Berta Naumovna Borodkina, who was called Iron Bella, during the years of Brezhnev's stagnation, she managed a catering service in Gelendzhik, although she began her career with a modest position as a barmaid. The case against her was brought against the backdrop of Andropov’s Kremlin intrigues. For theft, she, as a woman, faced a maximum of 15 years with confiscation of property, but the verdict shocked both the defendant herself and everyone who followed this high-profile case.
In the era of developed socialism, death sentences were imposed on women extremely rarely. After the war there were only three such precedents. The exceptions were Tatyana Ivanyutina, Antonina Makarova and Berta Borodkina.
She poisoned more than 40 people (13 of them fatally) out of personal hostility or simply “so as not to interfere with her living and stealing” from the canteen where she worked. The Tonka machine gunner shot about 1,500 people during the war and during the investigation she said: “I do not repent of what I did, and those whom I killed do not come to me in nightmares.”
But the Soviet authorities equated the crime of Berta Borodkina with the murders of tens and hundreds of people, considering that theft in special large sizes socialist property deserves just such punishment. Numerous requests for clemency were repeatedly denied to her, and a year later the sentence was carried out.
1st Secretary of the Krasnodar Regional Committee of the CPSU S.F. Medunov and General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee L.I. Brezhnev
At the same time, few people know that Berta Naumovna Borodkina or “Iron Bella,” as her colleagues called her, turned out to be a “bargaining chip” in the struggle for power. This struggle unfolded between the current Secretary General L.I. Brezhnev with his “favorite” S.F. Medunov, who from 1969 to 1973 was the sole and absolute owner Krasnodar region on the one hand and S.E. Andropov (chairman of the KGB of the USSR) and his protégé M.S. Gorbachev - the head of the Stavropol Territory on the other.
On the Black Sea coast there was always a festive atmosphere, which meant there was a smell of big money. Citizens who came to rest by the sea allowed themselves to earn millions of rubles. Every day thousands of people used catering services, and no one noticed the shortcuts, overweight and reduced portions. But this fact was extremely interesting to the prosecutor’s office and OBKhSS employees. In one season, trade workers managed to earn millions of “left-handed” rubles, and the first to “get caught” was the head of the Gelendzhik catering industry.
Berta Borodkina in her youth ( maiden name- King)
Berta Naumovna Borodkina has headed the trust of canteens and restaurants in the city of Gelendzhik since 1974, received the title of Honored Trade Worker and Catering RSFSR. She started her career as a simple barmaid in one of the Sochi cafes.
Much later, this woman was called “Iron Bella.” She was a born leader, she was respected and feared. But when Andropov decided to discredit the “tsar” of the Krasnodar region Medunov, the prosecutor’s office began a total inspection of the work of the public catering system in the cities and districts of this region. Even the most self-confident “masters of life” were losing their nerves. Many of them committed suicide. There was real panic, but Bella Borodkina believed that everything would be okay...
She knew how to receive “dear” guests. Most Moscow officials at various levels knew that the head of Gelendzhik’s public catering establishment sets the tables for Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev himself, and her best friend is Sergei Medunov, the owner of the region. If this spectacular woman took charge of organizing the banquet, then there will definitely be red and black caviar on the table, the best Krasnodar and imported fruits, expensive cognac and collection wine.
When arrested, “Iron Bella” behaved very calmly, even defiantly calm. She told investigators: “Guys, what are you talking about, tomorrow I expect your release and an apology.” She did not yet know that all the sins in the city catering of Gelendzhik would be attributed only to her - Berta Borodkin. Within a month, “Iron Bella” turned into an old woman - she cried and complained about torture.
“Daily bullying. They pulled out my teeth “to the quick” and beat me mercilessly, especially in the evenings,” Borodkina’s sister Elena Korol-Grebenyuk recounts the words of the prisoner.
Later, this deeply unhappy woman was sentenced to death. They say that when she learned about this, she lost her mind, and at night a terrible howl was heard from her cell. Her only daughter begged the authorities for leniency.
It’s hard to believe now, but the entry in the reference “did not participate in mass cultural and significant political events” during imprisonment became one of the reasons for the heartbreaking: “pardon is denied.” Borodkina was shot in Novocherkassk prison in 1983, and her relatives were not even able to receive her ashes...
Andropov was confident that Medunov’s arrest was a matter of time, but Brezhnev himself stood up for the Kuban “ruler.” Already terminally ill, the Secretary General still could not refuse his favorite last favor - Medunov did not appear in court. He was demoted, recalled to Moscow and allowed to live until old age, at the same time he was removed from the Central Committee and expelled from the party. The almighty “ruler” of the Krasnodar region turned into a simple Soviet pensioner and died in 1999, lonely and deeply unhappy. IN last interview he never remembered “who Berta Borodkina, who was shot, was”!
In 1983, the court heard the case Bertha Borodkina, Honored Trade Worker of the RSFSR. The woman, whom her subordinates respectfully called Iron Bella, led the trust of canteens and Gelendzhik. In fact, Borodkina controlled the entire service sector there.
During the time of Brezhnev's stagnation, no one dared to touch Berta, and many resort workers in Kuban and Krasnoyarsk Territory. People expected that high-ranking bribe-taker will be imprisoned for 15 years. But the judges who worked under the conditions of “Andropov’s purge” had other plans...
