Vanka Kain (Ivan Osipov, born 1718 - death after 1756) is a legendary thief, robber and Moscow detective.
The name of the thief and robber Vanka Kain became a household name in the 18th century. It is interesting that Cain became famous not only for unparalleled atrocities, murders, deceits, but also ... writing, literary activity. No, don't try to imagine an idyllic picture of an old honored thief writing his memoirs in retirement in a quiet, cozy villa somewhere in Switzerland. Cain rarely got out of prison and disappeared somewhere in Siberia.
However, at some point, while serving hard labor in Rogervik (now the port of Paltiiski, in Estonia), he dictated to one of his literate comrades rhymed notes about his dizzying adventures. These memoirs were as dashing, talented and impudent as the old thief himself. They were copied many times, and, passing from hand to hand, these notes were distributed throughout Russia, and in 1770 they were even printed, which perpetuated Vanka's desperate adventures.
This story begins trivially - with a denunciation. 1741, December - the thief and robber Vanka Kain voluntarily appeared in the Moscow police (the so-called Investigative Order) and filed a petition in which he confessed that he was a terrible sinner, thief and robber and that, bitterly repenting of his countless atrocities, he asked for power to give him a chance "to rectify" and "in atonement" for the crimes he has committed, he is ready to hand over all his comrades to the police. Then, accompanied by a detachment of soldiers, he began roaming around the "raspberries" he knew and grabbing the criminals who had previously been unsuccessfully searched for throughout the country. Looking ahead, let's say that for his "service in the police" he passed several hundred of his comrades, so to speak, "romantics from the high road."
What happened? Why on earth did a famous robber enter the path of virtue? He did not come to the idea of a righteous life immediately, but under the pressure of many harsh circumstances. There is an old prison song that Vanka allegedly composed while in prison:
I don't want to drink, yes, or eat, good fellow, I don't want to,
I have sugar, sweet food, brothers, yes, it doesn’t come to my mind, yes,
For me, a strong Moscow kingdom, brothers, yes, it’s not crazy ...
Isn't it a familiar song by Butyrok, Sailor's Silence and Krestov? This song conveys the emotional mood of the legendary thief, who was already tired of running away from the "Moscow Strong Kingdom" and wanted to conclude a mutually beneficial agreement with him ...
And before that, the biography of Vanka Kain (in the world of Ivan Osipov) was rather banal. The serf peasant, the merchant Filat'ev, was brought from the Rostov district to Moscow to the courtyard of his landowner and assigned to the courtyard. Osipov lived with the landowner for several years, and then decided to flee. Let's give the floor to Vanka himself:
“I served in Moscow at the guest of Peter Dmitrievich, Mr. Filatyev, and as far as my services belonged, he diligently sent my post, only instead of rewarding and favors he received unbearable fights from him. Why did he take it into his head to get up and step out of the yard. At one time, seeing him asleep, he dared to touch the casket that stood in that bedroom, from which he took enough money to carry it according to my strength, and although before that he traded for salt alone, and where I see honey, then with a finger licked ... (in thieves' language means - stealing on trifles. - EA). He put the dress hanging on the wall on himself and left the house at the same hour, without hesitation, went, and then hurried, so that he would not wake up from sleep and would not do me harm ... I left the yard and signed on the gate: “Drink water like a goose, eat bread like a pig, and the devil work, not me. "
The reader will not be surprised if he learns that an accomplice awaited Vanka, laden with the master's property - such thefts are not the result of an unexpected impulse. The accomplice was experienced, he had long taught Vanka how to act. His name was Peter Romanov, but everyone knew his thieves' nickname - Kamchatka (probably, he visited this farthest exile in Russia at that time ”). Friends disappeared into the ruins of Moscow ...
Moscow in the middle of the 18th century was a sad sight. 1737 - she experienced a terrible catastrophe. On May 29, in the house of retired warrant officer Miloslavsky, the soldier's widow Marya Mikhailova put a candle in front of the icon, was distracted for some reason, the candle fell, a fire started, the hot weather favored him, and ... the huge city burned down in a few hours. The fire, which gave rise to the famous bitter proverb "Moscow burned out from a penny candle", claimed several thousand lives, turning the city into ruins that had not been inhabited for many years, overgrown with bushes, forming a kind of wild islands and archipelagos, in which various punks were hiding.
This happened more than once in Europe: for example, for several decades London stood desolate after in 1666 an extra armful of firewood in a bakery on Pudding Lane destroyed many London neighborhoods. The Moscow ravines were especially dangerous for people. From their names goosebumps went: Sinful, Terrible, Bedovy.
In the ravines, ruins, among the slums, there were dens and thieves' "raspberries", which were especially crowded in the winter, when the "lads" returned from the big roads and rivers, where in the summer they "worked". "Heroes" were greeted by buyers of stolen goods, "battle friends" - keepers of brothels, prostitutes, thieves, dressmakers - stolen goods. It was on this bottom of Moscow that Vanka Kain sank, following Kamchatka.
This is how he described in his memoirs his introduction to the thieves' world: “And we went under the Stone Bridge, where there was a churchyard for the thieves, who demanded money from me (the so-called vlaznye - E.A.), but although I dissuaded, I gave them 20 kopecks, for which they brought wine, then they gave me drink too. Having drunk, they said: “We ate half and middle ourselves, we rent the stove and the bread for hire, and we give quiet alms to the one walking on this bridge (that is, we rob. the same thief. - E.A.), live in our house, in which everything is enough: nudity and barefoot poles are known, and barns are hungry and cold. Dust and soot, moreover, there is nothing to eat ”. After waiting a little, they went to dirty work. "
After sitting alone until dawn, Cain decided to look around, left the shelter - and that's bad luck! - Immediately ran into the courtyard Filatyev, who grabbed the young man and dragged him home to the angry master. Filatiev beat Vanka, demanded that he return money and things, but Cain was silent as a rock. Then they put him in a cold one in the backyard.
One courtyard girl secretly fed Vanka - you should pay tribute to the crook: women have always sympathized with him. It was she who told Vanka that the courtyards Filatyev killed the guard soldier in a fight and threw him out of harm's way into an old well. Vanka perked up his spirit, yelled: "Word and deed!" - the cry of the informers. He was taken to the "Stukalov Prikaz" - the secret police, where he accused Filatyev of a crime - concealing the murder of the Tsar's man. The denunciation was confirmed, and Vanka, as a reward for the "brought" (that is, proven) report, was released, holding in his hand "a free letter for living."
Almost immediately Vanka Kain met his friend Kamchatka, and on the same night they went "to work" - they robbed the palace tailor Rex, and at the same time deftly and rather creepyly: during the day their young accomplice unnoticed sneaked into the house, climbed under the bed, and when everyone fell asleep in a securely locked house, the guy climbed out of the hiding place, quietly opened the doors and let his companions into the house.
