Enemy troops landed in the Moscow region in the spring of 1992, quickly found a place for a temporary base, settled in the Noginsk region and from there began to make sorties that put the entire capital on the ears.
Well, to put it simply, a gypsy camp of more than a hundred people arrived in the region from the depths of Transcarpathia. Early in the morning, the gypsies got on the train and went to gut Moscow. Engage in theft, fortune telling, begging. But their very crown was robbery. For them, they used children from seven to ten years old. And they worked mainly for foreigners - that is, those who had the coolest outfit and the coolest cars in impoverished Moscow. It turns out that the glamorous fifa from the Mercedes. Two steps will pass, and then a crowd of juvenile scoundrels swoops in on her. They stick around her like lice. While the lady, not understanding anything, tries to shake them off, and they are already scattered - with money, jewelry. A couple of women were stripped almost naked in the center of Moscow.
Since they worked for the most respectable clients, very quickly the list of their victims began to resemble the list of guests of a diplomatic reception. There was the wife of the British ambassador, the smaller bigheads. For a couple of months the camp brought without straining seven diplomatic notes. Since the perpetrators of the crimes were minors, they were not subject to criminal liability under the law, it was practically impossible to do anything with them. Then the Mayor of Moscow Luzhkov and the head of the regional administration Tyazhlov issued a joint Resolution on the defeat of the illegal settlement in the Noginsk region and the eviction of the occupiers outside the region, preferably to their native places.
It was about four o'clock in the morning when an attack on the enemy fortifications was planned in the assembly hall at 38 Petrovka. Misha Denisov, head of the Gypsy department of the Moscow Criminal Investigation Department, approached the task with a grand scale and conscientiousness. On the wall were maps made in the best traditions of military topography with the image of the camp and the directions of the main blows. And Misha selflessly pushed the order of actions - from where the assault group comes from, where is the reserve, the forces attached, on what signal we are moving forward.
Well, then the apotheosis. They smashed the camp early in the morning, while the Gypsies had not yet broken into Moscow. We got out of the operational vehicles onto the highway. A bus with riot police stopped nearby. It was a cold dog, in a light jacket I had a chill, my pocket was pulling back a gas canister, which was supposed to water this living creature abundantly.
- Let's start moving, - ordered the senior of the group.
Promotional video:
We stretched out in a chain. Morning fog, crunch of branches, forest belt. And the massive bodies of riot policemen, dressed in a gray uniform, with machine guns, very reminiscent of the Wehrmacht rangers in the fight against partisans.
A clearing loomed ahead. There was a signal on the radio:
- Capture!
We started at a run and jumped out into the clearing.
The picture was amazing. On the clearing, tents, huts, and dilapidated buildings were set up. In the puddles, barefoot boys were busy - in such-and-such cold - frost-resistant, like polar bears. Barefoot gypsies were cooking something in kettles over a fire, preparing to leave for work. Men, as always, ate something or prodded by someone. Measured life. And then - you were not expecting us, but we have already arrived.
From all sides, the brave officers of the Moscow police department rushed to the camp. And the battle began.
Then I remember everything in fragments. The knock of a rubber "democratizer" - this is a gypsy who decided to portray something, flew in from a riot policeman, so much so that the villain collapsed and did not give any special signs of life. The measured beat of the truncheons was the riot policemen driving the gypsy aunts into a circle. With a quack, a blow to the ribs by the riot policeman's boot - these were gypsy men laid out on the wet morning earth, the clicks of handcuffs. The screeching was such that the ears went deaf - it was the gypsies who screamed. This is their corporate style - during arrests or showdowns, they instantly switch to wild screeching, which has a paralyzing effect on unprepared employees. Or they can throw a baby at a policeman. But the OMON is used to it. Bang, bang - in a circle, stand and not blather.
The gypsies squeal. Swearing, obscenities, which I have never heard before. Cold. Wind. Operatives from the drug department rip open the pillows where Roma usually keep drugs. The wind picks up the fluff. And in this fluff jumping and rolling, squealing with pleasure, a hefty German Shepherd, trained on drugs.
The operative takes aside the boy - blond, with blue eyes, who looked strange against the background of his black friends.
