The most mysterious gang of the Stalin era, the Black Cat, haunted Muscovites with its daring raids for 3 years. Taking advantage of the difficult post-war situation and the credulity of citizens, Mitin's gang “ripped off” large sums of money and left unharmed.
A series of "Black cats"
In post-war Moscow, the crime situation was alarming. This was facilitated by a shortage of basic necessities among the population, hunger, and a large number of unaccounted for captured and Soviet weapons.
The situation was aggravated by the growing panic among the people; one loud precedent was enough for the appearance of frightening rumors.
Such a precedent in the first post-war year was the statement by the director of the Moscow bargaining 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 mostorg began to receive threatening notes written on notebook sheets.
On January 8, 1946, the investigation team of the Moscow Criminal Investigation Department went to the alleged crime scene to ambush the intruders. At five in the morning, they were already caught. They turned out to be several schoolchildren. The boss was the seventh grader Volodya Kalganov. The future screenwriter and writer Eduard Khrutsky was also in this "gang".
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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, they did not give a course to the matter. As Eduard Khrutsky later admitted, “they slapped them on the necks and released them.”
Even before that, there were rumors among the people that before robbing an apartment, thieves would paint on its door a "black cat" - an analogue of a pirate "black mark". Despite all the absurdity, this legend was enthusiastically taken up by the criminal world. In Moscow alone, there were no less than a dozen "Black cats", later similar gangs began to appear in other Soviet cities.
These were mainly teenage groups, which, firstly, were attracted by the romance of the image itself - the "black cat", and secondly, they wanted to knock the detectives off their trail with such a simple trick. However, by 1950, the activity of the "black cat" came to naught, many were overfished, many simply grew up and stopped swaggering, flirting with fate.
You can't kill policemen
Agree, the story of "Black Cat" bears little resemblance to what we read in the book by the Weiner brothers and saw Stanislav Govorukhin in the film. However, the story about the gang that terrorized Moscow for several years has not been invented.
Ivan Mitin's gang became the prototype of the book and film "Black Cat".
During the three years of its existence, the "mitintsy" committed 28 robberies, 11 people were killed and 12 more were wounded. 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 2,000 rubles.
Mitin's gang declared itself loudly - with the murder of a policeman. On February 1, 1950, senior operative Kochkin and district police officer Filin made a detour when they found Mitin with an accomplice while preparing for a robbery attack on a store in Khimki. A skirmish ensued. Kochkin was killed on the spot. The criminals managed to escape.
Even among experienced criminals, there is an understanding that “you cannot kill policemen,” but here - a shot without warning at point-blank range. MUR realized that they would have to deal with a new type of criminals, with cold-blooded outlaws.
Less than two months later, on March 26, the "mitintsy" committed another daring robbery.
This time they robbed the Timiryazevsky department store. 68 thousand rubles became the prey of criminals.
The criminals did not 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 seized with panic. Nobody felt safe, and the Moscow Criminal Investigation Department and the Ministry of State Security accepted the actions of the "mitintsy" as a challenge to them personally.
Khrushchev on a string
The murder of the policeman Kochkin was committed by the "mitintsy" shortly before the elections to the Supreme Soviet. The bright information agenda of those days, with assurances of economic growth, that life was getting better, crime was eradicated, ran counter to the robberies that had taken place.
The Moscow Criminal Investigation Department took all necessary measures to ensure that these incidents did not become public knowledge.
Mitin's gang made itself known only three months after Nikita Khrushchev, who had come from Kiev, became the head of the Moscow Regional Committee. At that time, information about all high-profile crimes fell on the table of the highest officials of the state. Joseph Stalin and Lavrenty Beria could not but know about the "mitintsy". Newly arrived Nikita Khrushchev found himself in a delicate situation, he was personally interested that the "Mitintsy" were found as soon as possible.
In March 1952, Khrushchev personally came to the Moscow Criminal Investigation Department in order to arrange a "harassment".
As a result of the visit of the "high authorities", two chiefs of regional departments were arrested, and a special operational headquarters for the Mitin gang was set up in the MUR.
Some historians believe that the "mitintsy" case could play a decisive role in the history of the confrontation between Khrushchev and Beria. If Mitin's gang had not been exposed before Stalin's death, Beria could have been in the place of the head of state.
The head of the MUR museum, Lyudmila Kaminskaya, in the film about the "Black Cat" said bluntly: “They had such a struggle, as it were. Beria was removed from affairs, he was sent to lead the nuclear power industry, and Khrushchev was in charge of all law enforcement agencies. And, of course, Beria needed Khrushchev to be untenable 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 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.
Exposure
Only in February 1953 did the MUR officers manage to track the gang. "Mitintsev" was let down by banal imprudence. One of them, Lukin, bought a whole barrel of beer from the Krasnogorsk Stadium. This aroused legitimate suspicion among the police. Lukin was put under surveillance. Gradually, the number of suspects began to grow. Before the arrest, it was decided to make a confrontation. MUR officers in plain clothes brought several witnesses to the stadium and in the crowd brought the suspects to the company, who were identified.
The Mitians were arrested differently than in the film. They were detained without unnecessary noise - in 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 a fight.
The court sentenced Ivan Mitin and Alexander Samarin to capital punishment - death by firing squad, the sentence was carried out in Butyrka prison. Lukin was sentenced to 25 years in prison and died mysteriously a day after his release in 1977.