The idea of the ambush was Vankina. He immediately began to stand out among the Moscow thieves with his rare ingenuity, subtle knowledge of psychology, and knew how to improvise. Here's an example. Vanka's gang conceived to rob a rich merchant's house, but not to approach it: a high fence, janitors, night watchmen, and most importantly, it is not clear where the owners kept the property. The task is insurmountable, but not for Cain!
He acted brilliantly simply: he bought (or stole) a chicken somewhere, threw it over the fence, went to the gate and demanded that the guards return his property. And then, together with the janitors, he long and unsuccessfully caught a nimble chicken and during this time examined all the locks, doors and rooms. And at night, the kazenka - a deaf room for storing goods - turned out to be incomprehensibly robbed!
Another time, at night, Cain and his people, who were walking with trophies after a successful "case", were followed by a chase, so annoying that thieves had to throw the stolen goods into a muddy puddle in the center of the capital and flee lightly in different directions.
Again, it would seem, an unsolvable task: pulling out valuables during the day, in public - is unthinkable. But it was not there! Vanka hijacked a carriage, put his "combat friend" disguised as a lady in it, and went with his comrades to the center of Moscow. And now passers-by already see a picture usual for the dirty metropolitan streets: in the middle of a puddle there is a tilted carriage, in which - it must be so! - the wheel has fallen off, the lady from the window is scolding the servants who are digging in the mud and still cannot put the wheel back, loafers! In the meantime, they put the stolen belongings on the sly into the carriage, put on a wheel - and they were like that! And such tricks are innumerable!
You can laugh heartily at many of Cain's tricks - they were so original, they were witty. However, there were also disgusting frauds. One Sunday afternoon he disguised himself as a rich clerk's son, put on a hat with a black braid, and went up to a carriage standing by the market in which a girl was sitting, who had already walked up in the shopping rows, her mother was sitting here, sitting, waiting, and told her that her parents allegedly went to visit his parents, drink tea and that, they say, he, a good fellow, was instructed to bring the girl to the feast. "The red maiden gave in to deception, they took her to the public yard, to the apartment of Vanka Kain," and there they raped her.
Cain achieved particular success in the delicate "pocket skill" that required training and talent; he could deftly and imperceptibly pull money, scarves, snuff-boxes and watches out of the pockets of the gullies - a real fortune in those days. He did not work alone, even then there was a thief's specialization. Cain's accomplice Elakhov, who was caught later, swore during interrogation that he himself didn’t fumble in his pockets, but “only embarrassed the people so that his comrades were able to take them out” - a technique known to every smart reader: in a bus crush, look not for someone who is rude on the legs and scolds, but for those who, as it were, inadvertently pressed against you.
Thieves' cooperation, solidarity played a big role in the criminal life of Vanka Kain and his accomplices. Once, given out by the buyer of stolen goods, Vanka thundered into prison, and the prospect, as they said at the time, “to hunt sables” in Siberia opened up before him. His faithful friend and teacher Kamchatka saved him.
“He sent to me,” Vanka recalled, “Kamchatka an old woman who, when she came to the prison, said to me:“ Ivan has two pennies in the shop ”(in jargon -“ Is there no way to escape? ”). I told her: “Take note of the tea, where the seagulls are flying” (“I am choosing the time to escape after a comrade who had fled earlier”). Before the next patronal feast day, a “good Samaritan” (Kamchatka) came to prison with alms for the “unfortunate”, gave each a roll, and Vanka, the “unfortunate one”, got two and at the same time quietly said: “Trioka ate a roll, stromyk drilled "(In jargon -" There is a key to your chain in the roll ").
And then everything developed as in an adventure film: “After a short time, I sent a dragoon (a security guard - EA) to buy a product from a crazy row (wine from a tavern - EA), as I bought it and I drank it for courage Krasovul, went to the outhouse (the prisoners were taken to the toilet on a chain, while the guard remained outside. - EA), in which he raised the board, unlocked the chain lock and left that call. Although there was a chase after me, only after the fistfight that happened then (the traditional entertainment of the people for a holiday. - EA) I was saved from that chase; ran to the Tatar herd, where he saw a Tatar murza, who was then sound asleep in his wagon, and his head was standing (a chest with money - EA). I tied that Tatar's leg to a horse standing at his wagon on a lasso, struck that horse with a stake, which dragged the Tatar at full speed, and I, grabbing that head, which was full of coins, said: “Really Tatar money in Russia will not be taken ? ”, Came to his comrades and said:“ There are four Thursdays in one week, and a village month with a week of ten ”(“ There is a chase everywhere, it's time to take the bait ”)”.
All this happened during the traditional "tour" of the gang in cities and fairs. The company from Vanka was a poor one: Cain, Kamchatka, Kuvay, Legast, Zhuzla, etc. Friends did not stay anywhere, stole, robbed and quickly moved to a new place where they were not yet known. Best of all I thief at the Nizhny Novgorod fair: there are a lot of people, a crowd, drunken merchants - and what else does a thief and a robber want?
However, there were also failures. Somehow, Cain was almost rounded up. Vanka in a hurry ran into a public bathhouse, quickly undressed, threw his clothes under the bench, poured himself with dirty water and ran out into the street naked with a yell: they say, I, a Moscow merchant, have been robbed by bathhouse thieves, they took all things, money, and most importantly - documents. the passport. Play, people!
Bath thefts are a common thing, and the soldiers who surrounded the bath examined everything inside, they did not find the thief who had escaped from them, and the weeping, grief-stricken "merchant" was taken to the official presence so that the clerk could deal with him themselves. Covering the shame with a washcloth, Vanka whispered in his ear to the clerk's questions: “You will have, friend, a pound of flour with a campaign” (caftan with a camisole). And now with a new "ksiva" Vanka leaves the office ... Vanka Kain and his comrades also had other "adventures" ...
The name of the thief and robber Vanka Kain became a household name in the 18th century. It is curious that Cain became famous not only for unparalleled atrocities, murders, deceits, but also ... writing, literary activity. No, let the reader not try to imagine an idyllic picture of an old honored thief writing his memoirs in peace, in a quiet, cozy villa somewhere in Switzerland. Cain never got out of prison and disappeared somewhere in Siberia. But at some point, while serving hard labor in Rogervik (now the port of Paltiiski, Estonia), he dictated to one of his literate comrades rhymed notes about his dizzying adventures. These memoirs were as dashing, talented and impudent as Vanka himself. They were copied countless times, and, passing from hand to hand, these notes were distributed throughout Russia, and in 1770 they were even printed and thereby perpetuated Vanka's desperate adventures.