- Who are you? - asks the operas.
The guy proudly straightens up:
- I'm a gypsy.
- And why is the hair so white?
- Have painted over!
At this moment, the main gypsy plowwoman raises a wild cry:
- What, Herod, stuck to the child! He is a gypsy! Do we only fuck with gypsies? We fuck with Russians Internationalism! Friendship of Peoples!
When this booth subsides a little, a search begins. We put the loot on a tarp. For the first time in my life I saw the Chinese yuan - a whole bundle stolen from diplomats. Dollars, stamps, gold credit cards - what not. The task is simple - to collect enough money to pay for the already booked carriage to Moldova. There is enough money, even a lot. Enough for the train, the plane, and the bus.
The pakhanka is not appeased:
- What do you need money for ?! So you would say! We would bring you to Petrovka! And no need to walk!
They took them to Glavk, described the detainees, took a picture, and shoved them into the carriage. And I thought that I would never see this group again.
And I was very wrong.
A year later I was in St. Petersburg, operatives from Liteiny tell me:
- Here the camp crawled to us. From somewhere in Transcarpathia. They occupied the dacha village, took over the houses, they live there. And they go to St. Petersburg to rob. One diplomatic note after another. The president of the Lyon credit bank was shod. That's terrible.
A suspicion crept into my mind.
- Where did you come from? I asked.
- So from Moscow. From there they were evicted. And we have Sobchak a strong democrat. She says it's inhumane to evict them. Here we come to them from time to time. Recently, two hundred kilos of cannabis were seized from them. Let's go and see for yourself.
And then we arrived. Gardener's Association, chicken coops. All the tracks are covered with fifty-ruble coins like millet.
- They are begging, they collect coins in sacks, sacks burst, coins spill out along the road, - explains the opera. - I think you can collect a dacha on the paths for a new village.
Then the anecdote becomes heated. The grandmother came to visit her favorite country house, opens the door, there, in the pose of the Associate Professor from "Gentlemen of Fortune", a half-naked gypsy sits at the table, in front of him on the table is pasta, children and wives rush around him, pleasing him. Grandma for the heart:
- Cursed Herods! Bandera! What are you doing in my house?
- Do not be afraid of the grandmother, - the gypsy answers importantly. - Spring is coming, we will harvest your harvest.
In another house, a gypsy family is sitting at a table, in front of them is a mountain of fifty rubles almost to the ceiling, they are stacking them in columns.
Well, then the phantasmagoria generally begins. The opera catches a running blond boy with a question:
- Where are you from?
And then the scandalous authoritative gypsy woman jumps out and starts yelling about who is fucking with whom, about internationalism. Looking at her, I say:
- Why are you going broke? I otter you, I still remember from Noginsk.
She shut up and looked at me with apprehension - they say, what the hell, who goes everywhere after them …
This is how I began to plunge into the fabulous world of gypsy crime.
We have seen gypsies since childhood. Just like our grandfathers and great-grandfathers, and dozens of generations before that. This nomadic people, according to legend, expelled from India for an immoral way of life, roams almost all over the Earth. On hearing two peoples who have not had their own territory for thousands of years and at the same time retained their self-identity are the Gypsies and Jews. And they have a lot in common. They perceive the world around them as a hostile or foreign environment. It's just that if Jews historically integrate into other people's public and state structures, use the tools of this society - the media, banks, having a good gesheft from this, then the gypsies perceive the world around them as a savannah - a hunting place. The laws of the state where they live do not mean anything to them. For them, only the rules of their community matter. The rest is booty. Naturally,the methods of this hunt are in some contradiction with the laws of the states and are interpreted unambiguously as criminal activity.
Old statistics, but quite indicative - in the nineties, according to criminologists, Roma in Russia committed about three percent of crimes. And if we consider that most of their actions will wear out their latent, hidden nature, then the figure is much more serious. Because the gypsies feed on hunting.
It is interesting that the gypsies do not have a single faith, language, there are many tribal groups that are very different from each other. But all of them have been gypsies for thousands of years. And all this time, with the arrival of heat, they collect their belongings, rush to roam.
