Who was part of the black cat gang. The “black cat” gang: the most mysterious gang of the USSR. The history of the Black Cat gang

Gang " Black cat"is perhaps the most famous criminal association in the post-Soviet space.

The Weiner brothers wrote a wonderful novel, “The Era of Mercy,” about the struggle of MUR employees against the “Black Cat,” which terrorized the capital after the war, and director Govorukhin made the cult film “The Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed.” However, reality is very different from fiction. There were no hunchbacks in the “Humpbacked Gang,” but there were ideal citizens of advanced Soviet society...

"Cat" abundance of the post-war period

Bloody "debut"

Restaurant "Blue Danube".

The powerlessness of Nikita Khrushchev

Call

Fatal barrel of beer

"Ideologically incorrect" criminals

Not a drop of romance

The most mysterious gang of the Stalin era, “Black Cat,” haunted Muscovites for 3 years with its daring raids. Taking advantage of the difficult post-war situation and the gullibility of citizens, Mitin’s gang “ripped off” large sums of money and walked away unharmed.

A series of "Black cats"

In post-war Moscow, the crime situation was alarming. This was facilitated by the lack of essential products among the population, hunger, 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 frightening rumors to appear.

Such a precedent in the first post-war year was the statement of the director of a Moscow trade that he was threatened by the Black Cat gang. Someone began to draw a black cat on the door of his apartment, and the director of the bridge store began to receive threatening notes written on notebook paper.

On January 8, 1946, the MUR investigative team went to the alleged crime scene to ambush the attackers. At five in the morning they were already caught. They turned out to be several schoolchildren. The boss was seventh-grader Volodya Kalganov. The future film playwright 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 matter was not allowed to proceed. As Eduard Khrutsky later admitted, “they pressed us on the necks and let us go.”

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

These were mainly teenage groups who, 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 technique. However by 1950, the activity of the “Black Koshkinites” had come to naught, many were caught, many simply grew up and stopped playing around, 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 in the film by Stanislav Govorukhin. Nevertheless, the story about the gang that terrorized Moscow for several years was not invented.

The prototype of the book and film “Black Cat” was Ivan Mitin’s gang.

Over the three years of its existence, the Mitino members committed 28 robberies, killed 11 people and wounded 12 more. The total income from their criminal activities amounted to more than 300 thousand rubles. The amount is substantial. A car in those years cost about 2,000 rubles.

Mitin's gang made itself known loudly - with 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 preparing for a robbery at a store in Khimki. A shootout ensued. Kochkin was killed on the spot. The criminals managed to escape.

Even among experienced criminals there is an understanding that “policemen cannot be killed,” but here they are shot at point-blank range without warning. The MUR realized that they would have to deal with a new type of criminal, cold-blooded lawbreakers.

This time they robbed the Timiryazevsky department store. The criminals' loot 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 Mitino men as a challenge to them personally.

Khrushchev on a string

The murder of policeman Kochkin was committed by the Mitino members shortly before the elections to the Supreme Council. The rosy information agenda of those days, with assurances about economic growth, that life was getting better, that crime had been eradicated, ran counter to the robberies that took place.

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

Mitin’s gang announced itself just three months after Nikita Khrushchev, who arrived from Kyiv, became the head of the Moscow Regional Committee. At that time, information about all high-profile crimes was placed on the table of the highest officials of the state. Joseph Stalin and Lavrentiy Beria could not help but know about the “Mitytsy”. New arrival Nikita Khrushchev found himself in a delicate situation; he was personally interested in the “Mitinets” being found as soon as possible.

In March 1952, Khrushchev personally came to the MUR in order to carry out a “cleaning”.

As a result of the visit of the “high authorities,” two heads of regional departments were arrested, and a special operational headquarters was created at the MUR for the Mitin gang case.

Some historians believe that the Mitino case could have played 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, then Beria could have taken the place of the head of state.

The head of the MUR Museum, Lyudmila Kaminskaya, said directly in the film about “Black Cat”: “It was like they were having such a struggle. Beria was removed from business, he was sent to head the nuclear energy industry, and Khrushchev oversaw 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 were initially looking in the wrong place and with the wrong people. From the very beginning of the investigation, Moscow criminals as one “went into denial” and denied any connection with the “Mitinsky” group.

As it turned out, the sensational gang consisted entirely of leaders in production and people far from the criminal “raspberries” and the circle of thieves. 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 nominated for a high government award - the Order of the Red Banner of Labor. 8 of the 11 gang members also worked at this plant, two were cadets at prestigious military schools.

