How death sentences were carried out in the USSR (8 photos). Three women shot in the USSR and the reasons for their death penalty

Officially, during all the 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 history of the crimes of Antonina Makarova

Incident with a surname

Antonina Makarova was born in 1921 in the Smolensk region, in the village of Malaya Volkovka, into the large peasant family of Makar Parfenov. She studied at a rural school, and it was there that an episode occurred that influenced her future 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.
So, with the light hand of the teacher, at that time perhaps the only literate person in the village, Tonya Makarova appeared in the Parfyonov 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 was caught by the beginning of the Great Patriotic War. The girl went to the front as a volunteer.

Camping wife of an encirclement

19-year-old Komsomol member Makarova suffered all the horrors of the infamous “Vyazma Cauldron.” After the hardest battles, completely surrounded, of the entire unit, only soldier Nikolai Fedchuk found himself 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.

Salary killer

Tonya Makarova’s wanderings ended in the area of the village of Lokot in the Bryansk region. The notorious “Lokot Republic”, an administrative-territorial formation of Russian collaborators, operated here. 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 completed not only nursing courses, but also machine gunners, this was not a big deal. True, the dead drunk woman didn’t really understand what she was doing. But, nevertheless, she coped with the task.
The next day, Makarova learned that she was now an official - an executioner with a salary of 30 German marks and with her 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, and 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.

Honored veteran instead of a war criminal

In the German hospital, however, it also soon became uncomfortable - the Soviet troops 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, a real war hero, fell in love with her. 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 Parfenovs, for some reason Antonina Makarova, after her husband Ginzburg, was listed as her sister.
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 like a jewel - 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 either 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 a fateful coincidence, this mournful list included, along with the murderers, the honored trade worker Berta Naumovna Borodkina, who did not kill anyone. 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. For a long time, connections at the very top 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. The main charge against the defendant is 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 followed the high-profile trial with interest: an exceptional measure of punishment “up to its complete abolition,” according to the then current Criminal Code of the RSFSR, was allowed for treason (Article 64), espionage (Article 65), terrorism act (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.
Such an 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,” the indictment in the Borodkina case says, “she repeatedly personally and through intermediaries in her apartment and at her place of work received bribes from a large group of subordinates to her.” for 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.
The investigation materials contain a graphic diagram of the corruption relationships of the director of the trust, compiled by employees of the USSR Chief Prosecutor's Office. 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 all subject to "tribute", everyone knew how much money he had to transfer along the chain, as well as what awaited him in case of refusal - loss of the “grain” position.

Stolen degrees

During her time working in various areas of public catering, Borodkina perfectly mastered the techniques of deceiving consumers in order to obtain “illegal” income, which were practiced in Soviet trade, and put them into practice in her department. It was common practice to dilute sour cream with water, and to color 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 the established standards of 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 for the weekend to revel in the “zone of beautiful life,” as the musician put it. Such clients were defrauded 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 the 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 her own name, she preferred to be called Bella).

The case of the sale of graphic products

When Borodkina was arrested, she initially considered it an annoying misunderstanding and warned the operatives that they would not 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 a local resident that in one of the cafes, graphic films were 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 graphic products is punishable by imprisonment for up to three years with confiscation of graphic 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 large sums of money at home, which 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 of the General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee 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 executed. . 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 the testimony of the former director of the trust, another three dozen criminal cases were opened, 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 everything was in vain - he was never seen again, either alive or dead. There is a version that Pogodin left the country on one of the foreign ships stationed 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 totaling 561,834 rubles. 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. The Supreme Court of 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 - meeting 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.

Officially, during all the 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.

So, with the light hand of the teacher, at that time perhaps the only literate person in the village, Tonya Makarova appeared in the Parfyonov 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 was caught by 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, completely surrounded, of the entire unit, only soldier Nikolai Fedchuk found himself 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.

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 completed not only nursing courses, but also machine gunners, this was not a big deal. True, the dead drunk woman didn’t really understand what she was doing. But, nevertheless, she coped with the task.

The next day, Makarova learned that she was now an official - an executioner with a salary of 30 German marks and with her 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, and she shoots women and children - the war will write off everything! But her life finally got better.

1500 lives lost.

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.