In the USSR, they tried to overcome this freeman more than once. In the fifties, they were forcibly certified and assigned to the land. But this could not restrain the free temper of the reckless people. And gypsy camps both under the USSR and now continue to travel around our country and around the world.
How do they make a living? Yes, everyone. Previously, they were engaged in speculation, fake cosmetics, begging. Fortune-telling, theft, petty swindle. Recently, for example, they paint themselves in blondes and steal from pensioners under the guise of a regional security officer. I remember we had a case - such otters robbed the honored navigator of aviation Lavsky, took four Orders of the Red Star, then broke down the apartment of the daughter of the Soviet military leader Frunze. They work brilliantly for the pockets. A crowd of gypsies, children, noise, din. One shovelman fishes it out, passes it on to the other, and after a few seconds it is impossible to track down where the stolen goods are. Certain tribal groups specialize in certain types of crime. But lately, drugs have dominated everything.
Gypsies are ideally made for the drug business. It has a tribal character. All relatives - grow, buy drugs, transport, sell in bulk and separately. All their own. There is no shortage of working hands. All in a narrow circle.
In the early nineties, I remember, we went to smash the point at the station Pravda along the Yaroslavl railway. There is a house, drug addicts are drawn to it in single file. There is a window in the door. You give money there. They put a box of marijuana in your hand. Who put it - FIG knows, to whom to tie - is unknown. The whole house is full of women, men, children. Our scheme was simple - to pull the addict who had acquired the drug from the house, to detain, to take evidence and break into the house.
They managed to detain one. Then we again set out on the observation point. And suddenly gypsy children began to curl around. A Volga drove out of the gate with a very important gypsy, who waved his hand to us in a friendly way - they say goodbye. Their children serve as scouts, they whip operatives at once. The operation was disrupted. True, after a couple of months, with noise and clamor, this point was still smashed.
By the way, drugs hit the gypsies themselves. A huge number of them are sitting on a needle, smoking grass, degrading.
As a rule, women work for gypsies. Men don't do such nonsense. They accompany their working women. At best, horses and cattle are stolen, some of them commit robberies on churches and priests, sometimes with murder.
Men usually get married not beautiful, but hardworking. According to tradition, before marriage, a gypsy must leave the family for a while and return well-fed and with money - which means she knows how to earn. A good wife, well-fed children.
A big house with many children is a reliable life. Children don't chill. They are taught the craft from childhood. The doorbell rings, outside the door is a gypsy with some wild story, aimed at robbing you. She has a girl of about ten with her - not just her mother drags her with her, because there is no one to leave with. From an early age she is taught to cheat. And the Gypsies are generally accustomed to counteracting the state from infancy. Since ancient times, when the camp wandered and a child was born, in several village councils, parents took a birth certificate, on the basis of which several passports for different names are then issued to the child.
The new era has changed their traditional craft. They are stuck in all kinds of crime. I remember there was a group of black realtors who evicted old people from apartments and sent them, as agreed, to gypsy villages to look after the victims there. Some took root in the village, like a former KGB lieutenant colonel who began to teach Roma children to read and write. Others, usually alcoholics, did not fit into the quiet gypsy life. They were strangled, buried in the gypsy cemetery, but wreaths were placed on the graves sentimentally.
Although the gypsies live next to us, they, as a rule, are isolated. We are a different world for them. Our laws are not worth the paper they are written on. They have their own traditions. Their authorities. They are led by gypsy baros, who are both kings and military commanders for them. Only those who are malicious against their own are considered criminals. There is even a court for this - kris. And the punishment system is very different. I saw a mace of a gypsy baro, with traces of blood - wooden, heavy, with which he carried out death sentences. And they have specific laws. And flexible. Here is one gypsy woman who laid another, and she went to the bunk, and until the mother is released, the one guilty of her ordeals supports her children - and there are five of them.
There are no boundaries for them. All over the world, they are similar to each other. And they are doing about the same. Favorite saying of all guides in all European countries:
“Be careful, there are gypsy pickpockets here.