Among the “Mitinets” there was also a Stakhanovite, an employee of the “500th” plant, a party member - Pyotr Bolotov. There was also a MAI student Vyacheslav Lukin, a Komsomol member and athlete.

In a sense, sport became the connecting link between 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 gathering place for the “Mitinites” was the Krasnogorsk Zenit stadium.

Exposure

Only in February 1953, MUR employees managed to get on the trail of the gang.“Mitintsev” was let down by banal indiscretion. 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 increase. Before the arrest, it was decided to conduct a confrontation. MUR officers in plain clothes brought several witnesses to the stadium and, in the crowd, led them to a group of suspects who were identified.

The Mityans were arrested differently than in the film. They detained us without any fuss - in apartments.

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

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. A day after his release, in 1977, he died mysteriously.

It’s interesting to read about real stories of artistic subjects. For example, here we found out, or for example, here is the story and about and even. And now some details about - “And now hunchbacked!, I said hunchbacked!”

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 directed one of the best Soviet detective stories, “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, painted a kind of “mark” in the form of a black cat on its door.

The criminals liked this romantic story so much that “black cats” multiplied like mushrooms. As a rule, we were talking about small groups, the scope of whose activities did not come close to what the Weiner brothers described. Street punks often performed under the sign of the “Black Cat”.

The popular detective genre writer Eduard Khrutsky, whose scripts were used for such films as “According to the Criminal Investigation Data” and “Proceed with Liquidation,” recalled that in 1946 he himself found himself 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 police, having caught the “avengers,” according to Khrutsky, treated them simply: “they hit them on the necks and let them go.”

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

The rumor about the mysterious “Black Cat” spread throughout Moscow very quickly, turning into a real “brand”. Taking advantage of the high-profile reputation of a non-existent gang, Moscow teenagers committed petty thefts, hooliganism, and intimidated townspeople. The so-called “guest performers” – visiting thieves – also used “Cat” as cover.

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

“As for the Weiner brothers and their novel, they simply took advantage of this big name. The prototype of the gang, whose affairs were described in the “Era of Mercy”, was the “Tall Blonde Gang”. However, here too there are discrepancies with reality: the leader of the gang Ivan Mitin was not hunchbacked at all, but on the contrary, he was tall,” said Lyudmila Kaminskaya.

Bloody "debut".

On February 1, 1950, in Khimki, senior detective Kochkin and local district police officer V. Filin were making a tour of the territory. Entering a grocery store, they noticed a young man arguing with a saleswoman. He introduced himself to the woman as a plainclothes police officer, but the man 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 men pulled out a pistol and opened fire. Detective Kochkin became the first victim of the gang, which terrorized Moscow and the surrounding area for three years.

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

“MGB officers,” taking advantage of the confusion of sellers and visitors, drove everyone into the back room and padlocked the store. The criminals' loot was 68 thousand rubles.

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

A raid in the neighborhood of 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 towards the cashier with a pistol.

Junior police lieutenant Mikhail Biryukov was in a restaurant with his wife that day. Despite this, remembering his official duty, he entered into a battle with the bandits. The officer died from the bullets of criminals. Another victim was a worker sitting at one of the tables: he was hit by one of the bullets intended for the policeman. There was panic in the restaurant and the robbery was foiled. While escaping, the bandits wounded two more people.

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

The situation was extreme. 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 “shook” the criminals, demanding to hand over the completely insolent robbers, but the “authorities” swore that they knew nothing.

Rumors circulating around 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 came across them in the station buffet at Udelnaya station. One of the suspicious men was spotted holding a gun.

The police did not dare to detain the bandits in the hall: the area was full of strangers who could have died. The bandits, going out into the street and rushing to the forest, started a real shootout with the police. Victory remained with the raiders: they managed to escape again.

The head of the Moscow City Party Committee, Nikita Khrushchev, hurled thunder and lightning at law enforcement officers. He seriously feared for his career: Nikita Sergeevich could well be held accountable 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 teahouse at Snegiri station, bandits killed watchman Kraev, who tried to resist them. In September of the same year, criminals attacked the “Beer and Water” tent on the Leningradskaya platform. One of the visitors tried to defend the woman 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 crime scene, 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 fatally wounded.

Mitin now rarely left Krasnogorsk without a pistol in his pocket, even when he went to visit his father, who worked in the forestry department in Kratovo. On this day, not finding him there, he got off at Udelnaya station along with Ageev and Averchenkov to buy a drink at the station buffet. Due to increased security on trains 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 became nervous:

We have to leave. There are too many police around here!