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, a real war hero, fell in love with her. 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

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 Parfenovs, for some reason Antonina Makarova, after her husband Ginzburg, was listed as her sister.

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 like a jewel - 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 either 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.

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. The main charge against the defendant is 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 followed the high-profile trial with interest: an exceptional measure of punishment “up to its complete abolition,” according to the then current Criminal Code of the RSFSR, was allowed for treason (Article 64), espionage (Article 65), terrorism act (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...

Such an 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,” the indictment in the Borodkina case says, “she repeatedly personally and through intermediaries in her apartment and at her place of work received bribes from a large group of subordinates to her.” for 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.

The investigation materials contain a graphic diagram of the corruption relationships of the director of the trust, compiled by employees of the USSR Chief Prosecutor's Office. 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 all subject to "tribute", everyone knew how much money he had to transfer along the chain, as well as what awaited him in case of refusal - loss of the “grain” position.

Stolen degrees.

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 for the weekend to revel in the “zone of beautiful life,” as the musician put it. Such clients were defrauded for tens and hundreds of rubles.

Bertha, aka Iron Bella.

Borodkina demonstrated a completely different attitude towards high-ranking party and government officials who came to Gelendzhik during the holiday season from Moscow and the 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 her own name, she preferred to be called Bella).

The case of the sale of pornographic products.

The prosecutor's office received a statement from a local resident that in one of the cafes, pornographic films were 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 large sums of money at home, which 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.

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 of the General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee 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 executed. . 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 the testimony of the former director of the trust, another three dozen criminal cases were opened, 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 everything was in vain - he was never seen again, either alive or dead. There is a version that Pogodin left the country on one of the foreign ships stationed in Gelendzhik Bay, but factual evidence of this has not yet been found.

She knew too much.

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. The Supreme Court of 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 - meeting 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.

Is it true that executioners from Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan were sent on business trips to other union republics, where for years there were no people willing to carry out the “tower”? Is it true that in the Baltic states no one was executed at all, and all those sentenced to capital punishment were taken to Minsk to be shot?

Is it true that the executioners were paid substantial bonuses for each person executed? And is it true that it was not customary to shoot women in the Soviet Union? During the post-Soviet period, so many common myths were created around the “tower” that it is hardly possible to figure out what is true in them and what is speculation without painstaking work in the archives, which can take several decades. There is no complete clarity either with the pre-war executions or with the post-war ones. But the worst situation is with the data on how death sentences were carried out in the 60–80s.

As a rule, convicts were executed in pre-trial detention centers. Each union republic had at least one such special-purpose pre-trial detention center. There were two of them in Ukraine, three in Azerbaijan, and four in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. Today, death sentences are carried out only in one single Soviet-era pre-trial detention center - in the Pishchalovsky central prison in Minsk, also known as “Volodarka”. This is a unique place, the only one in Europe. About 10 people a year are executed there. But if it is relatively easy to count the execution detention centers in the Soviet republics, even the most trained historian can hardly say with confidence how many such specialized detention centers there were in the RSFSR. For example, until recently it was believed that in Leningrad in the 60-80s, convicts were not executed at all - there was nowhere. But it turned out that this was not the case. Not long ago, documentary evidence was discovered in the archives that 15-year-old teenager Arkady Neyland, sentenced to capital punishment, was shot in the summer of 1964 in the Northern capital, and not in Moscow or Minsk, as previously thought. Therefore, a “prepared” pre-trial detention center was found after all. And Neyland was hardly the only one who was shot there.

There are other common myths about the “tower”. For example, it is generally accepted that since the late 50s the Baltics did not have their own execution squads at all, so all those sentenced to capital punishment from Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia were transported to Minsk for execution. This is not entirely true: death sentences were also carried out in the Baltic states. But the performers were actually invited from outside. Mainly from Azerbaijan. Still, three firing squads for one small republic is too much. Convicts were executed mainly in the Bailov prison in Baku, and the shoulder craftsmen from Nakhichevan were often unemployed. Their salaries were still “dripping” - the members of the firing squad received approximately 200 rubles a month, but at the same time no bonuses for “execution”, nor quarterly. And this was a lot of money - the quarterly amount was approximately 150-170 rubles, and “for performance” they paid one hundred members of the brigade and 150 directly to the performer. So we went on business trips to earn extra money. More often - to Latvia and Lithuania, less often - to Georgia, Moldova and Estonia.

