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 the director Stanislav Govorukhin, who shot one of the best Soviet detective stories "The Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed."
However, reality is very different from fiction.
In 1945-1946 in different cities of the Soviet Union there were rumors 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.
Criminals liked this romantic story so much that "black cats" multiplied like mushrooms. As a rule, they were talking about small groups, the scope of activities of which did not come close to what the Weiner brothers described. Often under the sign of the "Black Cat" the street punks performed.
The popular detective genre writer Eduard Khrutsky, according to the scripts of which films such as "According to the Criminal Investigation Department" and "Start Liquidation" were staged, recalled that in 1946 he himself was part of a similar "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 militiamen, having caught the "avengers", according to Khrutsky, dealt with them simply: "they hit them on the necks and let them go.
The rumor about the mysterious "Black Cat" spread across Moscow very quickly, becoming a real "brand". Taking advantage of the loud fame of a non-existent gang, Moscow youngsters committed petty thefts, hooligans, and intimidated the townspeople. The so-called "guest performers" - visiting thieves, also covered themselves with "Cat".
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But the plot of the Weiner brothers is based on the story not of such would-be robbers, but of real criminals who took not only money and values, but also human lives. The gang in question operated in 1950-1953.
Bloody "debut"
On February 1, 1950, in Khimki, senior operative Kochkin and local district police officer V. Filin made a round of the territory. Entering a grocery store, they noticed a young man who was arguing with a saleswoman. He introduced himself to the woman as a police officer in civilian clothes, but that subject seemed suspicious. The young man's two friends were smoking on the porch.
When the police officers tried to check the documents, one of the unknown persons drew a pistol and opened fire. Operative Kochkin became the first victim of a gang that terrorized Moscow and the surrounding area for three years.
The murder of a policeman was an out of the ordinary event, and law enforcement officers were actively looking for criminals. The bandits, however, reminded of themselves: on March 26, 1950, three men broke into a department store in the Timiryazevsky district, posing as … Chekists.
“MGB officers”, taking advantage of the confusion of the sellers and visitors, drove everyone into the back room and locked the store with a padlock. 68 thousand rubles became the prey of criminals.
For half a year, the operatives knocked down their legs in search of bandits, but in vain. Those, as it turned out later, having received a big jackpot, hid. In the fall, having spent money, they went hunting again. On November 16, 1950, the manufactured goods store of the Moscow Canal Shipping Company was robbed (more than 24 thousand rubles were stolen), on December 10 - a store on Kutuzovskaya Sloboda Street (62 thousand rubles were 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 with a pistol moved to the cashier.
Militia junior lieutenant Mikhail Biryukov was in a restaurant with his wife that day. Despite this, mindful of the call of duty, he entered into a battle with the bandits. The officer was killed by bullets from criminals. Another victim was a worker sitting at one of the tables: he was hit by one of the bullets intended for a policeman. Panic broke out in the restaurant and the robbery was thwarted. While fleeing, the bandits wounded two more people.
The criminals' failure only made them angry. On March 27, 1951, they raided the Kuntsevo market. The store director Karp Antonov entered into hand-to-hand combat with the leader of the gang and was killed.
The situation was extreme. The last attack took place just a few kilometers from Stalin's "Blizhnyaya Dacha". The best forces of the police and the Ministry of State Security “shook” the criminals, demanding to hand over the completely insolent raiders, but the “authorities” swore that they knew nothing.
Rumors circulating 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 impotence of Nikita Khrushchev
The bandits behaved more and more defiantly. A reinforced police patrol ran into them in the station buffet at Udelnaya station. One of the suspicious men was seen carrying a pistol.
The militiamen did not dare to detain the bandits in the hall: the circle was full of strangers who could die. The bandits, having gone out into the street and rushed to the forest, started a real shootout with the police. The victory remained with the raiders: they again managed to escape.
The head of the Moscow City Party Committee Nikita Khrushchev thundered and thundered 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 threats, nor the attraction of new forces. In August 1952, during a raid on a tea house at the Snegiri station, bandits killed the guard of Kraev, who tried to resist them. In September of the same year, criminals attacked the Pivo-Voda tent on the Leningradskaya platform. One of the visitors tried to protect the female 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 drew attention to them. He knew nothing about the robbery, but decided to check the documents of suspicious citizens. A 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 Kratovo. On that day, not finding him on the spot, he got off at Udelnaya station together with Ageev and Averchenkov to buy a drink at the station buffet. In connection with the strengthening of train security and to maintain law and order, police officers were now often seen at stations. However, the three bandits noticed them only when they had already settled down at the table. Ageev got nervous:
- We must go. There are too many police here!
But Mitin did not turn his ear, calmly took off his jacket and continued to drink. The evening was hot. He was wearing pants and a summer shirt, and a TT pistol was clearly outlined in his pocket. Mitin's calmness was almost defiant. The militiamen realized that the case was taking a dangerous turn.
- Ivan, let's go! We saw the garbage trunk! - insisted Ageev. - I know.