Our story begins trivially - with a denunciation. In December 1741, the thief and robber Vanka Kain voluntarily appeared in the Moscow police (the so-called Investigative Order) and filed a petition in which he admitted that he was a terrible sinner, thief and robber and that, bitterly repenting of his countless crimes, he asked the authorities to give he is ready to give the police all his comrades a chance "to rectify" and "in atonement" the atrocities he has committed. Then, accompanied by a detachment of soldiers, he began to roam around the "raspberries" he knew and grab the criminals who had previously been unsuccessfully searched for throughout the country. Looking ahead, let's say that for his "service in the police" he passed several hundred of his comrades, so to speak, "romantics from the high road."
What happened? Why on earth did a famous criminal enter the path of virtue? He did not come to the idea of a righteous life immediately, but under the pressure of many harsh circumstances. There is an old prison song that Vanka allegedly composed while in prison:
I don't want to drink, yes, or eat, good fellow, I don't want to,
Sugar, sweet food for me, brothers, yes, it doesn’t come to my mind, yes,
For me, a strong Moscow kingdom, brothers, yes, it’s not crazy ...
Isn't it a familiar song by Butyrok, Sailor's Silence and Krestov? This song conveys the emotional mood of the famous thief, who is already tired of running away from the "Moscow strong kingdom" and decided to conclude a mutually beneficial agreement with him ...
The first walk is always memorableAnd before that, the biography of Vanka Kain (in the world of Ivan Osipov) was quite commonplace. A serf peasant of the merchant Filatyev, he was brought from the Rostov district to Moscow to the courtyard of his landowner and assigned to the courtyard. Osipov stayed with the gentleman for several years, and then decided to flee. Let us give the floor to Vanka himself: “I served in Moscow at the guest of Pyotr Dmitrievich Mr. Filatyev, and as far as my services belonged, he diligently sent my post, only instead of rewarding and favors he received unbearable fights from him. Why did he take it into his head to get up and step out of the yard. At one time, seeing him asleep, he dared to touch the casket that stood in that bedroom, from which he took enough money to carry it according to my strength, and although before that he traded for salt alone, and where I see honey, then with a finger licked ... (in thieves' language means - stealing on trifles. - E. A.). He put on the dress hanging on the wall and left the house at the same hour, without hesitating, and then he hurried, so that he would not wake up from sleep and do me harm ... I left the yard and signed on the gate: "Drink water like a goose, eat bread like a pig, and work the devil, not me. "
The reader will not be surprised if he learns that an accomplice was waiting for Vanka, laden with the master's good, - such thefts are not the result of a sudden impulse. The accomplice was experienced, he had long taught Vanka how to act. His name was Pyotr Romanov, but everyone knew his thieves' nickname - "Kamchatka" (apparently, he visited this most distant exile in Russia at that time, or was "going there"). Friends disappeared into the ruins of Moscow ...
Capital of thievesMoscow in the middle of the 18th century was a sad sight. In 1737 she experienced a terrible catastrophe. On May 29, in the house of retired warrant officer Miloslavsky, the soldier's widow Marya Mikhailova put a candle in front of the icon, got distracted for some reason, the candle fell, a fire started, the hot weather favored him, and ... the huge city burned down in a few hours. The fire, which gave rise to the famous bitter proverb "Moscow burned out from a penny candle", claimed several thousand lives and turned the city into ruins that had not been inhabited for many years, overgrown with bushes, formed a kind of wild islands and archipelagos, in which various punks were hiding. This happened more than once in Europe: for example, for several decades London stood desolate after in 1666 an extra armful of firewood in a bakery on Pudding Lane destroyed many quarters of the British capital. The Moscow ravines were especially dangerous for people. From their names goosebumps went: Sinful, Terrible, Bedovy.
In the ravines, ruins, among the slums, brothels and thieves' "raspberries" were located, which were especially crowded in winter, when the "lads" returned from the big roads and rivers, where in the summer they "worked". "Heroes" were greeted by buyers of stolen goods, "fighting friends" - keepers of brothels, prostitutes, thieves, dressmakers - turners of stolen goods. It was on this bottom of Moscow that Vanka sank, following Kamchatka. This is how he described in his memoirs his introduction to the thieves' world: “And we went under the Stone Bridge, where there was a churchyard for the thieves, who demanded money from me (the so-called“ vlaznye ”- E. A.), but although I tried to dissuade myself, I gave them twenty kopecks, for which they brought wine, and then they made me drunk. Having drunk, they said: "We ate the floor and the middle ourselves, we rent the stove and the bread, and we give quiet alms to the one walking along this bridge (that is, we rob. - E. A.) and you will, brother, to our cloth epancha (that is, the same thief. - E. A.), live in our house, in which everything is enough: nudity and barefoot are hung with poles, and barns stand for hunger and cold. Dust and soot, moreover, there is nothing to eat. "After a little while, they went to the dirty work."
After sitting alone until dawn, Cain decided to look around, left the shelter - and that's bad luck! - Immediately ran into the courtyard Filatyev, who grabbed the young man and dragged him home to the angry master. Filatyev beat Vanka, demanded that he return money and things, but Cain was silent as a rock. Then they put him in a cold one in the backyard. One courtyard girl secretly fed Vanka - we must pay tribute to the rogue: women have always sympathized with him. It was she who told Vanka that Filatyev's servants killed a guard soldier in a fight and threw him into an old well out of harm's way. Vanka perked up his spirit, yelled: "Word and deed!" - the cry of the informers. He was taken to the "Stukalov Prikaz" - the secret police, where he accused Filatyev of a crime - concealing the murder of the Tsar's man. The denunciation was confirmed, and Vanka, as a reward for the "brought" (that is, proven) report, was released, holding in his hand "a free letter for living."
We don't care about fences!Almost immediately, Cain met his friend Kamchatka, and that night they set out on business - they robbed the palace tailor Rex, and at the same time deftly and very creepyly: during the day their young accomplice unnoticed entered the house, climbed under the bed, and when everyone fell asleep in in a securely locked house, the guy climbed out of hiding, quietly opened the doors and let his comrades into the house. The idea of the "ambush" belonged to Vanka. He immediately began to stand out among the Moscow thieves with his rare ingenuity, subtle knowledge of psychology, and knew how to improvise. Here's an example. Vanka's gang conceived to rob a rich merchant's house, but not to approach it: a high fence, janitors, night watchmen, and most importantly, it is not clear where the owners keep the property. An insurmountable task, but not for Cain! He acts in an ingeniously simple way: he buys (or steals) a chicken somewhere, throws it over the fence, goes to the gate and demands that the guards return his property. And then, together with the janitors, for a long time and unsuccessfully, he catches the dodging bird and during this time inspects all the locks, doors and rooms. And at night the kazenka - a deaf room for storing goods - turns out to be in an incomprehensible way robbed!