But Mitin didn’t bat an eye, calmly took off his jacket and continued drinking. 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 police realized that the matter was taking a dangerous turn.

Ivan, let's leave! We saw a garbage trunk! - Ageev insisted. - 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 past. Coming out onto 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 shootout unfolded. He was on the verge of death, but the bullets stubbornly flew past. All three managed to escape. MUR was defeated again.

Soon after these events, Ageev, with impeccable characteristics, entered the Naval Mine and Torpedo Aviation School in Nikolaev. The bandit vacancy was vacant. But not for long. Mitin brought twenty-four-year-old Nikolaenko, restless after his prison sentence, to the case.

The photo shows another crime scene - Susokolovskoye Highway (on the left is the territory of the Botanical Garden).

“Everyone on the floor!”

In August 1952, a gang broke into a tea shop at the Snegiri station. The tea room just sounds innocent. In those days, the canteens did not serve strong drinks, and you could buy alcohol in the tea houses, so the cash register worked briskly. When the tall dark figure of Mitin blocked the entrance and a sharp cry was heard: “On the floor!”, everyone seemed 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 the gun off the wall. Mitin fired. Kraev died the same day in the hospital.

There were about four thousand. For many, it's a fortune. For the Mityans, the risk is wasted. A month later, Lukin and Mitin went by 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, and Lukin demanded the proceeds from the cashier and, pulling her own leather suitcase towards him, threw the money into it. A customer at a nearby table stood up.

What are you doing, mother t... - The shot interrupted 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 to the platform with Lukin and at the last minute jumped onto the departing train. Getting off at the next station, they walked across the bridge over the Skhodnya. Swinging, Lukin threw the bag as far as possible into the dark river, and it swallowed the evidence.

In the photo 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 loot was 30 thousand rubles. But at the moment of the robbery, something happened that allowed us to get the first clue leading to the elusive gang.

The savings bank employee managed to press the panic button, and the phone rang in the savings bank. The confused robber grabbed the phone.

- Is this a savings bank? - the caller asked.

“No, the stadium,” the raider answered, interrupting the call.

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

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

After analyzing the locations of robberies on the map, the detective discovered that many of them were committed near sports arenas. The bandits were described as athletic-looking young men. 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 was unthinkable. Athletes in the USSR were considered role models, but here it is...

The operatives were ordered to begin checking sports societies and pay attention to everything unusual that happens near the stadiums.

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

At first glance, they were talking 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 defense factories in 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 actually at the local stadium.

The main problem for the detectives was that they were initially looking in the wrong place and with the wrong people. From the very beginning of the investigation, Moscow criminals as one “went into denial” and denied any connection with the “Mitinsky” group.

As it turned out, the sensational gang consisted entirely of leaders in production and people far from the criminal “raspberries” and the circle of thieves. 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 nominated for a high government award - the Order of the Red Banner of Labor. 8 of the 11 gang members also worked at this plant, two were cadets at prestigious military schools.

Among the “Mitinets” there was also a Stakhanovite, an employee of the “500th” plant, a party member - Pyotr Bolotov. There was also a MAI student Vyacheslav Lukin, a Komsomol member and athlete.

In a sense, sport became the connecting link between 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 gathering place for the “Mitinites” was the Krasnogorsk Zenit stadium.

Mitin established the most severe discipline in the gang, prohibited any bravado, and rejected contacts with “classic” bandits. And yet, Mitin’s scheme failed: a barrel of beer near the stadium in Krasnogorsk led to the collapse of the raiders.

“Ideologically incorrect” criminals.

At dawn on February 14, 1953, operatives burst into Ivan Mitin’s house. The detained leader behaved calmly, during the investigation he gave detailed testimony, without hoping for the preservation of his life. The labor shock worker understood perfectly well: for what he did, there could only be one punishment.

When all members of the gang were arrested, and the investigation report was placed on the table of senior 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 at 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 enrolling 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, and 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 leader, was directly involved in the murders. The remaining gang members were sentenced to terms ranging from 10 to 25 years.

Student Lukin received 25 years, served them in full, 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 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, 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.

sources

And now some details about - “And now hunchbacked!, I said hunchbacked!”

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 directed one of the best Soviet detective stories, “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, painted a kind of “mark” in the form of a black cat on its door.

The criminals liked this romantic story so much that “black cats” multiplied like mushrooms. As a rule, we were talking about small groups, the scope of whose activities did not come close to what the Weiner brothers described. Street punks often performed under the sign of the “Black Cat”.

