November 16, 1950, a department store of the Moscow Canal Shipping Company was robbed (more than 24,000 rubles were stolen), on December 10, a store on Kutuzovskaya Sloboda Street (62,000 rubles was stolen).

A raid next door to Comrade Stalin.

On March 11, 1951, criminals raided the Blue Danube restaurant. Being absolutely confident in their own invulnerability, the bandits first drank at the table, and then moved to the cashier with a pistol.

Junior lieutenant of militia Mikhail Biryukov that day was in a restaurant with his wife. Despite this, mindful of the call of duty, he entered into a fight with the bandits. The officer died from the bullets of the criminals. Another victim was a worker sitting at one of the tables: he was hit by one of the bullets intended for the policeman. Panic broke out in the restaurant, and the robbery was thwarted. While fleeing, the bandits wounded two more people.

The failure of the criminals only angered. March 27, 1951 they raided the Kuntsevsky market. The director of the store, Karp Antonov, entered into hand-to-hand combat with the leader of the gang and was killed.

The situation was extraordinary. The latest attack took place just a few kilometers from Stalin's "Near Dacha". The best forces of the police and the Ministry of State Security "shaken" the criminals, demanding to extradite the completely insolent raiders, but the "authorities" swore that they knew nothing.

The rumors that circulated in Moscow exaggerated the crimes of the bandits tenfold. The legend of the "Black Cat" was now firmly associated with them.

Restaurant "Blue Danube".

The powerlessness of Nikita Khrushchev.

The bandits behaved more and more defiantly. A reinforced police patrol stumbled upon them in the station canteen at Udelnaya station. One of the suspicious men was found carrying a gun.

The police did not dare to detain the bandits in the hall: there were a lot of strangers around who could die. The bandits, having gone out into the street and rushed to the forest, started a real shootout with the policemen. The victory remained with the raiders: they again managed to escape.

The head of the Moscow City Party Committee, Nikita Khrushchev, threw thunder and lightning at law enforcement officers. He seriously feared for his career: Nikita Sergeevich could well have been asked for rampant crime in the capital of "the world's first state of workers and peasants."

But nothing helped: neither the threat nor the attraction of new forces. In August 1952, during a raid on a tea shop at the Snegiri station, bandits killed the watchman Kraev, who tried to resist them. In September of the same year, criminals attacked the Beer-Water tent on the Leningradskaya platform. One of the visitors tried to protect the saleswoman. The man was shot.

On November 1, 1952, during a raid on a store in the Botanical Garden area, bandits wounded a saleswoman. When they had already left the scene of the crime, a police lieutenant paid attention to them. He knew nothing about the robbery, but decided to check the documents of suspicious citizens. The police officer was mortally wounded.

Mitin now rarely left Krasnogorsk without a pistol in his pocket, even when he visited his father, who worked in the forestry in Kratov. On this day, without finding him on the spot, he got off at the Udelnaya station together with Ageev and Averchenkov to buy a drink in the station cafeteria. In connection with the strengthening of the protection of trains and to maintain law and order, police officers were now often seen at the stations. However, the three bandits noticed them only when they had already settled down at the table. Ageev got nervous:

We must leave. There are too many police here!

But Mitin didn't even flinch, calmly took off his jacket and continued to drink. The evening was hot. He was wearing trousers and a summer shirt, and the TT pistol was clearly visible in his pocket. Mitin's calmness was almost defiant. The policemen realized that the case was taking a dangerous turn.

Ivan, let's go! They saw the trunk of garbage! Ageev insisted. - I know.

The police did not want to endanger others and did not apprehend the suspicious group inside the restaurant. They watched as Mitin and Ageev calmly passed by. Coming to the platform, Mitin quickly jumped onto the railway track and turned towards the forest.

Stop! The policemen rushed after him.

Mitin pulled out a pistol, and a real firefight unfolded. He was on the verge of death, but the bullets stubbornly flew past. All three managed to escape. MUR failed again.

Soon after these events, Ageev, with an impeccable record, entered the Naval Mine-Torpedo Aviation School in Nikolaev. Bandit vacancy was free. But not for long. Mitin brought to work the twenty-four-year-old Nikolaenko, who was restless after a prison term.

In the photo, another crime scene - Susokolovskoye highway (on the left - the territory of the Botanical Garden).

"Everyone on the floor!"

In August 1952, the gang broke into a tea shop at the Snegiri station. The tea room just sounds innocent. In those days, strong drinks were not served in canteens, and you could buy alcohol in teahouses, so the cash desk worked briskly. When the tall, dark figure of Mitin blocked the entrance and a sharp cry was heard: “On the floor!” Everyone seemed to be numb from surprise and horror. Mitin drew his weapon and in a matter of seconds forced everyone to obey. But the watchman H. Kraev rushed into the back room and tore a gun from the wall. Mitin fired. Kraev died the same day in the hospital.

There were about 4,000 at the box office. For many, a fortune. For the Mitinites, the risk is wasted. A month later, Lukin and Mitin took an electric train to Moscow to choose a new point for the robbery. A suitable object soon appeared - the "Beer-Water" tent on the Leningradskaya platform.

Having met on a deserted platform, all three entered the building of the tent. Averchenkov locked the door from the inside and remained at the entrance, while Lukin demanded the money from the cashier and, pulling her own leather suitcase towards him, threw the money into it. The customer at the nearest table stood up.

What are you doing, mother t ... - The shot cut off his indignation and life itself. Then another visitor rushed to Mitin and received a bullet in the head.