Another common myth is that in the last decades of the Union’s existence, women were not sentenced to death. They sentenced. In open sources you can find information about three such executions. In 1979, collaborator Antonina Makarova was shot, in 1983, plunderer of socialist property Berta Borodkina, and in 1987, poisoner Tamara Ivanyutina. And this is against the backdrop of 24,422 death sentences handed down between 1962 and 1989! So, only men were shot? Hardly. In particular, the verdicts of currency traders Oksana Sobinova and Svetlana Pinsker (Leningrad), Tatyana Vnuchkina (Moscow), Yulia Grabovetskaya (Kyiv), handed down in the mid-60s, are still shrouded in secrecy.

They were sentenced to the “tower”, but executed or still pardoned, it’s hard to say. Their names are not among the 2,355 pardoned. This means that most likely they were shot after all.

The third myth is that people became executioners, so to speak, at the call of their hearts. In the Soviet Union, executioners were appointed - and that’s all. No volunteers. You never know what’s on their minds – what if they’re perverts? Even an ordinary OBKhSS employee could be appointed as an executioner. Among law enforcement officers, as a rule, those who were dissatisfied with their salaries and who urgently needed to improve their living conditions were selected. They offered me a job. They invited me for an interview. If the subject approached, he was processed. It must be said that Soviet personnel officers worked excellently: from 1960 to 1990 there was not a single case in which an executioner resigned of his own free will. And there was certainly not a single case of suicide among the execution staff - the Soviet executioners had strong nerves. “Yes, I was the one who was appointed,” recalled the former head of the institution UA-38/1 UITU of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Azerbaijan SSR, Khalid Yunusov, who was responsible for carrying out more than three dozen death sentences. – I caught bribe-takers six years ago. I’m tired of it, I’ve only made enemies for myself.”

How, in fact, did the execution procedure itself take place? After the court announced the verdict and before it was carried out, as a rule, several years passed. All this time, the condemned man was kept in solitary confinement in the prison of the city in which the trial was taking place. When all submitted requests for clemency were rejected, the condemned were transported to a special detention center - as a rule, a few days before the sad procedure. It happened that prisoners languished in anticipation of execution for several months, but these were rare exceptions. Prisoners had their heads shaved and dressed in clothes made of striped fabric (a light gray stripe alternated with a dark gray stripe). The convicts were not informed that their last request for clemency was rejected.

Meanwhile, the head of the pre-trial detention center was assembling his firing squad. In addition to the doctor and the executioner, it included an employee of the prosecutor's office and a representative of the operational information center of the Internal Affairs Directorate. These five gathered in a specially designated room. First, the prosecutor's office employee got acquainted with the personal file of the convicted person. Then the so-called supervisory inspectors, two or three people, brought the convict into the room in handcuffs. In films and books, there is usually a passage in which the death row inmate is told that all his requests for clemency have been rejected. In fact, the person departing on his last journey was never informed about this. They asked what his name was, where he was born, what article he was under. They offered to sign several protocols. Then they reported that they would need to draw up another petition for pardon - in the next room where the deputies were sitting, and the papers would need to be signed in front of them. The trick, as a rule, worked flawlessly: those sentenced to death cheerfully walked towards the deputies.

And there were no deputies outside the door of the next cell - the performer was standing there. As soon as the condemned man entered the room, a shot followed in the back of the head. More precisely, “to the left occipital part of the head in the area of the left ear,” as required by the instructions. The suicide bomber fell and a control shot was fired. The dead man's head was wrapped in a rag and the blood was washed off - there was a specially equipped blood drain in the room. The doctor came in and pronounced death. It is noteworthy that the executioner never shot the victim with a pistol - only with a small-caliber rifle. They say that they shot from Makarov and TT guns exclusively in Azerbaijan, but the destructive power of the weapon was such that at close range the convicts’ heads were literally blown off. And then it was decided to shoot the convicts using revolvers from the Civil War - they had a more gentle fight. By the way, only in Azerbaijan were those sentenced to execution tightly tied up before the procedure, and only in this republic was it customary to announce to the condemned that all their requests for clemency had been rejected. Why this is so is unknown. The binding of the victims affected them so strongly that every fourth died of a broken heart.