The popular detective genre writer Eduard Khrutsky, whose scripts were used for such films as “According to the Criminal Investigation Data” and “Proceed with Liquidation,” recalled that in 1946 he himself found himself 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 police, having caught the “avengers,” according to Khrutsky, treated them simply: “they hit them on the necks and let them go.”

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

The rumor about the mysterious “Black Cat” spread throughout Moscow very quickly, turning into a real “brand”. Taking advantage of the high-profile reputation of a non-existent gang, Moscow teenagers committed petty thefts, hooliganism, and intimidated townspeople. The so-called “guest performers” – visiting thieves – also used “Cat” as cover.

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

“As for the Weiner brothers and their novel, they simply took advantage of this big name. The prototype of the gang, whose affairs were described in the “Era of Mercy”, was the “Tall Blonde Gang”. However, here too there are discrepancies with reality: the leader of the gang Ivan Mitin was not hunchbacked at all, but on the contrary, he was tall,” said Lyudmila Kaminskaya.

Bloody "debut".

On February 1, 1950, in Khimki, senior detective Kochkin and local district police officer V. Filin were making a tour of the territory. Entering a grocery store, they noticed a young man arguing with a saleswoman. He introduced himself to the woman as a plainclothes police officer, but the man 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 men pulled out a pistol and opened fire. Detective Kochkin became the first victim of the gang, which terrorized Moscow and the surrounding area for three years.

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

“MGB officers,” taking advantage of the confusion of sellers and visitors, drove everyone into the back room and padlocked the store. The criminals' loot was 68 thousand rubles.

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

A raid in the neighborhood of 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 towards the cashier with a pistol.

Junior police lieutenant Mikhail Biryukov was in a restaurant with his wife that day. Despite this, remembering his official duty, he entered into a battle with the bandits. The officer died from the bullets of criminals. Another victim was a worker sitting at one of the tables: he was hit by one of the bullets intended for the policeman. There was panic in the restaurant and the robbery was foiled. While escaping, the bandits wounded two more people.

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

The situation was extreme. 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 “shook” the criminals, demanding to hand over the completely insolent robbers, but the “authorities” swore that they knew nothing.

Rumors circulating around 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 came across them in the station buffet at Udelnaya station. One of the suspicious men was spotted holding a gun.

The police did not dare to detain the bandits in the hall: the area was full of strangers who could have died. The bandits, going out into the street and rushing to the forest, started a real shootout with the police. Victory remained with the raiders: they managed to escape again.

The head of the Moscow City Party Committee, Nikita Khrushchev, hurled thunder and lightning at law enforcement officers. He seriously feared for his career: Nikita Sergeevich could well be held accountable 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 teahouse at Snegiri station, bandits killed watchman Kraev, who tried to resist them. In September of the same year, criminals attacked the “Beer and Water” tent on the Leningradskaya platform. One of the visitors tried to defend the woman 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 crime scene, 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 fatally wounded.

Mitin now rarely left Krasnogorsk without a pistol in his pocket, even when he went to visit his father, who worked in the forestry department in Kratovo. On this day, not finding him there, he got off at Udelnaya station along with Ageev and Averchenkov to buy a drink at the station buffet. Due to increased security on trains 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 became nervous:

We have to leave. There are too many police around here!

But Mitin didn’t bat an eye, calmly took off his jacket and continued drinking. 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 police realized that the matter was taking a dangerous turn.

Ivan, let's leave! We saw a garbage trunk! - Ageev insisted. - 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 past. Coming out onto 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 shootout unfolded. He was on the verge of death, but the bullets stubbornly flew past. All three managed to escape. MUR was defeated again.

Soon after these events, Ageev, with impeccable characteristics, entered the Naval Mine and Torpedo Aviation School in Nikolaev. The bandit vacancy was vacant. But not for long. Mitin brought twenty-four-year-old Nikolaenko, restless after his prison sentence, to the case.

The photo shows another crime scene - Susokolovskoye Highway (on the left is the territory of the Botanical Garden).

“Everyone on the floor!”

In August 1952, a gang broke into a tea shop at the Snegiri station. The tea room just sounds innocent. In those days, the canteens did not serve strong drinks, and you could buy alcohol in the tea houses, so the cash register worked briskly. When the tall dark figure of Mitin blocked the entrance and a sharp cry was heard: “On the floor!”, everyone seemed 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 the gun off the wall. Mitin fired. Kraev died the same day in the hospital.