Another time, at night, Cain and his people, who were walking with trophies after a successful "case", were followed by a chase, so annoying that the thieves had to throw the stolen goods into a muddy puddle in the center of Moscow and flee lightly in different directions. Again, it would seem an insoluble task - to pull out valuables during the day, in public - impossible. But it was not there! Vanka steals the carriage, puts his "combat friend" in her disguised mistress and goes with his accomplices to the center of the capital. And now passers-by already see a picture, usual for dirty Moscow streets: in the middle of a puddle there is a tilted carriage, in which - it must happen! - the wheel has fallen off, the lady from the window is scolding the servants who are digging in the mud and still cannot put the wheel back, loafers! In the meantime, they put the stolen belongings on the sly into the carriage, put on a wheel - and they were like that! And such tricks are innumerable!
You can laugh heartily at many of Cain's tricks - they were so original, witty. But there were also disgusting frauds. Once on a Sunday afternoon, he dressed up as a rich clerk's son, put on a hat with a black braid and went up to a carriage standing by the market in which a girl was sitting, who had already walked up in the shopping rows, her mother was sitting here, sitting, waiting, and told her that her parents had allegedly come to visit his parents, were drinking tea and that, they say, he, a good fellow, had been instructed to bring the girl to the feast. "The red maiden gave in to deception, they took her to the public yard, to the apartment of Vanka Kain," and there they raped her.
"Note tea, where do the seagulls fly"Vanka achieved particular success in the delicate "pocket skill" that required training and talent; he knew how to deftly and imperceptibly pull money, scarves, snuff-boxes and watches out of the pockets of mouth-watering people - at that time a real state of affairs. He did not work alone, even then there was a thief's specialization. Cain's accomplice Elakhov, who was caught later, swore during interrogation that he himself did not fumble in his pockets, but “only embarrassed the people so that his comrades were able to take them out” - a technique known to every intelligent reader - in a bus crush, look not for someone who is boorish climbs on your feet and scolds, and for those who, as if by chance, snuggle up to you.
Thieves' cooperation, solidarity played a large role in the criminal life of Cain and his accomplices. Once, given out by the buyer of stolen goods, Cain "thundered" in prison and the prospect, as they said then, "to hunt sables" in Siberia opened up before him. His faithful friend and teacher Kamchatka saved him. “He sent an old woman from Kamchatka to me,” recalls Cain, “who came to prison and said to me:“ Ivan has two pennies in the shop ”(in jargon -“ Is there no way to escape? ”). I said to her: “Take note of tea, where the seagulls are flying” (“I am choosing time to escape after a comrade who had escaped earlier”). ”Before the next patronal holiday, the“ good Samaritan ”(Kamchatka) came to prison with alms for the“ unfortunate ” on a roll, and Vanka - the most "unfortunate" - already two and at the same time quietly said: "Trioka ate a roll, stromyk drills straktiril."
And then everything developed as in an adventure film: “After a short time, I sent a dragoon (a guard. - E. A.) buy a product from the insane row (wine from a pub. - E. A.), as he bought it and I drank Krasovul for courage, went to the outhouse (the prisoners were taken to the toilet on a chain, while the guard remained outside. - E. A.), in which he raised the board, unlocked the chain lock and left that run. Although there was a chase after me, only after the fistfight that happened then (the traditional entertainment of the people for the holiday. - E. A.) I was saved from that chase; ran to the Tatar herd, where he saw a Tatar murza, who at that time was fast asleep in his wagon, and his head had a head (a chest with money. - E. A.) stood. I tied that Tatar's leg to a horse standing at his wagon on a lasso, struck that horse with a stake, which dragged this Tatar at full speed, and I, grabbing that head, which was full of coins, said: "Really Tatar money in Russia will not be taken ? ", came to his comrades and said:" In one week there are four Thursdays, and a village month with a week of ten "(" There is a chase everywhere, it's time to take the fishing rods ")".
Unexpected finale of the "summer tour"All this happened during the traditional "tour" of the gang in cities and fairs. The company from Vanka was a poor one: Cain, Kamchatka, Kuvay, Legast, Zhuzla, etc. Friends did not stay anywhere, stole, robbed and quickly moved to a new place where they were not yet known. Best of all I thief at the Nizhny Novgorod fair: there are a lot of people, a crowd, drunken merchants - and what else does a thief and a robber want?
But there were also failures. Somehow Vanka almost got caught in a round-up. In a hurry, Cain ran into a public bath, quickly undressed, put his clothes under the bench, doused himself with dirty water and ran out into the street naked with a cry: they say, I, a Moscow merchant, have been robbed by bath robbers, they took all things, money, and most importantly - documents. the passport. Slay people! Bath thefts are a common thing, and the soldiers who surrounded the bath examined everything inside, they did not find the thief who had escaped from them, and they took the crying, grief-stricken "merchant" to the official presence so that the clerk could deal with him themselves. Covering the shame with a washcloth, Vanka whispered in his ear to the clerk's questions: “You will have, friend, a pound of flour with a campaign” (caftan with a camisole). And now with a new "ksiva" Vanka leaves the office ... There were other "adventures" with his friends.
But by the fall of 1741, Cain got bored of the dangerous life of a thief and decided, as already described above, to go "guiltily" to the police and offer cooperation to the authorities. For December 28, 1741, the first report of the recorder was preserved, who with the soldiers went with Vanka to the dens and grabbed Cain's former comrades-in-arms. As the recorder of the Search Order writes, “he, Cain, near the Moskvoretsky Gate, pointed to the cave (cave. - E. A.) and said that in that stove a fugitive scammer Alexey Soloviev was in that stove, and in that stove they took Solovyov, and from his pocket they took a report from his pocket, in which it was written in his hand that he knew many swindlers, and at the same time the register was written to these crooks ”. In other words, Cain and the soldiers climbed into the "cave" at the very moment when Soloviev was finishing up the list of "comrades" to turn them over to the police. Let me guess that it was not by chance that Cain started the raid from Solovyov. Perhaps he knew about the intentions of the fugitive cab and decided to get ahead of him - in the register of Cain, Soloviev himself was noted as one of the first ...
A thief, as a scout, does not keep a diary!It is noteworthy that Soloviev was a graphomaniac. The investigators got hold of a document unique in the history of Russian criminality - a diary of crimes. It shows that Solovyov, by his “main profession,” was a bathhouse thief: “On Monday, 7 hryvnia was taken from the All-Saints Bath in the evening, on Thursday — a taffeta shirt, Nizhny Novgorod pants, a Chinese camisole, a silver cross. There are 16 altyns on the Stone Bridge; on Saturday - pants, money 1 ruble 20 kopecks. On Sunday - 1 ruble ”, etc. That would be how all our criminals kept their accounts - investigators and prosecutors would have a rest!
Cain had no time to celebrate the New Year - business! On his tip, the soldiers took one brothel after another. And on February 17, 1742, the journal of the Search Order records a decisive moment for Vanka - Cain himself, without a boss, engaged in raids: "The informer Cain was ordered to give garrison soldiers to search for thieves and robbers."