It is also noteworthy that the prosecutor’s office never signed documents on the execution of the sentence before the execution (as prescribed by the instructions) - only after. They said it was a bad omen, worse than ever. Next, the deceased was placed in a pre-prepared coffin and taken to the cemetery, to a special plot, where they were buried under nameless plaques. No names, no surnames - just a serial number. The firing squad was given a certificate, and that day all four of its members received time off.

In Ukrainian, Belarusian and Moldavian pre-trial detention centers, as a rule, they made do with one executioner. But in the Georgian special detention centers - in Tbilisi and Kutaisi - there were a good dozen of them. Of course, most of these “executioners” never executed anyone - they were only listed, receiving a large salary on the payroll. But why did the law enforcement system need to maintain such huge and unnecessary ballast? They explained it this way: it is not possible to keep secret which of the pre-trial detention center employees shoots the condemned. The accountant will always let something slip! So, in order to mislead even the accountant, Georgia introduced such a strange payment system.

War is a terrible time, and it is very difficult to remain human when the lifeless bodies of your comrades are nearby. Only one thought pulsates in my temples: to be able to survive! This is how monsters are born from good people with good goals. Three women were officially executed in the USSR for terrible acts in the post-war years. And everyone assumed that they would be pardoned, but no one could forget the toughness that the weaker sex showed...

History of the crimes of Antonina Makarova (1920 - 1979)
And perhaps Antonina’s fate would have turned out differently, but only in the first grade there was an unexpected change in her last name, which foreshadowed a new round in the girl’s life. On the first day of school, due to 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. So she became Antonina Makarova, who already at that time had her own revolutionary heroine - Anka the Machine Gunner. Even this, years later, does not seem like a strange coincidence, but rather a sign of fate.
The Great Patriotic War found Antonina in Moscow, where she went to study after school. The girl could not remain indifferent to the misfortune that happened to her country, so she immediately signed up to volunteer for the front.
Hoping to help the victims, 19-year-old Komsomol member Makarova experienced all the horrors of the infamous “Vyazma Cauldron.” After the hardest battles, completely surrounded, of the entire unit, only soldier Nikolai Fedchuk found himself next to the young nurse Tonya. She wandered through the local forests with him, he made her his “camping wife,” but this was not the worst thing she had to endure while they tried to survive.

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 decided to stay in the village, but her desire to start a family with a local man quickly turned everyone against her, so she had to leave. Tonya Makarova’s wanderings ended in the area of the village of Lokot in the Bryansk region. The notorious “Lokot Republic”, an administrative-territorial formation of Russian collaborators, operated here. In essence, these were the same German lackeys as in other places, only more clearly formalized. A police patrol spotted a new girl, detained her, gave her food, drink and rape. Compared to the horrors of war, this did not seem to the girl something shameful; then she desperately wanted to live.
In fact, the police immediately noticed the girl, but not for the purpose discussed above, but for more dirty work. One day, a drunken Tonya was 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 had completed not only nursing courses, but also machine gunners, this was not difficult; even being very drunk, she coped with the task. Then she didn’t think about why and why - she was guided by only one thought that pulsated in her head throughout the war: “Live!”

The next day Makarova found out that she was now an official - an executioner with a salary of 30 German marks and with her own bed
In the Lokot Republic they mercilessly fought against the enemies of the new order - partisans, underground fighters, communists, other unreliable elements, as well as members of their families. The barn, which served as a prison, was not designed for a large number of prisoners, so every day those arrested were shot, and new ones were driven in their place. No one wanted to take on such work: neither the Germans nor the local police, so the appearance of a girl who could successfully handle a machine gun was to everyone’s benefit. And Tonya herself was happy: she didn’t know who she was killing, for her it was ordinary work, a daily routine that helped her survive.
Antonina Makarova’s work schedule looked something like this: execution in the morning, finishing off survivors with a pistol, cleaning weapons, schnapps and dancing in a German club in the evening, and love with some cute German at night. Life seemed like a dream to the girl: she had money, everything was fine, even her wardrobe was regularly updated, even though she had to sew up holes every time after being killed.
Sometimes it’s true that Tonya left her children alive. She fired bullets above their heads, and later local residents took the children along with the corpses from the village to transfer the living ones to the partisan ranks. This scheme may have appeared because Tonya was tormented by her conscience. Rumors about a female executioner, “Tonka the machine gunner,” and “Tonka the Muscovite” spread throughout the area. Local partisans even announced a hunt for the executioner, but were unable to reach her. In 1943, the girl’s life changed dramatically.