There were about four thousand in the box office. For many, it's a fortune. For the Mityans, the risk is wasted. A month later, Lukin and Mitin went by 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, and Lukin demanded the proceeds from the cashier and, pulling her own leather suitcase towards him, threw the money into it. A customer at a nearby table stood up.

What are you doing, mother t... - The shot interrupted 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 to the platform with Lukin and at the last minute jumped onto the departing train. Getting off at the next station, they walked across the bridge over the Skhodnya. Swinging, Lukin threw the bag as far as possible into the dark river, and it swallowed the evidence.

In the photo 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 loot was 30 thousand rubles. But at the moment of the robbery, something happened that allowed us to get the first clue leading to the elusive gang.

The savings bank employee managed to press the panic button, and the phone rang in the savings bank. The confused robber grabbed the phone.

- Is this a savings bank? - the caller asked.

“No, the stadium,” the raider answered, interrupting the call.

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

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

After analyzing the locations of robberies on the map, the detective discovered that many of them were committed near sports arenas. The bandits were described as athletic-looking young men. 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 was unthinkable. Athletes in the USSR were considered role models, but here it is...

The operatives were ordered to begin checking sports societies and pay attention to everything unusual that happens near the stadiums.

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

At first glance, they were talking 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 defense factories in 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 actually at the local stadium.

The main problem for the detectives was that they were initially looking in the wrong place and with the wrong people. From the very beginning of the investigation, Moscow criminals as one “went into denial” and denied any connection with the “Mitinsky” group.

As it turned out, the sensational gang consisted entirely of leaders in production and people far from the criminal “raspberries” and the circle of thieves. 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 nominated for a high government award - the Order of the Red Banner of Labor. 8 of the 11 gang members also worked at this plant, two were cadets at prestigious military schools.

Among the “Mitinets” there was also a Stakhanovite, an employee of the “500th” plant, a party member - Pyotr Bolotov. There was also a MAI student Vyacheslav Lukin, a Komsomol member and athlete.

In a sense, sport became the connecting link between 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 gathering place for the “Mitinites” was the Krasnogorsk Zenit stadium.

Mitin established the most severe discipline in the gang, prohibited any bravado, and rejected contacts with “classic” bandits. And yet, Mitin’s scheme failed: a barrel of beer near the stadium in Krasnogorsk led to the collapse of the raiders.

“Ideologically incorrect” criminals.

At dawn on February 14, 1953, operatives burst into Ivan Mitin’s house. The detained leader behaved calmly, during the investigation he gave detailed testimony, without hoping for the preservation of his life. The labor shock worker understood perfectly well: for what he did, there could only be one punishment.

When all members of the gang were arrested, and the investigation report was placed on the table of senior 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 at 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 enrolling 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, and 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 leader, was directly involved in the murders. The remaining gang members were sentenced to terms ranging from 10 to 25 years.

Student Lukin received 25 years, served them in full, 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 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, 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 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 directed one of the best Soviet detective stories, “The Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed.”

"Cat" abundance of the post-war period.

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, painted a kind of “mark” in the form of a black cat on its door. The criminals liked this romantic story so much that “black cats” multiplied like mushrooms. As a rule, we were talking about small groups, the scope of whose activities did not come close to what the Weiner brothers described. Street punks often performed under the sign of the “Black Cat”.

The popular detective genre writer Eduard Khrutsky, whose scripts were used for such films as “According to the Criminal Investigation Data” and “Proceed with Liquidation,” recalled that in 1946 he himself found himself 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 police, having caught the “avengers,” according to Khrutsky, treated them simply: “they hit them on the necks and let them go.”
But the plot of the Weiner brothers is based not on the story of such would-be robbers, but on real criminals who took not only money and valuables, but also human lives. The gang in question was active in 1950-1953.

Bloody "debut".

On February 1, 1950, in Khimki, senior detective Kochkin and local district police officer V. Filin were making a tour of the territory. Entering a grocery store, they noticed a young man arguing with a saleswoman. He introduced himself to the woman as a plainclothes police officer, but the man 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 men pulled out a pistol and opened fire. Detective Kochkin became the first victim of the gang, which terrorized Moscow and the surrounding area for three years.
The murder of a policeman was an extraordinary event, and law enforcement officers were actively searching for the criminals. The bandits, however, reminded themselves: on March 26, 1950, three broke into a department store in the Timiryazevsky district, introducing themselves as... security officers. “MGB officers,” taking advantage of the confusion of sellers and visitors, drove everyone into the back room and padlocked the store. The criminals' loot was 68 thousand rubles.
For six months, operatives searched for bandits, but in vain. Those, as it turned out later, having received a big jackpot, hid. In the fall, having spent the money, they went hunting again. On November 16, 1950, a department store of the Moscow Canal Shipping Company was robbed (more than 24 thousand rubles were stolen), and on December 10, a store on Kutuzovskaya Sloboda Street was robbed (62 thousand rubles were stolen).