Bertha Korol was born in the city White church near Kyiv. After getting married, the woman moved to Odessa and changed her last name for the first time. In total, Bertha had four husbands, and the investigation does not rule out that the catering queen purposefully got one of them drunk.
Borodkin, a retired sea captain to whom a woman became engaged in Gelendzhik, eagerly drank alcohol that his waitress wife brought home from work. Soon the man, who knew no limits, gave up, and all his property went to his wife.
Bertha, who eventually changed her name to Bella, began working in the retail sector waitress and barmaid. The woman quickly realized what prospects a large resort city promised her.
Having received a specialized education, the tenacious and cunning Borodkina quickly rose through the ranks career ladder, while simultaneously acquiring acquaintances and contacts. The scheme of the speculator’s corrupt connections drawn up by the investigation was amazing!
By 1974, Bertha-Bella became director of the trust. High-ranking officials valued her subordinate, because she not only ensured the smooth flow of tribute from restaurants and cafes in Gelendzhik, but also knew how to organize for dear guests like no one else decent leisure.
Rumor has it that the matter was not limited to culinary masterpieces: Borodkina was also in charge of local priestesses of love, and films for adults were shown clandestinely in restaurants and cafes.
Brezhnev personally liked to relax at the resorts where Bella reigned supreme, so during the reign of the browed General Secretary, no one dared to touch the woman. Accustomed to power, Borodkina stole astronomical amounts.
When the head of the trust was finally arrested in 1982, the police who searched her apartment gasped. The law enforcement officers had the feeling that they were not in a residential building, but in the storerooms of some museum!
Sables, crystal vases, jewelry and money - Bertha had all this beyond all measure. The speculator, zealous to the point of impossibility, also stored any scarce things.
This, for example, explains the huge amount of bedding found in her home. Armfuls of banknotes were stuffed into three-liter jars at Borodkina's, stuffed into radiator pipes, and hidden in stacks of bricks piled in the yard.
According to her subordinates, Berta has achieved perfection in the art of weighing ordinary people. Meat disappeared from soups, and cheap cereals appeared in its place. I diluted the sour cream and milk with water, but very carefully.
Catering workers recalled: at the planning meeting the director of the trust could arrange terrible demolition for the fact that the product was diluted raw, and not boiled water. The cautious Borodkina came to trial only when her patrons collapsed!
The protégé of the owner of Kuban, who had fallen out of favor, who stole goods worth a million Soviet rubles, was an ideal target for “ Andropov's purges" Bella's case became a landmark case, and the speculator was treated with little ceremony.
The woman herself did not fully understand why all her high-ranking friends refused to shield her. The officials simply handed the career woman over to the court, thus trying to save their own skins.
Nevertheless, received by Borodkina capital punishment came as a complete surprise to most who followed her case. The harshest prognosis for Bella was 15 years prison term with confiscation of property. But the judges, guided by Andropov’s instructions, were determined to go to the end.
During times Soviet Union only three women were sentenced to death penalty. Poisoner Tamara Ivanyutina, executioner Tonka the Machine Gunner and honored trade worker Berta (Bella) Borodkina, who runs a trust of canteens and restaurants in Gelendzhik. Compared to the other two, Borodkina can be considered almost an angel, because she had no ruined human lives. And yet...
HAND WASHES HAND
Berta Borodkina, nee Korol, graduated from junior high school. In 1951, she got a job as a waitress in one of the Gelendzhik restaurants, then became a barmaid, and later the head of the dining room. And suddenly in 1974 she received a serious post - she headed the trust of canteens and restaurants. She was protected by the then first secretary of the CPSU city committee, Nikolai Pogodin. Thanks to his patronage, it never occurred to anyone to object that such a high position was occupied by a person not only without a higher special education, but also having only 8 classes behind him high school. As it turned out later during the investigation, Borodkina received bribes from subordinates and generously shared them with the secretary of the city committee.
ROOF
At that time, the Black Sea resorts were quite popular. According to statistics, they received 10 million vacationers a year. Borodkina even came up with her own classification of vacationers. For example, those who settled in the private sector, counted every penny and wrote in the book of complaints about underfilling and shortchanges, were called rats. Borodkina was proud of her invulnerability. Still would! Her patron was the first secretary himself.
therefore, the discontent of the masses did not threaten it in any way.
But she treated officials of various levels who came on vacation from Moscow and the Soviet republics with special respect, thus enlisting their support just in case. She was ready to do everything to make them happy, officials received scarce products for country walks, walked to the fullest at tables set by Borodkina. At the request of clients, she could provide them with the company of young women. By the way, she did not incur losses, as she skillfully wrote off expenses. This quality of hers was especially liked by the first secretary of the Krasnodar regional committee of the CPSU Sergei Medunov, who was also Borodkina’s patron. In the list of technical who patronized her, even members of the Presidium were listed Supreme Council USSR and Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Fedor Kulakov. Borodkina’s influence is also evidenced by the fact that only she and Medunov were invited from the Krasnodar Territory to Kulakov’s funeral. She had such a “roof” that they called her Iron Bella behind her back. She didn't like her name and called herself Bella.
ARREST
Her arrest proved the truth of the saying: “No matter how much the rope twists, the end will come.” It came like a bolt from the blue. At first, she did not attach any importance, was sure that she would be released, and even threatened the operatives. As in many similar stories, chance helped. A local resident wrote a complaint to the prosecutor's office.