Of course, Cain did not just become an informant for the police and not only ran around with the soldiers for petty crooks (in his catch, as the reader guesses, there was mainly a small "fish" like Solovyov). Not! Vanka turned around with might and main: he rented a house on Zaryadye, which became an "office", where the caught thieves were brought and where their further fate was decided by Cain himself: to release or turn over to the police. Officials of the Investigative Order, informers, petitioners, people who were generally needed by Cain came here. There was a big card game going on right there, a crowd of different (let's say, suspicious) people. In a word, a unique private detective bureau was opened near the Kremlin, and to put it bluntly - a real legal "raspberry" of a large gang of thieves, robbers and murderers.
WerewolfVanka, naturally, repented only for show. He became a werewolf. As it is written in his file, "the informer Ivan Cain, under the guise of eradicating such villains, repaired many thefts and robberies in Moscow, and many robberies." From the materials of this, initiated many years later, it follows that Cain surrounded himself not only with criminals, but also with wealthy clients. He willingly served high-ranking persons who had misfortunes - a house was robbed, a relative was robbed, a servant with valuables fled, etc. The police, as always, threw up their hands, and Vanka acted, and very successfully. Through his people in the thieves' world (he had a special "service" at flea markets), he quickly found what was stolen and triumphantly (of course, not disinterestedly) returned things and valuables to the owner. And the venerable Muscovites liked it so much that in 1744 Cain received a letter of protection from the Senate, which ordered all authorities and individuals "not to reprimand Cain in catching villains and not slander him in vain." So Cain became invulnerable to everyone and for five whole years turned into a real king of criminal Moscow!
To retell Cain's "exploits" would mean to quote the modern criminal chronicle. The main thing is that Cain's fight against crime was closely intertwined with its cultivation. For "accountability" he caught petty thieves, took tribute from large ones, gave "cover" to merchants and artisans, sometimes punished them for obstinacy or, having learned the shameful secrets of their enrichment, blackmailed them with compromising evidence. Underground artisans and smugglers doted on him - he was their patron and shepherd. He mercilessly handed over the competitors of “his” entrepreneurs to the police or personally “wiped out” them. Gradually, an "old guard" of thugs formed around him - people who were tried and true: Shinkarka, Ram, Chizhik, Monk, Wolf, Tulia, about forty people in total. With them, and with a detachment of soldiers, Vanka made "trade inspections" in Moscow - he checked whether the salt merchants were weighing the poor people (and found that they really did weigh them!), Grabbed the merchants with prohibited goods and thieves in the ranks. When he got tired of the day's "legal activities", he went out at night with a brush "to amuse his right hand", made raids, robbed, killed, took hostages and dragged them to his home in Zaryadye, where in the morning he waited for relatives with money.
Highway romanticHowever, Cain was not particularly greedy for money - he had enough of them. Often he went to "business", driven by the passion of an adventurer who takes pleasure in danger and is bored without risk. Here he, disguised as a guards officer, comes to the monastery in order to free a nun who is in love with a certain young man with the help of a forged royal decree. After rather dangerous romantic adventures, Cain hands the nun to her admirer and at the same time jokes: "If you still need another old woman, then I will serve." The romanticist still took the money for the work - 150 rubles - there will be no extra money! Cain loved to joke. For a laugh, he could have brought the clerk into the open field in winter, undressed him and let him in like a hare, without pants. He could, again as a joke, smear tar on the clerk who had pissed him off, or beat a guard soldier into shackles instead of a freed criminal. In a word, Cain loved, according to the breadth of his Russian soul, to “make noise,” “give heat,” “trick” something that all of Moscow gasped with amazement and delight.
The years passed. It's time for Vanka to settle down. He liked the neighbor's widow Arina Ivanova. Vanka wooed her, but was refused - she knew very well what kind of personality her neighbor was. But Cain got his way. Arina was slandered by Cain's people - allegedly she was a counterfeiter, the woman was seized, thrown into prison, and then dragged to the torture chamber - to interrogate "with passion" about what she did not do. And then at the last moment Arina was told in her ear - either you go on the rack, or for Vanka. There is nothing to do - Arina, reluctantly, agreed to be Cain's wife.
End of a long ropeIt is clear that, living in grave sins, Vanka understood that he was in danger of being exposed, and he did everything to avoid the scaffold. From the case of Cain it is clear that he was friends with the powerful of this world - officials of the Investigative Order, the police, the Senate. The friendship was mutually beneficial - he paid them with money and services, they covered him in every possible way. The union of power and criminality was complete here. Later, Cain testified that the officials, "for being warned of him, gave them and repeatedly visited their houses and, as usual with friends, drank tea with them and played cards with some." He also gave the officials and the things confiscated from the thieves, which he laid out (for the convenience of choice) on the table in the judicial room, so to speak, right on the altar of justice, in the middle of which stood a mirror of Peter the Great with the laws of the empire! Well, and to deliver to a friend-official a prettier girl, a pound of good tea or an expensive snuffbox, as they say now in a certain environment, “No bazaar!”.
But, keeping in mind the proverb about the tip of a winding rope, let's move on to the end of our story. The end of the adventurer was preceded by a certain sign of fate. Here is an entry in the journal of the order dated August 8, 1748: "He went, Cain, to search and catch thieves and swindlers, and on the bridge he came across a swindler Pyotr Kamchatka, whom Cain took, brought him to the Search Order." Kamchatka was tortured, beaten with a whip and exiled to the mines forever. Of course, "a thief should be in prison" and Kamchatka does not arouse sympathy, but nevertheless, a story recorded in the journal about how Cain "took" on the bridge an old friend who was walking towards him, who more than once saved Vanka himself from a noose and a whip, expressive: Cain, in his fall, sank to the very bottom. As often happens, it all started with a woman - more precisely, a fifteen-year-old soldier's daughter, whom Cain “lured away for an indecent deed,” and then, like an unnecessary rag, threw her away. So this case would have been forgotten - one of dozens of Cain's crimes, if not for the girl's father, soldier Fyodor Tarasov. He went to the very Chief of Police of Moscow Tatishchev and filed a complaint against Cain and the officials who covered up the criminal.
Look into the abyss of lawlessnessTatishchev, who had previously heard about Cain's tricks, began an investigation, but not in the police, but in the then FSB - the Secret Chancellery. Vanka tried to slander the witnesses, then Tatishchev put him in his house in a damp cellar for bread and water. Cain, not accustomed to such "harshness", got scared, begged for mercy and began to testify, from which the hair on the head of the chief of police stood on end. He immediately reported everything to Empress Elizaveta Petrovna in St. Petersburg, a commission came from there - arrests, interrogations began, the case began to twist. Meanwhile, the leadership of the Investigative Order, for which Cain had been "moonlighting" for so many years, at all costs wanted to get the bastard and conduct an investigation in full form. The reader does not need to explain how this investigation could have ended for Vanka. But Tatishchev turned out to be a decent and intelligent man - he did not give Vanka to the detectives, but ordered to double the guard ...