What are you doing there? Lukin, an exemplary MAI student, shouted over his shoulder.

Mitin ran out with Lukin to the platform and at the last minute jumped onto the departing train. Getting off at the next station, they crossed the bridge over the Skhodnya. Swinging, Lukin threw the bag as far as possible into the dark river, and she swallowed the evidence.

Pictured is Vladimir Arapov. 1950 (from the archive of retired major general V.P. Arapov).

Call.

In January 1953, bandits raided a savings bank in Mytishchi. Their booty was 30 thousand rubles. But at the moment of the robbery, something happened that made it possible to get the first lead leading to the elusive gang.

The employee of the savings bank managed to press the “panic button”, and the phone rang in the savings bank. The bewildered robber grabbed the phone.

- Is it a savings bank? the caller asked.

“No, the stadium,” the raider replied, cutting off the call.

The duty officer at the police station called the savings bank. Vladimir Arapov, an employee of the MUR, drew attention to this short dialogue. This detective, a real legend of the capital's criminal investigation, later became the prototype of Vladimir Sharapov.

And then Arapov became alert: why, in fact, did the bandit mention the stadium? He said the first thing that came to mind, but why did he remember the stadium in particular?

After analyzing the places of robberies on the map, the detective discovered that many of them were committed near sports arenas. The bandits were described as young men of athletic appearance. It turns out that the criminals could not be related to crime at all, but to be athletes?

Vladimir Pavlovich Arapov

Fatal barrel of beer.

In the 1950s, this was unthinkable. Athletes in the USSR were considered role models, but here it is ...

The operatives were ordered to start checking sports societies, paying attention to everything unusual that happens near the stadiums.

Soon an unusual incident occurred near the stadium in Krasnogorsk. A certain young man bought a barrel of beer from the saleswoman and treated everyone. Among the lucky ones was Vladimir Arapov, who remembered the "rich man" and began checking.

At first glance, it was about exemplary Soviet citizens. Beer was served by a student of the Moscow Aviation Institute Vyacheslav Lukin, an excellent student, athlete and Komsomol activist. The friends who accompanied him turned out to be workers from the defense factories of Krasnogorsk, Komsomol members and labor shock workers.

But Arapov felt that this time he was on the right track. It turned out that on the eve of the robbery of the savings bank in Mytishchi, Lukin really was at the local stadium.

The main problem for the detectives was that they initially looked in the wrong place and the wrong ones. From the very beginning of the investigation, the Moscow criminals, as one, “went into denial” and disavowed any connection with the Mitintsy.

As it turned out, the sensational gang consisted entirely of production leaders and people far from the criminal "raspberries" and the thieves' circle. In total, the gang consisted of 12 people.

Most of them lived in Krasnogorsk and worked at a local factory.

The leader of the gang, Ivan Mitin, was a shift foreman at defense plant No. 34. Interestingly, at the time of his capture, Mitin was presented with a high government award - the Order of the Red Banner of Labor. 8 out of 11 members of the gang also worked at this plant, two were cadets of prestigious military schools.

Among the "Mitintsy" was a Stakhanovite, an employee of the "500th" factory, a member of the party - Pyotr Bolotov. There was also a MAI student Vyacheslav Lukin, a member of the Komsomol and an athlete.

In a sense, sports became the connecting link of accomplices. Krasnogorsk after the war was one of the best sports bases near Moscow, there were strong teams in volleyball, football, bandy and athletics. The first gathering place of the Mitintsy was the Krasnogorsk Zenit stadium.

Mitin established the most severe discipline in the gang, forbade any bravado, and rejected contacts with "classic" bandits. And yet, Mitin's scheme failed: a barrel of beer at the stadium in Krasnogorsk led the raiders to collapse.

"Ideologically wrong" criminals.

At dawn on February 14, 1953, operatives broke into the house of Ivan Mitin. The detained ringleader behaved calmly, during the investigation he gave detailed testimony, not hoping to save his life. The shock worker understood perfectly well that there could be only one punishment for what he had done.

When all the members of the gang were arrested, and the report of the investigation lay on the table of the top Soviet leaders, the leaders were horrified. Eight members of the gang were employees of a defense plant, all shock workers and athletes, the already mentioned Lukin studied at the Moscow Aviation Institute, and two more were cadets of military schools at the time of the defeat of the gang.

A cadet of the Nikolaev Naval Mine-Torpedo Aviation School Ageev, who before entering was Mitin's accomplice, a participant in robberies and murders, had to be arrested with a special warrant issued by the military prosecutor's office.

The gang accounted for 28 robberies, 11 murders, 18 wounded. During their criminal activities, the bandits stole more than 300 thousand rubles.

Not an ounce of romance.

The case of the Mitin gang did not fit into the ideological line of the party so much that it was immediately classified.

The court sentenced to death Ivan Mitin and one of his accomplices Alexander Samarin, who, like the ringleader, was directly involved in the murders. The rest of the gang members were sentenced to terms ranging from 10 to 25 years.

Student Lukin received 25 years, served them completely, and a year after his release he died of tuberculosis. His father could not bear the shame, went crazy and soon died in a psychiatric hospital. Members of the Mitin gang broke the lives of not only the victims, but also their loved ones.

There is no romance in the history of Ivan Mitin's gang: this is a story about "werewolves" who, in the light of day, were exemplary citizens, and in their second incarnation turned into ruthless murderers. This is a story about how low a person can fall.

Let's remember then. Here is also