It said that in one of the restaurants, selected clients attend sessions of pornographic films. Everyone who was involved in this was immediately caught red-handed. During interrogations, it turned out that Borodkina had tacit permission to show pornography, for which she received her share of the income. Therefore, so far she has only been charged with accepting a bribe.
During the search in Bella's apartment, the underground cinema seemed like a children's toy against the backdrop of the valuables found. Her house looked like museum storerooms. There were jewelry, furs, crystal, etc. In addition, huge amounts of money hidden under carpets, in piles of bricks stacked in the yard, in radiators, and even rolled up in jars and standing in the basement among pickles. The total amount seized was half a million rubles.
After the arrest, she did not lose her composure, refused to testify, and frightened the investigators with punishment for the illegal arrest. Borodkin was absolutely sure that she would soon be released. And still no help came...
By coincidence, in the early 1900s, the prosecutor's office of the Krasnodar region was processing many cases related to bribes and theft - the “Sochi-Krasnodar case”. As a result of the investigation, about 5 thousand officials were fired and expelled from the party, and another 1,500 were convicted. No matter how hard Medunov tried, close friend Brezhnev and Chernenko, to interfere with the investigation, he had powerful opposition in Moscow in the person of KGB Chairman Andropov. And when Andropov became general secretary in 1922, he gained additional leverage. Medunov was removed from his position “for mistakes made.”
It was here that Borodkina got seriously scared and slept to give her testimony. Her case, on the basis of which 70 people were convicted, consisted of 20 volumes. The investigators did not reach Pogodin; he simply ran away. He told his wife he was going to work and never came back. They searched for him for a long time, but neither himself nor his body were found. There is a version that he lives safely abroad, but in fact it has not been proven.
YOU KNOW LITTLE, YOU SLEEP HARDER
When she realized that she would have to rely only on herself, Bella tried to feign schizophrenia. She was, admittedly, a talented actress, but her talent was powerless against forensic examination. The case was brought to court, which found Iron Bella guilty of accepting bribes in the amount of 561,834 rubles 89 kopecks. According to the Criminal Code, this amount was qualified as theft on an especially large scale. She was not charged with defrauding consumers because there was insufficient evidence of her participation in this. On the main charge, she should have received from 5 to 15 years in prison with confiscation of property. But the court's verdict was a complete surprise for 57-year-old Berta Borodkina: she was sentenced to death.
The court's decision surprised even the lawyers who followed the progress of the trial. To death penalty in Peaceful time According to the then current Criminal Code, traitors to the Motherland, spies, terrorists, saboteurs, bandits, and murderers were sentenced.
Borodkina appealed to the Supreme Court to review the decision of the regional court, but the verdict was left unchanged. Iron Bella did not ask for pardon; apparently, she understood that it was useless.
And what ruined her, according to the writer and television journalist Vladimir Runov, was precisely what she was so proud of - her closeness to high-ranking officials, many of whom were interested in Borodkina being silent forever: she knew too much. Perhaps the death sentence was just reprisal
SOURCES OF INCOME
All catering workers (down to the cloakroom attendants) were required to transfer a certain amount to the top; disobedience threatened with the loss of a place of bread. Borodkina shared her income with whomever she needed: in just 2 years, she transferred about 15 thousand rubles to the first secretary of the city committee, Pogodin, which at that time was the cost of three Lada cars.
In addition to bribes, Borodkina had many other sources of income. Special investigator important matters The USSR Prosecutor General's Office V. Kalinichenko said that various tricks were used to deceive consumers. For example, sour cream was diluted with water, tea and coffee were tinted with burnt sugar. Cereals and bread were added to the minced meat; meat was not added to the first and second courses. All products that were saved were donated to kebab shops. Borodkina earned about 80 thousand rubles from these frauds.
In addition, there were tricks with alcohol. In restaurants and cafes it was possible to add a few grams or lower the alcohol by a couple of degrees. The visitor did not notice, but it brought fabulous profits to the workers. But the biggest profit came from diluting Armenian cognac with cheap vodka. This was done so masterfully that even experts could not identify diluted cognac.
And of course, the classic way is to shortchange clients. This was especially successful during the season when residents of Siberia and the Arctic came to Gelendzhik to relax. Nobody counted the money.
Officially for everything post-war years Three women were executed in the USSR. Death sentences were handed down to the fairer sex, but were not carried out. And then the matter was brought to execution. Who were these women, and for what crimes were they shot? The story of Antonina Makarova's crimes.
An incident with a surname.
Antonina Makarova was born in 1921 in the Smolensk region, in the village of Malaya Volkovka, in a large peasant family Makara Parfenova. She studied at a rural school, and it was there that an episode occurred that influenced her later life. When Tonya came to first grade, because of shyness she could not say her last name - Parfenova. Classmates began shouting “Yes, she’s Makarova!”, meaning that Tony’s father’s name is Makar.
Yes, with light hand teacher, at that time perhaps the only literate person in the village, Tonya Makarova appeared in the Parfenov family.
The girl studied diligently, with diligence. She also had her own revolutionary heroine -
Anka the machine gunner. This film image had a real prototype - a nurse from the Chapaev division, Maria Popova, who once in battle actually had to replace a killed machine gunner.