Photo shows confrontation: witness identifies Makarova
The Red Army began to liberate the Bryansk region. Antonina realized what awaited her if Soviet soldiers found her and found out what she was doing. The Germans evacuated their own, but they did not care about accomplices like Tonya. The girl escaped and found herself surrounded, but in a Soviet environment. During the time that she was in the German rear, Tonya learned a lot, now she knew how to survive. The girl managed to get documents confirming that all this time Makarova was a nurse in a Soviet hospital. Then there were not enough people, and she managed to get a job in a hospital. There she met a real war hero who fell desperately in love with her. So the female executioner Antonina Makarova disappeared, and her place was taken by the honored veteran Antonina Ginzburg. After the end of the war, the young people left for the Belarusian city of Lepel, their husband’s homeland.
While Antonina was living her new correct life, the remains of about one and a half thousand people were found in mass graves in the Bryansk region. Soviet investigators took the investigation seriously, but only 200 people were identified. The KGB was never able to get on the trail of the punisher, until one day a certain Parfenov decided to cross the border... In his documents, Tonya Makarova was listed as his sister, so the teacher’s mistake helped the woman hide from justice for more than 30 years.
The KGB could not accuse a person with an ideal reputation, the wife of a brave front-line soldier, an exemplary mother of two children, of horrific atrocities, so they began to act very carefully. They brought witnesses to Lepel, even policemen-lovers, they all recognized Antonina Ginzburg as Tonka the Machine Gunner. She was arrested, and she did not deny it.
The front-line husband ran through the authorities, threatened Brezhnev and the UN, but only until the investigators told him the truth. The family renounced Antonina and left Lepel.

Antonina Makarova-Ginzburg was tried in Bryansk in the fall of 1978
At the trial, Antonina was proven guilty of 168 murders, and more than 1,300 more remained unidentified victims. Antonina herself and the investigators were convinced that over the years the punishment could not be too severe; the woman only regretted that she had disgraced herself and would have to change jobs, but on November 20, 1978, the court sentenced Antonina Makarova-Ginzburg to capital punishment - execution.
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 (1927 - 1983)
Berta Borodkina began building her career as a waitress in a Gelendzhik public catering establishment in 1951. She did not even have a secondary education, but she rose first to a barmaid, then to a manager, and later became the head of a trust of restaurants and canteens. It was not by chance that she was appointed; it could not have happened without the participation of the first secretary of the city committee of the CPSU Nikolai Pogodin. Borodkina was not afraid of any audits; from 1974 to 1982, she received assistance from high-ranking officials, and she, in turn, took bribes from her subordinates and transferred them to patrons. The total amount was about 15,000 rubles, which was a lot of money at that time. The workers of the Gelendzhik catering industry were subject to a “tribute”, everyone knew how much money he had to transfer along the chain, as well as what awaited him in case of refusal - the loss of a “grain” position.
The source of illegal income was various frauds that Borodkina put into practice, receiving at least 100,000 rubles from it, for example: sour cream was diluted with water, bread and cereals were added to minced meat, the strength of vodka and other alcohol was reduced. 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. There was also the usual miscalculation; the holiday season became a real breeding ground for scammers.