Coliseum. We were warned that terrible gypsy thieves roam there. I saw them - a girl of about twelve and two boys of ten. The girl has a newspaper. There is a German, deep in himself. The girl shows him the newspaper, he pokes his nose into it, the gypsy puts the newspaper on his head, and the boys begin to rummage in his pockets. The German screechingly throws the newspaper aside and kicks around the world-class architectural monument chasing these Gypsies, who are wailing in fear. Several times in Rome, gypsies got involved with me with about the same trick, it is characteristic that, having heard the Russian swearing, they disappear instantly. This was confirmed by my friend, who is also tired of swearing at gypsies in different countries.
A room in an Athens hotel. View of the abandoned train station. The access roads were occupied by a gypsy camp.
- Be careful. We have never been stolen. But now Gypsies from Romania have come to us - you can hear it everywhere.
In England, they generally do not consider it necessary to line up in tents, but seize the houses they like, whose owners are away, so much so that the noble English Themis cannot evict them.
After that raid, I crossed paths with gypsies quite often, plunging deeper and deeper into this topic. We worked in gangs that stole orders from veterans. On drugs. I wrote articles about them, for one of which I ended up in the "White Book of the Genocide of the Roma People." They reminded me of steel in Ogonyok. I described a case when a gypsy camp settled on the territory of a collective farm, the villagers were stolen, and then the chairman asked the aviators to pollinate the camp when pollinating the fields. And as blown away by the wind. “The police officer offers to pollinate the gypsies with pesticides,” they wrote about me.
Usually, until we are robbed, we do not notice them. But the reality is that next to us there is a separate world, according to its own laws, for several thousand years. They are not interested in our laws, our borders. They are a thing in themselves. This is a timeless criminal machine, perfect of its kind, violating the state foundations of the Big World. Yes, this world is changing. It is already rare to see the classic gypsy camp that seized the land and set up tents. They are becoming more sedentary, because nowadays it is not necessary to cheat far away, when at home you can safely trade in nonsense. But basically nothing changes.
They are somewhat similar to insects. Humanity has failed to breed a single species of insect. So are the gypsies. They were executed, evicted by the Spaniards. Hitler, considering them non-Aryans, drove them to death camps. But they thrive as before, and they do the same - they steal.
I have a kind of ambivalent attitude towards them. On the one hand, they are certainly delightful for their reckless impudence, love of freedom and loyalty to traditions, breadth of flight. On the other hand, when you see the injured grandmothers, from whom the "representatives of the Social Security" took the last, these gypsies really want to kill.
Why are they like this? I do not know. There was a dispute about what is innate in people and what is acquired. In the GUVD of the Moscow region, an employee took a girl from an orphanage - a gypsy. That one was less than a year old. So all my life I was brought up in a strict cop family. And in the first grade of school, the girl began to steal …
What to do with them? "How to destroy Hitler" - some will give out on their nerves. And they will be wrong. Humanity is interesting in its diversity, even if so grotesque, so that all rational creatures have a right to exist. How can we get along with them? Even the powerful Soviet law enforcement system could not do anything with them. Well, there is only one answer - to purposefully work with them, not letting them roam and periodically reminding them that our laws are not virtual, but real, just like prisons, into which they can thunder. And for this, the authorities need to remember that the Roma are a problem, and to work with them in a planned manner. But with this, we are not doing well.
There used to be some kind of state policy, sometimes quite successful, in terms of their adaptation. There were relevant units in the criminal investigation department that were doing just that. I remember an employee of the UR in Yaroslavl - a two-meter monstrously powerful man. They generally considered him as their own, because he learned their language, knew all the gypsies and held them by the throats, not allowing them to roam. I remember Misha Denisov, the head of the MUR department. So he once went to a gypsy village, and a frustrated baro led him through the streets, poking at every second house:
- Look, there are children left without mothers living here. You planted their mothers, aren't you ashamed?
As a result of all the optimizations, reorganizations and profanations, these units were covered up, so today the Roma are without close supervision. The old search officers fled. But this environment requires purposeful work. This is not me saying that everything is bad, but how much will have to be restored soon if we want to have a stable country.
I would like to add that, of course, the article is not about all the people, in which there are many worthy representatives, but about the worst, criminalized part of it.