After graduating from school, Antonina went to study in Moscow, where she found the beginning of the Great Patriotic War. The girl went to the front as a volunteer.
The traveling wife of an encirclement.
and 19-year-old Komsomol member Makarova suffered all the horrors of the infamous “Vyazma Cauldron.” After the hardest battles in completely surrounded Of the entire unit, only soldier Nikolai Fedchuk was next to the young nurse Tonya. With him she wandered through the local forests, just trying to survive. They didn’t look for partisans, they didn’t try to get through to their own people - they fed on whatever they had, and sometimes stole. The soldier did not stand on ceremony with Tonya, making her his “ camp wife" Antonina did not resist - she just wanted to live.
In January 1942, they went to the village of Krasny Kolodets, and then Fedchuk admitted that he was married and his family lived nearby. He left Tonya alone. Tonya was not expelled from the Red Well, but the local residents already had plenty of worries. But the strange girl did not try to go to the partisans, did not strive to make her way to ours, but strived to make love with one of the men remaining in the village. Having turned the locals against her, Tonya was forced to leave.
A killer with a salary.
Tonya Makarova’s wanderings ended in the area of the village of Lokot in the Bryansk region. The infamous " Lokot Republic"is an administrative-territorial formation of Russian collaborators. In essence, these were the same German lackeys as in other places, only more clearly formalized.
A police patrol detained Tonya, but they did not suspect her of being a partisan or underground woman. She attracted the attention of the police, who took her in, gave her drink, food and rape. However, the latter is very relative - the girl, who only wanted to survive, agreed to everything.
Tonya did not play the role of a prostitute for the police for long - one day, drunk, she was taken out into the yard and put behind a Maxim machine gun. There were people standing in front of the machine gun - men, women, old people, children. She was ordered to shoot. For Tony, who took not only nursing courses, but also machine gunners, this did not amount to a lot of work. True, the dead drunk woman didn’t really understand what she was doing. But, nevertheless, she coped with the task.
The next day Makarova found out that she was now an official - an executioner with a salary of 30 German marks and with his own bed. The Lokot Republic ruthlessly fought the enemies of the new order - partisans, underground fighters, communists, other unreliable elements, as well as members of their families. Those arrested were herded into a barn that served as a prison, and in the morning they were taken out to be shot.
The cell accommodated 27 people, and all of them had to be eliminated in order to make room for new ones. Neither the Germans nor even the local policemen wanted to take on this work. And here Tonya, who appeared out of nowhere with her shooting abilities, came in very handy.
The girl did not go crazy, but on the contrary, felt that her dream had come true. And let Anka shoot her enemies, but she shoots women and children - the war will write off everything! But her life finally got better.
1500 lives lost.
Antonina Makarova's daily routine was as follows: in the morning, shooting 27 people with a machine gun, finishing off the survivors with a pistol, cleaning weapons, in the evening schnapps and dancing in a German club, and at night making love with some cute German guy or, at worst, with a policeman.
As an incentive, she was allowed to take the belongings of the dead. So Tonya acquired a bunch of outfits, which, however, had to be repaired - traces of blood and bullet holes made it difficult to wear.
However, sometimes Tonya allowed a “marriage” - several children managed to survive because, due to their small stature, the bullets passed over their heads. The children were taken out along with the corpses by local residents who were burying the dead and handed over to the partisans. Rumors about a female executioner, “Tonka the machine gunner”, “Tonka the Muscovite” spread throughout the area. Local partisans even announced a hunt for the executioner, but were unable to reach her.
In total, about 1,500 people became victims of Antonina Makarova.
By the summer of 1943, Tony’s life again took a sharp turn - the Red Army moved to the West, beginning the liberation of the Bryansk region. This did not bode well for the girl, but then she conveniently fell ill with syphilis, and the Germans sent her to the rear so that she would not re-infect the valiant sons of Greater Germany.
An honored veteran instead of a war criminal.
In the German hospital, however, it also soon became uncomfortable - Soviet troops They were approaching so quickly that only the Germans had time to evacuate, and there was no longer any concern for the accomplices.
Realizing this, Tonya escaped from the hospital, again finding herself surrounded, but now Soviet. But her survival skills were honed - she managed to obtain documents proving that all this time Makarova was a nurse in a Soviet hospital.
Antonina successfully managed to enlist in a Soviet hospital, where at the beginning of 1945 a young soldier fell in love with her, a real hero war. The guy proposed to Tonya, she agreed, and, having gotten married, after the end of the war, the young couple left for the Belarusian city of Lepel, her husband’s homeland.
So the female executioner Antonina Makarova disappeared, and her place was taken by the honored veteran Antonina Ginzburg.
They searched for her for thirty years
Soviet investigators learned about the monstrous acts of “Tonka the Machine Gunner” immediately after the liberation of the Bryansk region. The remains of about one and a half thousand people were found in mass graves, but the identities of only two hundred could be established. They interrogated witnesses, checked, clarified - but they could not get on the trail of the female punisher.
Meanwhile, Antonina Ginzburg led the ordinary life of a Soviet person - she lived, worked, raised two daughters, even met with schoolchildren, talking about her heroic military past. Of course, without mentioning the actions of “Tonka the Machine Gunner”.