The police did not want to endanger others and did not detain the suspicious group inside the restaurant. They watched as Mitin and Ageev calmly walked by. Leaving the platform, Mitin quickly jumped onto the railway track and turned towards the forest.
- Stop! - the militiamen rushed after him.
Mitin drew his pistol and a real firefight unfolded. He was on the verge of death, but the bullets stubbornly flew past. All three managed to escape. Moore was again defeated.
Soon after these events Ageev entered the Naval Mine Torpedo Aviation School in Nikolaev with an impeccable performance. The gangster vacancy was free. But not for long. Mitin brought the twenty-four-year-old Nikolayenko, who was restless after his imprisonment, to the case.
In the photo, the next crime scene is the Susokolovskoye Highway (on the left - the territory of the Botanical Garden).
Everyone on the floor
In August 1952, the gang broke into a tea house at Snegiri station. The teahouse just sounds innocent. In those days, alcoholic drinks were not served in canteens, and alcohol could be bought in tea houses, so the cash desk worked briskly. When the tall, dark figure of Mitin blocked the entrance and there was a sharp shout: "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 N. Kraev rushed into the back room and tore off the 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, it's a fortune. For "mitintsy" - the risk is in vain. A month later, Lukin and Mitin took an electric train to Moscow to choose a new location for the robbery. A suitable object soon appeared - the Pivo-Vody 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 stayed at the entrance, while Lukin demanded the cashier's help and, having pulled her own leather suitcase to himself, threw money there. The visitor at the nearest table got up.
- What are you doing, mother t … - The shot cut off his indignation and life itself. Then another visitor rushed at 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 onto the platform and at the last minute jumped on the departing train. Getting off at the next station, they walked across the bridge over Skhodnya. Swinging, Lukin threw the bag as far as possible into the dark river, and she swallowed the evidence.
In the photo, 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 production was 30 thousand rubles. But at the time of the robbery, something happened that made it possible to get the first thread 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 confused robber grabbed the pipe.
- Is this a savings bank? the caller asked.
“No, the stadium,” the raider answered, interrupting the call.
The person on duty at the police station called the savings bank. MUR employee Vladimir Arapov drew attention to this short dialogue. This detective, a real legend of the capital's threat, later became the prototype of Vladimir Sharapov.
And then Arapov was wary: why, in fact, did the bandit mention the stadium? He said the first thing that came to mind, but why did he think about the stadium?
After analyzing the locations of the robberies on the map, the detective found that many of them were committed near sports arenas. The bandits were described as athletic youth. It turns out that the criminals could have nothing to do with crime at all, but be athletes?
Vladimir Pavlovich Arapov.
Fatal barrel of beer
In the 1950s, this did not fit into my head. Athletes in the USSR were considered role models, but here it is …
The operatives were ordered to start checking sports societies, to pay attention to everything unusual that happens near the stadiums.
Soon, an unusual incident occurred at the stadium in Krasnogorsk. A certain young man bought a barrel of beer from a saleswoman and treated everyone. Among the lucky ones was Vladimir Arapov, who remembered the "rich man" and started checking.
At first glance, they were talking about exemplary Soviet citizens. Beer was treated to a student of the Moscow Aviation Institute Vyacheslav Lukin, an excellent student, an athlete and a Komsomol activist. The friends accompanying him turned out to be workers from the defense plants 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 was indeed at the local stadium.
The main problem for the detectives was that they initially looked for the wrong ones. From the very beginning of the investigation, the Moscow criminals “went into denial” as one and denied contact 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 the defense plant number 34. It is interesting that 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 gang members also worked at this plant, two were cadets of prestigious military schools.
Among the "mitintsy" was a Stakhanovite, an employee of the "five hundredth" plant, a party member - Peter Bolotov. There was also a student at the Moscow Aviation Institute Vyacheslav Lukin, a member of the Komsomol and an athlete.
In a sense, sport became the connecting link of the accomplices. After the war, Krasnogorsk was one of the best sports bases near Moscow, there were strong teams in volleyball, football, bandy and athletics. The first meeting place for the “mitintsy” was the Krasnogorsk Zenit stadium.
Mitin established the most severe discipline in the gang, forbade any bravado, and rejected contacts with "classical" bandits. And yet Mitin's scheme failed: a barrel of beer near the stadium in Krasnogorsk led the hijackers to ruin.
"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 drummer of labor understood perfectly well: there can be only one punishment for what he has done.
When all 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 workers of a defense plant, entirely 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 and Torpedo Aviation School Ageev, who before admission 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 had 28 robberies, 11 murders, 18 wounded. During their criminal activities, the bandits stole more than 300 thousand rubles.
Not a drop of romance
The case of Mitin's 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 10 to 25 years in prison.
Student Lukin received 25 years, served them in full, and a year after his release he died of tuberculosis. His father did not endure the shame, went mad and soon died in a mental hospital. Members of Mitin's gang ruined 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 were exemplary citizens in the daylight, and in their second incarnation turned into ruthless murderers. This is a story about how low a person can fall.