The case dragged on for a long, long time. Only in 1755 was Cain sentenced to death, but since no one was executed under Elizabeth, Cain was "made to look good": they pulled out his nostrils, burned "B" on his forehead, "O" on his left cheek, and "P" on his right cheek, riveted into shackles, he was sent "to hard work" to hard labor in Rogervik, where he dictated his memoirs - one of the books beloved by the people. But what is remarkable is that hard labor is not a place for literary creation. Apparently, there, too, Cain managed to get comfortable. As Andrei Bolotov, who served as an escort officer in the penal servitude in Rogervik, wrote, those of the criminals who had money did not break a wild stone and did not carry it to the port, but lived happily in the closets fenced off in the barracks. Vanka's closet was probably there as well.
Finally, one last thing. One may ask: what happened to the high-ranking accomplices of Cain from the police? Silly question and naive. None of the officials of the Investigative Order went to hard labor; they could not prove their guilt during the investigation. Someone was fired, someone was transferred to another office, someone got off with fright ... And you probably thought that in those days it was different?
Ivan Osipov kept the whole of Moscow in fear and was the uncrowned head of its underworld, and then suddenly became a detective, received the nickname "Cain" and hid no less than three hundred of his former accomplices behind bars.
"Devil work, not me"
The future "first titled Russian thief" was born in 1718 in the village of Bolgachinovo near the village of Ivanovo, Rostov district, Yaroslavl province. And he would have pulled the strap of the fortress there, stealing on trifles, to the grave, but the planida ordered otherwise.
In 1731, the 14-year-old boy Ivan, son of Osip Pavlov, was sent to Moscow and assigned to the yard "runners-up" at the city estate of the eminent merchant Pyotr Filatyev. Where the beaters were poured generously, but fed scarcely. So he began to roam around the taverns and once made an acquaintance with a retired sailor Pyotr Romanovich Smirny - a famous thief named "Kamchatka". By that time Vanka was already 17 years old.
And he decided to go for free bread. But he left not empty - he cleaned out the owner, and at the lord's gates he stated, one might say, his position in life: "The devil work, not me."
He ended up in the gang of Kamchatka, which lodged under the arches of the Vsekhsvyatsky (Big) Stone Bridge. And already his first independent business - a raid on the imperial Annothofsky palace - filled the bandit "common fund" with sacks of gold and silver utensils.
But once he made a mistake - he was tied up by the people of the former owner. Filatiev ordered "to forge in iron, put on a chain, feed and water not to give." So Vanka found himself behind the sheds next to the "amusing" bear. Once a day, a courtyard girl appeared at the shackle block with food for the beast. It was she who whispered to the prominent guy Osipov that a garrison soldier was killed in a drunken brawl by the merchant's neglect, whose body of Filatyev's servant was quickly lowered into the well.
And when the guests appeared at the courtyard, Vanka shouted "Word and deed!", Announced a state crime. They dragged him to the village of Preobrazhenskoye, where the "Stukalov Prikaz" was located. Count SA Saltykov was in charge of the Moscow political investigation that he had listened to the "handler" and ordered him to be "released with God", having issued a paper "for living in a free letter."
Vanka's triumphant return from the Secret Order made the gang members believe that he was "lucky" and chose as their leader. At first he visited with six accomplices. After Makaryevskaya fair "naughty" was already at the head of a gang of over 300 heads.
Cain stood out against the background of all the rest of the capital's thieves in that he loved not just to steal, but to steal so that it was beautiful.
Professor EV Anisimov, a leading researcher at the St. Petersburg Institute of History of the Russian Academy of Sciences, believes that Vanka "mischievous" not for the sake of a trivial gain, but for the sake of courage, excitement, drive. Apparently his nature needed adrenaline. “How else to explain his adventures, where there is no self-interest,” asks Anisimov. So he could "lead the clerk into a snow-covered field, but let him in the cold without trousers." The impudent clerk is “smeared with tar”. To release a convict by putting a guard on his chain. Dress up in an officer's guards uniform and with a forged decree arrive at the monastery in order to rescue the nun from prison, who went down the aisle, disdaining the vow.
King of the underworld
By the middle of the 18th century, the First See turned into a "kingdom of thieves." The gangs began to hone the general rite of passage and the jargon that only them understood. At night the streets became more dangerous than the front lines. Wealthy citizens were not saved by fences, bolts, or strong walls of their own houses. Each Moscow morning began with the ringing of numerous temple bells and ... with the identification of corpses.
Their rich harvest was harvested at night by law enforcement officers, brought on creaky carts to brisk crossroads in the center of Moscow and laid out for the public to see. The audience flocked, scared, crossed themselves and hid. And the gangs multiplied like cockroaches and grew like myceliums. The ravines that bore "telling" names - Bedovy, Sinful, Terrible - were packed to capacity with marginal refuse.
So we can safely say that Ivan, the son of Osip, who later became Cain, appeared in the right place at the right time. With his assistance, the number of robbers increased almost 30 times. And he turned into the uncrowned king of the capital's underworld.
Detective Master
But suddenly on December 28, 1741, Ivan Osipov recovered to the Search Order and wrote a "penitential petition." He offered his services in "catching" his own associates and was awarded the official status of "informer of the Search Order." And the very first police operation on his tip covered a thieves' meeting in the deacon's house - 45 people were caught. That same night, 20 members of the gang, Yakov Zuev, were taken to the house of the archpriest. And in the Tatar baths of Zamoskvorechye, 16 deserters were tied up and the underground with weapons was opened.
Moscow historian Yevgeny Akeliev, author of the book "The Daily Life of the Thieves' World in Moscow in the Time of Vanka Kain", calculated that "while Cain was in the service, 69 Moscow thieves were convicted and sent to hard labor." In just 2 years, he helped to capture 298 criminal elements. According to some reports, even 500.
And the trigger for Vanka's "awakened conscience" was the Manifesto of Amnesty for Empress Elizabeth I of 1740, according to which all "stumbled" were asked to "obey and receive absolution." It was then that 23-year-old Osipov made a sharp zigzag in his already established career as a thief, and the nickname "Cain" was firmly stuck to him.
Got out into the people
Having legalized, Vanka settled in a luxurious house in the most prestigious place in Moscow - in Zaryadye. Acquires a pretentious exit and "foreign furniture". In the corners he shoves icons in precious frames. And in the most prominent place he places the Parsun of Peter I, for whom the beggar Osipov had a special weakness. In the private wing there is a curiosity - a billiard room. The dress is the latest fashion. On the head there is a boucle in fine powder. On his finger is an expensive ring with a diamond, which he “threw on the line” and lost to Cain by the retired auditor of the Moscow fleet, VA Milyukov.
"Unobtrusive" groom
And although Vanka's oblico morale is still smelly - for "he lived prodigally with many wives," the conservative merchants are not ashamed to make him godfather to their offspring, and eminent "Moscow bars" invoke "for teas with biscuits." And in November 1743, 25-year-old Cain decides to marry.