The KGB spent more than three decades searching for her, but found her almost by accident. A certain citizen Parfyonov, going abroad, submitted forms with information about his relatives. There, among the solid Parfyonovs as sister For some reason, Antonina Makarova was listed, after her husband Ginzburg.
Yes, how that teacher’s mistake helped Tonya, how many years thanks to it she remained out of reach of justice!
The KGB operatives worked brilliantly - it was impossible to accuse an innocent person of such atrocities. Antonina Ginzburg was checked from all sides, witnesses were secretly brought to Lepel, even a former policeman-lover. And only after they all confirmed that Antonina Ginzburg was “Tonka the Machine Gunner”, she was arrested.
She didn’t deny it, she talked about everything calmly, and said that nightmares didn’t torment her. She didn’t want to communicate with her daughters or her husband. And the front-line husband ran through the authorities, threatened to complain to Brezhnev, even to the UN - demanded the release of his wife. Exactly until the investigators decided to tell him what his beloved Tonya was accused of.
After that, the dashing, dashing veteran turned gray and aged overnight. The family disowned Antonina Ginzburg and left Lepel. You wouldn’t wish what these people had to endure on your enemy.
Retribution.
Antonina Makarova-Ginzburg was tried in Bryansk in the fall of 1978. This was the last major trial of traitors to the Motherland in the USSR and the only trial of a female punisher.
Antonina herself was convinced that, due to the passage of time, the punishment could not be too severe; she even believed that she would receive a suspended sentence. My only regret was that because of the shame I had to move again and change jobs. Even the investigators, knowing about Antonina Ginzburg’s exemplary post-war biography, believed that the court would show leniency. Moreover, 1979 was declared the Year of the Woman in the USSR.
However, on November 20, 1978, the court sentenced Antonina Makarova-Ginzburg to capital punishment - execution.
At the trial, her guilt in the murder of 168 of those whose identities could be established was documented. More than 1,300 more remained unknown victims of “Tonka the Machine Gunner.” There are crimes that cannot be forgiven.
At six in the morning on August 11, 1979, after all requests for clemency were rejected, the sentence against Antonina Makarova-Ginzburg was carried out.
Berta Borodkina.
Berta Borodkina, known in certain circles as “Iron Bella,” was one of 3 women executed in the late USSR. By fateful coincidence circumstances in this mournful list Along with the murderers, the honored trade worker Berta Naumovna Borodkina, who did not kill anyone, was included. She was sentenced to death for theft of socialist property on an especially large scale.
Among those who provided patronage to the director of catering in the resort city were members of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, as well as the Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Fyodor Kulakov. Connections at the top for a long time made Berta Borodkina invulnerable to any auditors, but ultimately played a tragic role in her fate.
In April 1984, the Krasnodar Regional Court considered criminal case No. 2-4/84 against the director of the trust of restaurants and canteens in the city of Gelendzhik, Honored Worker of Trade and Public Catering of the RSFSR Berta Borodkina. Main point charges against the defendant - Part 2 of Art. 173 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR (taking a bribe) - provided for punishment in the form of imprisonment for a term of five to fifteen years with confiscation of property. However, reality surpassed the worst fears of 57-year-old Borodkina - she was sentenced to death.
The court's decision also came as a surprise to lawyers, who had been following with interest loud process: exceptional punishment "up to its complete cancellation", according to the then current Criminal Code of the RSFSR, was allowed for treason (Article 64), espionage (Article 65), terrorist attack(Articles 66 and 67), sabotage (Article 68), banditry (Article 77), premeditated murder under aggravating circumstances specified in Art. 102 and paragraph “c” of Art. 240, and in wartime or in a combat situation - and for other especially serious crimes in cases specifically provided for by the legislation of the USSR.
Pay or lose...
The successful career of Borodkina (maiden name - Korol), who did not even have a complete secondary education, in Gelendzhik public catering began in 1951 as a waitress, then she successively occupied the positions of barmaid and canteen manager, and in 1974 her meteoric rise to the nomenklatura took place. post of head of the trust of restaurants and canteens.
Similar appointment could not have taken place without the participation of the first secretary of the city committee of the CPSU Nikolai Pogodin; his preference for a candidate without special education was not openly questioned by anyone in the city committee, and the hidden motives for choosing the party leader became known eight years later. “During the specified period [from 1974 to 1982], being an official occupying a responsible position,” says the indictment in the Borodkina case, “repeatedly personally and through intermediaries in her apartment and place of work received bribes from large group subordinates to her at work. From the bribes she received, Borodkina herself transferred bribes to responsible employees of the city of Gelendzhik for the assistance and support provided in the work... Thus, over the past two years, 15,000 rubles worth of valuables, money and products were transferred to the secretary of the city party committee Pogodin.” The last amount in the 1980s was approximately the cost of three Zhiguli cars.
Filed in the investigation materials graphic diagram corruption relationships of the director of the trust, compiled by employees Chief Prosecutor's Office THE USSR. It resembles a thick web with Borodkina in the center, to which numerous threads stretch from the restaurants “Gelendzhik”, “Caucasus”, “Yuzhny”, “Platan”, “Yachta”, canteens and cafes, pancake houses, barbecue and food stalls, and from her They disperse to the city committee of the CPSU and the city executive committee, the BKhSS department of the city police department (combating the theft of socialist property), to the regional trust and further to the Glavkurorttorg of the Ministry of Trade of the RSFSR.