They were nicknamed the resort mafia, it was impossible to join their ranks, everyone else suffered losses, knowing about all the fraud. The leftist income Olympus was strengthening, tourists were arriving, but not everyone was so hopelessly blind, so complaints about “underfilling” and shortchanges regularly entered the guest book, but no one cared. The City Committee's "roof" in the person of the first secretary, as well as inspectors of the OBKhSS, the head of the region Medunov, made it invulnerable to the discontent of the mass consumer.
Borodkina demonstrated a completely different attitude towards high-ranking party and government officials who came to Gelendzhik during the holiday season from Moscow and the Union republics, but even here she pursued primarily her own interests - the acquisition of future influential patrons. Among her “friends” is the Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Fyodor Kulakov. Borodkin provided the highest ranks not only with rare delicacies, but also with young girls, and in general did everything possible to make the officials’ stay comfortable.
Borodkina did not like her name, she wanted to be called Bella, and she was nicknamed “Iron Bella”. Lack of education did not prevent her from skillfully hiding the tails of her expenses and writing off shortcomings. All her work was as transparent as possible from the outside. But this could not go on forever, even those in power could not cover her for so long, although they made good money thanks to Bella’s machinations.

Most likely, Borodkina’s trail was not discovered by chance, and everything was set up by those same top officials, but Bella was arrested not for fraud, but for distributing pornography. The prosecutor's office received a statement from a local resident that in one of the cafes, pornographic films were secretly shown to selected guests. The organizers of the clandestine screenings admitted during interrogations that the director of the trust gave her consent, and part of the money from the proceeds went to her. Thus, Borodkina herself was accused of complicity in this offense and receiving a bribe.
During the search in Bella’s apartment, various precious jewelry, furs, crystal items, sets of bed linen that were in short supply at that time were found, in addition, large amounts of dengue were unsuccessfully hidden in different places: radiators, bricks, etc. The total amount seized during the search amounted to more than 500,000 rubles.

“Iron Bella” kept threatening the investigation and waited for release, but high officials never intervened...
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 of the General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Leonid Brezhnev and the Secretary of the Central Committee Konstantin Chernenko, interfered with the investigation, however, with the election of KGB Chairman Yuri Andropov, the fight against corruption took a completely different turn. Many were shot for embezzlement, and Medunov was simply fired. The head of the Gelendzhik party organization, Pogodin, disappeared. No one could help her anymore, and she began to confess...
Bella's testimony took up 20 volumes, another 30 criminal cases were initiated, and she named difficult names. During the investigation, Borodkina tried to feign schizophrenia. But a forensic examination recognized her acting as talented, and Borodkina was found guilty of repeatedly accepting bribes totaling 561,834 rubles. 89 kopecks
This is how the case of the director of the trust of restaurants and canteens of the city of Gelendzhik, Honored Worker of Trade and Public Catering of the RSFSR Berta Borodkina, who knew too much about high-ranking people and flaunted it, ended. Then she fell silent forever.

Tamara Ivanyutina (1941 - 1987)
In 1986, Tamara got a job in a school canteen in Kyiv using a fake work book. She wanted to live well, so she looked for ways to take food home to feed herself and the livestock she raised. Tamara worked as a dishwasher, and began to punish those who, in her opinion, behaved badly, and especially those who made comments to her or suspected her of stealing food. Both adults and children fell under her wrath. The victims were a school party organizer (died) and a chemistry teacher (survived). They prevented Ivanyutina from stealing food from the catering department. Pupils of the 1st and 5th grades who asked her for leftover cutlets for their pets were also poisoned. This story became known quite quickly.
How did it all turn out? One day, 4 people ended up in intensive care. Everyone was diagnosed with an intestinal infection and flu after lunch in the same school cafeteria. Everything would be fine, but only after some time the patients’ hair began to fall out, and later death occurred. Investigators interviewed survivors and quickly determined who was involved. During searches of the canteen workers at Tamara’s house, Clerici liquid was discovered, which was the cause of the death of the visitors. Tamara Ivanyutina explained that she committed such a crime because the sixth-graders who were having lunch refused to arrange chairs and tables. She decided to punish them and poisoned them. However, she subsequently stated that the confession was made under pressure from investigators. She refused to testify.

Everyone knew about Tamara’s case at that time. It horrified visitors to all the canteens of the union. It turned out that not only Tamara, but also all members of her family had been using the highly toxic solution to deal with unwanted people for 11 years. Serial poisoners remained unpunished for a long time.
Tamara began her murderous activities when she realized that she could get rid of a person without attracting attention at all. So she got an apartment from her first husband, who died suddenly. She did not want to kill her second husband, but only gave him poison to reduce sexual activity. The victims were the husband's parents: Tamara wanted to live on their plot of land.
Tamara's sister, Nina Matsibora, used the same liquid to get an apartment from her husband. And the girls’ parents killed relatives, communal neighbors, and animals that did not please them.