Appeals to the Investigative Order - "to provide assistance." They refuse him. Vanka-Kain takes offense and begins to trade in racketeering. He organizes a "torture room" in his house, where the lads take the rich merchants, who have only two options - to give everything to Cain, or with a stipulation, the "robber" is on the rack of the Secret Chancellery.
Denunciations are being made against Vanka. He explains to the Senate that the duty of the "sovereign detective" forces him to come into contact with criminals. And the Senate issues a resolution - whoever does not render proper assistance to Ivan Osipov, "as if the criminal will be cruelly tortured." Now Cain's hands are completely untied. And when the daughter of a retired sergeant, Arina Ivanovna from Zaryadye, does not accept his hand and heart, she forces the counterfeiter in prison to call her "his accomplice." So Arina writhes under the whips, until you say "yes" to Osipov.
The end of the caine libertine
Alarming news began to reach St. Petersburg, and in the fall of 1749 the Empress dispatched Chief of Police General A.D. Tatishchev to the Mother See - “to deal with thieves”.
A devoted ally of Peter I, who knew "Lisaveta" from the cradle, was known as a tough man to kill. He considered branding to be an effective method of combating crime. And even he himself invented a tricky device for this execution. When someone asked him a question - "What to do with this stigma, if a person will correct himself?"
As soon as he got down to business, Tatishchev almost drowned in denunciations against Ivan Osipov. And when he came to the abduction of the 15-year-old daughter of "retired servant" Taras Zevakin for carnal pleasures, after which the girl disappeared, he ordered "to pull out the adversary's joints."
And Vanka spoke. So much so that the former orderly Peter I, who had seen a lot, almost had an apoplectic stroke. Stunned by the scale of corruption, Tatishchev sent a petition to the Northern Capital to create a special commission for the Osipov Case.
The case dragged on for 6 years, until in 1755 the court issued a verdict - to whip, wheel, behead. But in February 1756 the Senate commuted the sentence. Cain was whipped, his nostrils were ripped out, and Cain was branded with the word V.O.R. and sent to penal servitude - first to the Baltic Rogervik, from there to Siberia. Where he disappeared.
But for many years the guslars carried the pitiful "songs of Cain's" across wide Russia. "Don't make a noise, mother, green oak grove" and to this day knocks out a tear from lovers of a pitiful thief's song.
The legendary thief Vanka Kain was a real Robin Hood who robbed the rich and helped the poor by giving them gold. The life and adventures of the thief Vanka Kain, with whom many songs and legends are associated.
Moscow thief, robber and detective. The son of a peasant from the Rostov district, the village of Ivanova. After adventures in Moscow, he went to the Volga, where he joined the low-ranking freemen and robbed in the gang of the famous ataman Mikhail Zarya. In 1741 he appeared in the Moscow detective order and offered his services in catching thieves. In May 1775 he was sentenced to quartering. Later, the death sentence was commuted to eternal hard labor.
Ivan Osipov, who later received the nickname Cain, began to steal from childhood, as soon as his parents gave him to the service of the Moscow merchant Filatyev. At first he stole a little from the owner, and for this the merchant beat him hard. As a teenager, Vanka began to wander around the taverns. There he met a real professional thief, retired sailor Pyotr Romanovich Smirny, nicknamed Kamchatka. Vanka opened the Philatevsky chest with money and fled with the loot. Thanks to the patronage of Kamchatka, he became a member of a gang of thieves that spent the night under the Stone Bridge. From the very first days Vanka showed that he had a great future as a thief. Vanka Kain was not just a thief, but also a merry gamer.
To the girl Avdotya, who was his former lover, after she did not betray him under torture, he presented a velvet box with gold and diamonds, and when she married the Life Guards of the cavalry regiment of Reiter Nelidov, he stole three hundred rubles from the tailor and, giving them to that Avdotya said to her husband: “Be quiet, Mr. Reitar! I am not a thief, not a thief, but to become the same. " And having handed Avdotya the money, he said: "Here is the onion of the priest, it is peeled off, knowing read it, but when I die, remember it."
As a rule, the robbers waited for the late traveler in a secluded place and, under the threat of a knife or club, took away everything that the victim had with him. There were also daring raids on the houses of wealthy townspeople, when the gang, dropping down the gates and frightening the servants and owners, took away all their valuables. Great intelligence and resourcefulness were not required for such cases. Vanka just possessed these qualities and soon found an application for them. Frustrated, cheerful, sociable Vanka could easily persuade the servants, and more often the servants in rich houses could help him to rid their master of "unnecessary" property. He also knew how to silently squeeze glass out of windows. And it so happened that in the afternoon, Vanka came to the trading yard with the buyers and hid there, waiting for the owner and the clerks to go home. And then, at night, he transferred the goods to the accomplices who were waiting for him behind the fence.
This continued until one day Vanka accidentally ran into his former owner, the merchant Filatiev and his servants. They tied him up and dragged him into the yard, from where he had escaped shortly before, leaving a mocking inscription on the door of the house: "Drink water like a goose, eat like a pig, and let the devil work for you, not me." They put Vanka on a chain tied to a pole in the yard, and Filatyev strictly forbade him to drink or feed him. In those days, the owners preferred to administer the court arbitrarily, because during the official proceedings, the police often took the property stolen by the thief. Vanka, who was threatened with a brutal flogging, waiting for the witnesses to be people who were outside the merchant, suddenly shouted out loudly: "The word and deed of the sovereign!" This meant that he had important information for the Secret Chancellery, which was investigating state crimes.
Immediately taken to the Moscow office of the Secret Chancellery, Vanka announced that the merchant Filatyev, together with his servants, had killed the soldier and hid the corpse in an abandoned well. He was ready to indicate the place. This saved Ivan Osipov and ruined his master, since the murder of a soldier - a "statesman" - has been punished with all severity since the times of Peter the Great. For helping the police in solving such a serious crime, Vanka was freed. Gang friends greeted his return with joy. After consulting, they chose a clever fellow as their chieftain. Under the leadership of Vanka, the gang went to Nizhny Novgorod to the famous Makaryevskaya fair, hoping to enrich themselves there.
There Vanka, who had learned the intricacies of trade during his service with Filat'ev, made numerous acquaintances with salesmen, looked out and found out how to lead his accomplices to profitable prey. Once Vanka decided to independently commit theft from a well-guarded house in which the merchants kept silver. But the impudent raider was captured, the merchants began to round him with iron rods. Vanka had to shout again "Word and deed!" Vanka was imprisoned in order to send him to the capital with an opportunity to investigate his denunciation in the Secret Chancellery. But his friends bribed the guards, who gave Osipov the lockpicks for the locks on shackles and indicated a convenient time and place to escape. Vanka fled from the dungeon to ... the bathhouse, from where he jumped out completely naked into the street, shouting that his clothes, documents, and passport had been stolen from him. The scene was played out so convincingly that the local police gave him clothes and even straightened out a new passport. With "clean documents" he got to Moscow without any hassle.