Gelendzhik catering workers - directors and managers, bartenders and bartenders, cashiers and waiters, cooks and forwarders, cloakroom attendants and doormen - were completely taxed, everyone knew how much money he had to hand over along the chain, as well as what awaited him in case of refusal - loss of the “grain” position.
Stolen degrees.
Borodkin during his work at different areas public catering has perfectly mastered the techniques of deceiving consumers in order to obtain “left” income, practiced in Soviet trade, and put them on stream in its department. Was business as usual dilute sour cream with water, and tint liquid tea or coffee with burnt sugar. But one of the most profitable frauds was the abundant addition of bread or cereal to minced meat, reducing established standards meat for preparing first and second courses. The head of the trust transferred the product “saved” in this way to the kebab shops for sale. In two years, according to Kalinichenko, Borodkina earned 80,000 rubles from this alone.
Another source of illegal income was manipulation of alcohol. Here, too, she did not discover anything new: in restaurants, cafes, bars and buffets, the traditional “underfilling”, as well as “stealing a degree,” was widely used. For example, visitors to a drinking establishment simply did not notice a decrease in the strength of vodka due to dilution by two degrees, but it brought big profits to trade workers. But it was considered especially profitable to mix cheaper “starka” (rye vodka infused with apple or pear leaves) into expensive Armenian cognac. According to the investigator, even an examination could not establish that the cognac was diluted.
Primitive counting was also common - both for individual visitors to restaurants, bars, buffets and cafes, and for large companies. Musician Georgy Mimikonov, who played in Gelendzhik restaurants in those years, told Moscow television journalists that during the holiday season, entire groups of shift workers from Siberia and the Arctic would fly here on weekends to have fun in the “zone.” beautiful life", as the musician put it. Such clients were billed for tens and hundreds of rubles.
Bertha, aka Iron Bella.
In those days, the Black Sea health resorts received more than 10 million vacationers a year, serving as a bonanza for the resort mafia. Borodkina had her own classification of people who came to Gelendzhik on vacation. Those who rented corners in the private sector, stood in line in cafes and canteens, and then left complaints about the quality of food in catering establishments in the book of complaints and suggestions, wrote about shortchanges and “under-filling”, she, according to her former colleagues, called rats . The City Committee’s “roof” in the person of the first secretary, as well as inspectors of the OBHSS, made it invulnerable to the discontent of the mass consumer, whom Borodkina considered exclusively as a source of “leftist” income.
Borodkina demonstrated a completely different attitude towards high-ranking party and government officials who came to Gelendzhik during the holiday season from Moscow and union republics, but even here she pursued primarily her own interests - the acquisition of future influential patrons. Borodkina did everything to make their stay on the Black Sea coast pleasant and memorable. Borodkina, as it turned out, not only provided the nomenklatura guests with scarce products for picnics in the mountains and sea excursions, and set tables laden with delicacies, but could, at their request, invite young women into the men's company. Her “hospitality” did not cost anything for the guests themselves and the region’s party treasury - Borodkina knew how to write off expenses. These qualities were appreciated in her by the first secretary of the Krasnodar regional committee of the CPSU Sergei Medunov.
Among those who provided Borodkina with their patronage were even members of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, as well as the Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Fyodor Kulakov. When Kulakov died, the family invited only two people from the Krasnodar region to his funeral - Medunov and Borodkina. For a long time, connections at the very top provided Borodkina with immunity from any revisions, so behind her back they called her “Iron Bella” in Gelendzhik (Borodkina did not like given name, she preferred to be called Bella).
The case of the sale of pornographic products.
When Borodkina was arrested, she initially considered it annoying misunderstanding and warned the operatives: lest they have to apologize today. There was still an element of chance in the fact that she was placed in the bullpen, note those who are well acquainted with the details of this long-standing story.
The prosecutor's office received a statement from local resident that in one of the cafes, pornographic films are secretly shown to selected guests. The organizers of the underground screenings - the director of the cafe, the production manager and the bartender - were caught red-handed and charged under Art. 228 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR (production or sale of pornographic products, punishable by imprisonment for up to three years with confiscation of pornographic items and means of their production). During interrogations, catering workers testified that the demonstrations were secretly authorized by the director of the trust, and part of the proceeds was transferred to her. Thus, Borodkina herself was accused of complicity in this offense and receiving a bribe.
A search was carried out in the house of Iron Bella, the results of which unexpectedly went far beyond the scope of the “clandestine cinema” case. Borodkina’s home resembled museum storerooms, in which numerous precious jewelry, furs, crystal products, and sets of bed linen, which were then in short supply, were stored. In addition, Borodkina kept at home large amounts money that investigators found in the most unexpected places - in water heating radiators and under carpets in rooms, rolled up cans in the basement, in bricks stored in the yard. The total amount seized during the search amounted to more than 500,000 rubles.
The mysterious disappearance of the first secretary of the city committee of the CPSU.
Borodkina refused to testify at the very first interrogation and continued to threaten the investigation with punishment for sweeping accusations against her and the arrest of a “respected leader in the region.” “She was sure that she was about to be released, but there was still no help.” “Iron Bella” never waited for her, and here’s why.