At the trial, the family was charged with numerous poisonings, including fatal ones.
The court found that for 11 years, the criminal family, for mercenary reasons, as well as out of personal enmity, committed murders and attempted intentional deprivation of life of various individuals using the so-called Clerici liquid - a highly toxic solution based on a potent toxic substance - thallium. The total number of victims reached 40 people, 13 of which were fatal, and these are only the recorded cases about which the investigation managed to find out something. The process dragged on for a year, during which time they managed to attribute about 20 assassination attempts to Tamara.
In her last word, Ivanyutina did not admit her guilt in any of the episodes. While still in pre-trial detention, she stated: in order to achieve what you want, you don’t need to write any complaints. It is necessary to be friends with everyone and treat them. And add poison to especially evil people. Ivanyutin was declared sane and sentenced to death. The accomplices were given different prison terms. So, sister Nina was sentenced to 15 years. Her subsequent fate is unknown. The mother received 13, and the father - 10 years in prison. Parents died in prison.

WOMEN SENTENCED TO DEATH PENALTY IN THE USSR. CONTINUATION. In 1987, an unprecedented trial took place in Kyiv in the case of a family of serial killers who chose a highly toxic aqueous solution based on thallium compounds as their crime weapon. *This is a continuation of the story about female criminals, the first part is here: Maria and Anton Maslenko and their daughters, Tamara Ivanyutina and Nina Matsibora, were in the dock. Most of the victims were 45-year-old Ivanyutina. She became the last woman in the USSR to be sentenced to extreme punishment by a court. What was Tamara Ivanyutina like?

The woman’s biography before the start of the process is not distinguished by any outstanding events. Her maiden name is Maslenko. She was born in 1942 into a family with six children. Parents have always instilled in their offspring that material security and prosperity are the main conditions for a normal life. This is exactly what serial poisoner Tamara Ivanyutina was striving for. During the investigation of the poisoning case, it turned out that Ivanyutina had already been previously convicted of profiteering, and got a job at the school using a fake work book. Since September 1986, she worked in the canteen of one of the schools in Kyiv. She was hired as a dishwasher. This work brought her considerable benefits. Tamara Ivanyutina kept a fairly large farm. Working in the canteen, she was able to provide her animals with free food, which was left over from schoolchildren with poor appetite. To make it even worse, Tamara Ivanyutina periodically added poison to the food. She also used toxic substances against those who, in her opinion, “behaved badly.” Ivanyutina’s victims included those who interfered with the theft of food from the school canteen, allowed themselves to make comments to her, and in general all those whom she did not like for one reason or another. Poisoning

The story of Tamara Ivanyutina became known when several employees and students of school 16 in the Podolsk district of Kyiv were admitted to the hospital. Doctors diagnosed signs of food poisoning. This happened on March 16 and 17, 1987. At the same time, four (two adults and the same number of children) died almost immediately. There were nine victims in intensive care. Initially, doctors diagnosed an intestinal infection and flu. However, after some time, patients began to lose hair. This phenomenon is not typical for these diseases. Law enforcement agencies quickly established that Tamara Antonovna Ivanyutina was involved in the poisonings. The investigation began as soon as it became known about the deaths of students and school staff. Criminal proceedings were initiated. The investigative team conducted interrogations of the surviving victims. It was established that they all became ill after they had lunch in the school cafeteria on March 16. At the same time, they all ate liver with buckwheat porridge. Investigators decided to find out who was responsible for the quality of food at the school. It turned out that nutritionist nurse Natalya Kukharenko died 2 weeks before the proceedings were initiated. According to official data, the woman died from cardiovascular disease. However, investigators doubted the reliability of this information. As a result, an exhumation was carried out. After the study, traces of thallium were found in the tissues of the corpse. Then searches began on everyone who had anything to do with the school canteen. We also paid attention to the house in which the dishwasher of the catering unit, Tamara Antonovna Ivanyutina, lived.