A raid in the neighborhood of 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 towards the cashier with a pistol. Junior police lieutenant Mikhail Biryukov was in a restaurant with his wife that day. Despite this, remembering his official duty, he entered into a battle with the bandits. The officer died from the bullets of criminals. Another victim was a worker sitting at one of the tables: he was hit by one of the bullets intended for the policeman. There was panic in the restaurant and the robbery was foiled. While escaping, the bandits wounded two more people.
The failure of the criminals only angered them. On March 27, 1951, they raided the Kuntsevsky market. The store director, Karp Antonov, entered into hand-to-hand combat with the gang leader and was killed.
The situation was extreme. 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 “shook” the criminals, demanding to hand over the completely insolent robbers, but the “authorities” swore that they knew nothing.
Rumors circulating around Moscow exaggerated the crimes of the bandits tenfold. The legend of the “Black Cat” was now firmly associated with them.

The powerlessness of Nikita Khrushchev.

The bandits behaved more and more defiantly. A reinforced police patrol came across them in the station buffet at Udelnaya station. One of the suspicious men was spotted holding a gun. The police did not dare to detain the bandits in the hall: the area was full of strangers who could have died. The bandits, going out into the street and rushing to the forest, started a real shootout with the police. Victory remained with the raiders: they managed to escape again.
The head of the Moscow City Party Committee, Nikita Khrushchev, hurled thunder and lightning at law enforcement officers. He seriously feared for his career: Nikita Sergeevich could well be held accountable 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 teahouse at Snegiri station, bandits killed watchman Kraev, who tried to resist them. In September of the same year, criminals attacked the “Beer and Water” tent on the Leningradskaya platform. One of the visitors tried to defend the woman 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 crime scene, 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 fatally wounded.

Call.

In January 1953, bandits raided a savings bank in Mytishchi. Their loot was 30 thousand rubles. But at the moment of the robbery, something happened that allowed us to get the first clue leading to the elusive gang.
The savings bank employee managed to press the panic button, and the phone rang in the savings bank. The confused robber grabbed the phone.
- Is this a savings bank? - asked the caller.
“No, the stadium,” the raider answered, interrupting the call.
The officer on duty at the police station called the savings bank. MUR employee Vladimir Arapov drew attention to this short dialogue. This detective, a true legend of the capital's criminal investigation department, later became the prototype of Vladimir Sharapov.
And then Arapov became wary: why, exactly, did the bandit mention the stadium? He said the first thing that came to mind, but why did he remember the stadium? After analyzing the locations of robberies on the map, the detective discovered that many of them were committed near sports arenas. The bandits were described as athletic-looking young men. It turns out that the criminals could have nothing to do with crime at all, but 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 begin checking sports societies and pay attention to everything unusual that happens near the stadiums.
Soon, an unusual emergency occurred near the stadium in Krasnogorsk. A certain young man bought a barrel of beer from the saleswoman and treated everyone to it. Among the lucky ones was Vladimir Arapov, who remembered the “rich man” and began checking.
At first glance, they were talking 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 defense factories in 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 actually at the local stadium. Gradually they unraveled the whole tangle, finding the leader, who turned out to be 26-year-old shift foreman at defense plant No. 34, Ivan Mitin. An exemplary worker, by that time he had been nominated for the Order of the Red Banner of Labor for his success in work.
Mitin established the most severe discipline in the gang, prohibited any bravado, and rejected contacts with “classic” bandits. And yet, Mitin’s scheme failed: a barrel of beer near the stadium in Krasnogorsk led to the collapse of the raiders.

“Ideologically incorrect” criminals.

At dawn on February 14, 1953, operatives burst into Ivan Mitin’s house. The detained leader behaved calmly, during the investigation he gave detailed testimony, without hoping for the preservation of his life. The labor shock worker understood perfectly well: for what he did, there could only be one punishment.
When all members of the gang were arrested, and the investigation report was placed on the table of senior 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 at 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 enrolling 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, and 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 leader, was directly involved in the murders. The remaining gang members were sentenced to terms ranging from 10 to 25 years. Student Lukin received 25 years, served them in full, 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 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, 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.