In the early 1980s, investigations began in the Krasnodar region into numerous criminal cases related to large-scale manifestations of bribery and theft, which received the general name of the Sochi-Krasnodar case. The owner of Kuban Medunov, a close friend Secretary General The Central Committee of the CPSU Leonid Brezhnev and the Secretary of the Central Committee Konstantin Chernenko, in every possible way interfered with the work of the Investigative Unit of the Prosecutor General's Office. However, in Moscow he found himself with a powerful opponent - KGB Chairman Yuri Andropov. And with his election as Secretary General in November 1982, the prosecutor’s office had a completely free hand. As a result of one of the most high-profile anti-corruption campaigns in the USSR, more than 5,000 party and Soviet leaders were dismissed from their posts and expelled from the ranks of the CPSU, about 1,500 people were sentenced to various terms of imprisonment, and the Deputy Minister of Fisheries of the USSR, Vladimir Rytov, was convicted and shot. Medunov was relieved of his post as first secretary of the regional committee of the CPSU and removed from the CPSU Central Committee with the wording: “For mistakes made in his work.”
When the defendant was made to understand that she had no one to count on and that she could ease her fate only by a sincere admission of guilt, “Iron Bella” broke down and began to testify. Her criminal case took up 20 volumes, said former investigator Alexander Chernov, based on testimony former director The trust initiated another three dozen criminal cases, in which 70 people were convicted. And the head of the Gelendzhik party organization, Pogodin, disappeared without a trace after Borodkina’s arrest. One evening he left the house, telling his wife that he needed to go to the city committee for a while, and did not return. The police of the Krasnodar region were sent to search for him, divers examined the waters of Gelendzhik Bay, but all in vain - he was never seen again, either alive or dead. There is a version that Pogodin left the country on one of foreign ships, standing in Gelendzhik Bay, but factual evidence of this has not yet been found.
She knew too much.
During the investigation, Borodkina tried to feign schizophrenia. It was “very talented,” but the forensic examination recognized the game and the case was transferred to the regional court, which found Borodkina guilty of repeatedly accepting bribes for total amount RUR 561,834 89 kopecks (Part 2 of Article 173 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR).
According to Art. 93-1 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR (theft of state property on an especially large scale) and Art. 156 part 2 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR (consumer deception), she was acquitted “due to insufficient evidence of the defendant’s participation in the commission of the crime.” She was sentenced to an exceptional punishment - execution. Supreme Court The USSR left the verdict unchanged. The convict did not file a petition for pardon.
Borodkina was let down by precisely what she was very proud of - her acquaintance with high-ranking people, whose names she constantly trumped. In the current situation, former patrons were interested in keeping Iron Bell silent forever - she knew too much. She was not only disproportionately punished for her crimes, she was dealt with.
Berta Naumovna Borodkina, also known as Iron Bella, was one of three women whose death sentence was carried out during the late USSR. But unlike other executed women, Borodkina was not tried under the “execution” article. She was charged with receiving a bribe and stealing socialist property on an especially large scale. However, the presence of patrons at the very top, with whose acquaintance she did not miss a moment to boast, played a cruel joke on her and cost Borodkina her life.
From waitress to trust director
The dizzying career of Berta Naumovna Borodkina (maiden name Korol) began in 1951, when she got a job as a waitress in one of the catering establishments in the city of Gelendzhik. She then worked as a barmaid and canteen manager. Her career reached its peak in 1974 - Berta Naumovna took the position of director of the public catering trust. Moreover, Berta Naumovna did not even have completed secondary education.
It is obvious that the appointment to such a high position of a person who did not even graduate from school could not take place without a patron from above, who was Berta Naumovna’s first secretary of the city committee of the CPSU, Nikolai Fedorovich Pogodin. As the investigation would later prove, Pogodin repeatedly received bribes from Borodkina for providing assistance and support in his work. From 1980 to 1982, the first secretary of the Gelendzhik city party committee received more than 15,000 rubles through bribes in the form of valuables, money and food, which at that time was comparable to the cost of three Lada cars.
The Art of Deception
On her way from a waitress to a director, Iron Bella was able to perfectly master all the techniques of deceiving consumers that were widespread in Soviet times in public catering outlets. This could be completely unnoticeable to catering visitors, but unscrupulous staff earned huge unaccounted income from food fraud.
It was common practice to dilute sour cream with water, and flavor tea or coffee with burnt sugar. Reducing the required amount of meat in first and second courses by adding cereals or other products, with the subsequent resale of the “saved” meat to local kebab shops, has truly become a “gold mine.” According to the investigator, in only two last year From her work, Borodkina earned at least 80,000 rubles from meat substitutions.
But the most profitable, of course, were manipulations with alcohol. Schemes were used that are well known to any catering worker: underfilling and dilution. It is almost impossible for visitors to notice that a few degrees of vodka are missing, but the seller will receive an excellent income. It was especially beneficial to dilute expensive Armenian cognacs with cheap rye vodka infused with apple leaves. At that time, even experts were unable to determine whether the cognac was diluted or not.
The “classic of the genre,” of course, was the primitive calculation. They counted not only individual visitors to bars, restaurants and cafes, but also big companies. At that time, during the season, people often flew to the Black Sea resorts for weekends. large groups shift workers working in Siberia and the Arctic. Such companies could afford not to delve into the details of the invoice, and therefore did not hesitate to cheat by tens and sometimes hundreds of rubles.