Arrest During a search of the dishwasher in the house, a “small but quite heavy container” was found. Naturally, its contents interested the investigative team. The container was confiscated and handed over to experts for examination. As it turned out, it contained Clerici liquid. It is a highly toxic solution based on thallium (used in a number of branches of geology). Tamara Ivanyutina was taken into custody. First, she turned herself in and confessed to all the episodes that occurred in the school cafeteria. Tamara Ivanyutina explained that she committed such a crime because the sixth-graders who were having lunch refused to arrange chairs and tables. She decided to punish them and poisoned them. However, she subsequently stated that the confession was made under pressure from investigators. She refused to testify. The case of Tamara Ivanyutina became resonant. During further operational activities, new facts emerged. Thus, the investigation established that not only Ivanyutina herself, but also members of her family (parents and sister) used a highly toxic solution for 11 years to deal with people they disliked. At the same time, they committed poisoning both for selfish reasons and to eliminate people who were unsympathetic to them for some reason. The family received Clerici liquid from a friend who was an employee of the geological institute. The poisoners explained that they needed thallium to fight rats. The acquaintance herself later admitted that over the course of 15 years she gave the toxic solution to Ivanyutina herself, as well as to her parents and sister, at least 9 times. Tamara's criminal activity began with her first husband. She poisoned a man and took over his apartment. After the death of her first husband, Ivanyutina married again. In her new marriage, her husband’s parents became her victims. My father-in-law and mother-in-law died within two days of each other. The second husband himself also received small portions of thallium. So she kept his sexual activity at a low level. In addition, Ivanyutina hoped to get a house and land that belonged to her husband’s parents. In September 1986, she became a dishwasher at a local school. In addition to the episodes described above, the victims were a school party organizer (died) and a chemistry teacher (survived). They prevented Ivanyutina from stealing food from the catering department. Pupils of the 1st and 5th grades who asked her for leftover cutlets for their pets were also poisoned. These children survived. The investigation revealed that Nina Matsibora, the older sister of the main defendant in the case, was also active in criminal activities. In particular, using the same Clerici liquid, she poisoned her husband and obtained his apartment in Kyiv. The Maslenko spouses - Ivanyutina's parents - also committed numerous poisonings. Thus, a neighbor in a communal apartment and a relative who reprimanded them were killed with a highly toxic liquid. In addition, animals that belonged to “undesirable” people also became victims of poisoners. The geography of the family’s criminal activities was not limited to Ukraine alone. Thus, it was proven that a number of poisonings were committed by criminals in the RSFSR. For example, while in Tula, Maslenko Sr. killed his relative. He mixed Clerici's liquid into the moonshine. The court considered the case of 45-year-old Ivanyutina, her older sister Nina Antonovna and their parents - Maria Fedorovna and Anton Mitrofanovich Maslenko. They were charged with numerous poisonings, including fatal ones. The court found that for 11 years, the criminal family, for mercenary reasons, as well as out of personal enmity, committed murders and attempted intentional deprivation of life of various individuals using the so-called Clerici liquid - a highly toxic solution based on a potent toxic substance - thallium. According to the Deputy Chairman of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, who worked during the proceedings as a senior investigator for particularly important crimes in the Kiev prosecutor’s office, the identified episodes belong to the first criminal cases in which such a compound was used, recorded in the USSR. The total number of proven facts is 40. Of that number, 13 were fatal. Most of the murders (nine) and attempts (20) were committed personally by Tamara Ivanyutina. The process lasted about a year. During the investigation, Ivanyutina tried to bribe the investigator several times. She promised the law enforcement officer “a lot of gold.” The unusual thing about this case in criminal practice is that the main accused was a woman sentenced to death, and the punishment was carried out. In her last word, Ivanyutina did not admit her guilt in any of the episodes. While still in pre-trial detention, she stated: in order to achieve what you want, you don’t need to write any complaints. It is necessary to be friends with everyone and treat them. And add poison to especially evil people. Ivanyutina did not ask for forgiveness from the relatives of the victims, saying that her upbringing did not allow her to do this. She had only one regret. Her long-time dream was to buy a Volga car, but it never came true. Ivanyutin was declared sane and sentenced to death. The accomplices were given different prison terms. So, sister Nina was sentenced to 15 years. Her subsequent fate is unknown. The mother received 13, and the father - 10 years in prison. Parents died in prison. The year in which Tamara Ivanyutina was shot was 1987.