In the public catering system of Gelendzhik, which was led by Iron Bella, not only everyone tried to deceive the visitor, but also clearly knew how much “left” income should be given further along the chain, in otherwise there was a risk of losing work, and therefore “left” income. Ultimately, all the “fraudulent” money either ended up in the hands of Borodkina, or was transferred as bribes to the managers different levels for patronage and various concessions.
Tell me who is your friend
IN Soviet times More than ten million people vacationed on the Black Sea coast every year, which made the source of illegal income inexhaustible.
For Borodkina, vacationers were divided into several categories. She called one of them rats. These included those vacationers who rented small rooms in a private sector, ate in the cheapest establishments, and often left angry notes in complaint books about the poor quality of food, shortchanges, or underfilling. But from all sorts of audits related to such complaints, the public catering establishment, headed by Iron Bella, was securely protected by her connections and bribes.
The second category included vacationers who could somehow be useful to Berta Naumovna. Basically, high party and government officials who came to the resort from Moscow or the Union republics fell into this category. For them, Borodkina was sheer cordiality and did everything to please the distinguished guests. The main goal she pursued was to make useful contacts at the very top. Iron Bella not only served feasts bursting with delicacies for distinguished guests and provided picnics in nature or in the mountains with scarce products, but could also organize a female escort for a company of respectable men. Moreover, all such expenses were cleverly disguised by Borodkina in the reporting documents so that it was almost impossible to find them.
Among the patrons of Iron Bella were not only Sergei Medunov, the first secretary of the Krasnodar regional committee of the CPSU, as well as the secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Fyodor Kulakov, but also several members of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.
By the way, only two invited representatives from the Krasnodar region were present at Kulakov’s burial - Borodkina and Medunov.
Patrons in the highest echelons of power reliably protected Borodkina not only from dissatisfaction and constant complaints from deceived consumers, but also provided immunity to any inspections.
Borodkina herself asked to call her Bella, because she really didn’t like her own name, and for the immunity she received, her subordinates called her Iron Bella behind her back.
Adult films
Borodkina's arrest was largely an accident. Once in the cell, Iron Bella considered this a misunderstanding and promised the agents not only the need for as soon as possible release her and apologize, but also further big official troubles.
It all started when the local prosecutor’s office received a complaint from a Gelendzhik resident who reported that one of the city’s establishments was hosting illegal screenings of adult films for a select public. The director, production manager and bartender were captured during one of these shows. They were accused of producing and distributing pornography. At that time, there was criminal liability for distributing adult products. The accused faced up to three years in prison and confiscation of both the goods themselves and the means of their production and distribution.
During the investigation, the arrested said that the screenings took place with the unofficial permission of Borodkina, in addition, she received part of the proceeds from the activities of the underground cinema. Thus, initially Iron Bella was charged only with complicity in the distribution of intimate products and taking a bribe.
A search was carried out at Borodkina’s place of residence, after which the case went far beyond the boundaries of an illegal cinema. During the search, not only luxury items, jewelry and furs were discovered, but also large sums of money. At the same time, investigators found hiding places not only throughout the house, but also in the yard. In total, during the search, 500,000 rubles were discovered and confiscated from Borodkina.
There is nowhere to wait for help
Immediately after her arrest, Iron Bella refused to testify and continued to threaten investigators with unfounded charges and arrest. The confidence that connections among high-ranking officials would allow Borodkina to get away with it did not weaken for a long time.
She did not yet know that at that time many criminal cases were opened in the Krasnodar region. The reason for this was the repeated revelation of facts of officials receiving bribes and major thefts. Later these criminal cases received common name Sochi-Krasnodar case. The so-called “Master of Kuban” Medunov, being a close friend of Brezhnev and Cherenko, tried in every way available to him to hinder the work of investigators of the General Prosecutor’s Office. But in the capital he had too strong an opponent in the person of the KGB chairman. After he was elected General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee at the end of 1982, no one could interfere with the investigation.
As a result of the most significant anti-bribery campaign carried out in the USSR, more than 5,000 party and party members lost their positions and were expelled from membership of the CPSU. government leaders. More than 1,500 officials were sentenced to different periods imprisonment. The court sentenced the Deputy Minister of Fisheries to death.
After Borodkina’s arrest, her main patron, Pogodin, disappeared without a trace. On June 14, 1982, after a conversation with Medunov in the Krasnadar regional committee, Pogodin drove in an official car to the city committee of the CPSU of Gelendzhik, and when he got out, he refused to get into the official car and left in an unknown direction. Nobody saw him again. According to the main version of the investigation, Pogodin could board one of the international sea vessels, who were at that time in the port of Gelendzhik, and leave the country. But there is no evidence of this.
The owner of the Kuban himself was dismissed from his post and expelled from the party.
End of story
When Iron Bella realized that there was no point in continuing to wait for help and the only way to mitigate the sentence was a sincere confession, she changed her position and began to speak. Borodkina's criminal case contains 20 volumes. Her testimony became the starting point for initiating about 30 other criminal cases involving more than 70 officials at various levels.
To avoid the threatened punishment, Borodkina tried to pretend mental disorder- schizophrenia, and was quite convincing, but she failed to deceive the forensic medical examination. She was declared sane, and the case was transferred for consideration to the Krasnodar Regional Court.