Here the gang hid for a while, slowly selling the stolen goods. In Moscow, Vanka did not find many of his former acquaintances: some were in prison, who were sent to hard labor, who were executed. At this time, an unexpected plan ripened in Osipov's head. His quirky and adventurous nature pushed him to become ... an informer. At the end of 1741, he filed a petition to the head of the Moscow detective order, Prince Kropotkin, in which he expressed remorse for past sins and offered the authorities services in the search and capture of thieves. ... It was on this night that the contemptuous nickname Cain stuck to Vanka forever. Soon, one of the criminals arrested with his help was found with a list of Moscow robbers compiled by him with a brief description of their actions. One of the first on that list was Ivan Osipov, who turned into detectives in time ...
Having earned the trust of the authorities, Vanka Kain, with the help of the police, began to catch thieves with the ease with which he had previously committed raids and robberies. In the two years since the first large-scale arrest of thieves, the number of criminals caught with it has grown more than tenfold. Osipov used his new position of "informer of the detective order" primarily for personal enrichment, however, many police officers did not disdain the same at that time. Vanka without a twinge of conscience extorted money from passportless, fugitive and schismatics, took a "duty" from foreign merchants who came to trade in Moscow who did not want to quarrel with the police. Having detained the thief in the act, he took most of the loot for himself, instead of returning it to the rightful owner. Finding out during interrogation from the caught criminals where and from whom they were hiding, to whom they sold the stolen goods, Vanka blackmailed their accomplices with a lot, extorting a bribe from them. He was assisted in these matters by some of the former members of the gang who were left at large. Among them was his first mentor Kamchatka, not forgotten by the grateful student.
This activity of his in the depths of the criminal world could not go unnoticed. Denunciations were made against Vanka himself, both from respectable citizens, and from the robbers "surrendered" to them, who believed that Cain's place was in prison. But the cunning Cain immediately appealed directly to the Senate with a request that these denunciations should not be considered, since, due to his duties as a police informer, he is simply forced to communicate with the criminal world. The Senate instructed the Investigative Order not to pay attention to denunciations that speak of Ivan Osipov's involvement in “unimportant matters,” without specifying what they mean. Thus, it was the servants of the Moscow Investigative Order that had to decide the issues of the "unimportance" of the thieves' affairs, in which Vanka Kain was involved. That is, people, most of whom were his friends and received generous rewards from the prudent Vanka.
Moreover, the Senate then ordered that the city authorities and officers of the military garrison provide Ivan Osipov with all possible assistance ... Vanka Kain consolidated his social position. He was now dressing in the latest fashion, curling and powdering his hair. I bought a large house in Zaryadye, the most prestigious part of Moscow, furnished it with expensive furniture, decorated with paintings and trinkets. He set up a billiard room in the house, which was a rarity even among the wealthy nobility. All that was missing was a charming hostess. However, the neighbor's daughter who liked Osipov did not reciprocate. This only inflamed the gentleman more. He made one of the captured robbers call the obstinate beauty his accomplice. The girl was arrested and tortured. Vanka Kain conveyed to his beloved through an accomplice that he could not only save her from torture, but also generally achieve her release, in return she should marry him. The girl chose life with her unloved husband.
In the fall of 1749, Chief of Police General A.D. Tatishchev arrived in Moscow. He had to prepare the city for the visit of Empress Elizabeth, in particular, to save it from thieves and robbers. In his youth, Tatishchev served as an orderly for Peter I, who, as you know, kept people brave and enterprising in this position. As the Chief of Police, he was directly subordinate to the Empress and was considered a smart and tough person to deal with. One of the methods of fighting criminals Tatishchev considered their branding - burning on the forehead of the word "thief". For this, he himself invented a device. And what if the criminal corrects himself or an innocent person is convicted? “If something is corrected or something else, it will never be too late to add“ not ”on his forehead before the old stigma,” answered the resourceful Tatishchev.
The chief of police general began to receive complaints about Vanka Kain. Tatishchev suspected him of double-dealing and, disregarding the merits of the "informer of the Investigative Order", ordered him to be reared up and tortured. Vanka decided to resort to the old technique and shouted: "Word and deed!" But the Chief of Police, who was only subordinate to the Empress, continued the inquiry, intensifying the torture. As a result, Osipov confessed to all his sins. A special commission was created to carry out the investigation into the Vanka Kain case. It took the commission several years to figure out his machinations. Vanka himself, finding himself behind bars, established a connection with the will through his friends from the Investigation Order and the prison guards, ensuring himself a completely tolerable life in prison. He feasted, played cards, amused himself with women. He waited and hoped that his case would be closed.
However, the staff of the Moscow Search Order changed, and Vanka had no influential patrons and friends left in this and other state institutions in Moscow. He was put on trial and sentenced to quartering in May 1775. Then this death sentence was commuted to eternal hard labor. They pulled out Vanka's nostrils, not only on his forehead, but also on his cheeks, they burned out the word “thief” and sent him to the Baltic Sea, and then to Siberia. There his traces were lost ...
In folk legends, Vanka Cain looks like a real Robin Hood, who robbed the rich and helped the poor by distributing gold to them. Many popular songs are associated with his name, for example, "Don't make noise, mother green oak tree."
Tatiana Bessonova
The country should know its heroes: Yaponchik, Mikhas, or, for example, Vaska-Kain - the criminal authority of the "eighteenth century". A smart fellow who kept the whole of Moscow in fear, and a brilliant detective rolled into one.
Russian Cartush, as Vanka was called by his numerous biographers, retained the title of "the first Russian thief" even after his death. In a word, he is a famous person who has played an important role in Russian history.
According to the concepts of our time, Vanka-Cain is the pure water of the limit. The future "master of Moscow" was born in 1718 in the village of Ivanovo, Rostov district, Yaroslavl province. In 1731, when he was thirteen years old, he was transported to Moscow, to the estate of the merchant Filatiev.
Young Vanka did not like it in the capital - they beat him a lot, fed him little. Therefore, at the first opportunity he ran. And not empty-handed. After waiting for the master to fall asleep, Vanka made his way into his bedroom and took from the master's casket as much money and jewelry as he could carry.
The world in those days was not without "good people". The very next day, the former room boy met the soldier's son Peter Kamchatka. An experienced thief immediately recognized Vanka as "his own" and without hesitation took over.
The plundering career of the future Tsar of Moscow thieves began "royally": it was decided to plunder the Imperial Annenhof Palace. Through the window of the first floor, Vanka made his way into the family bedroom of the court doctor Evlukh, where he profited from gold and silver utensils.
The robbers appreciated the valiant prowess of their new comrade. The gang's second expedition took place the very next night. And again the victim of Vanka and his companions was the servant of His Imperial Majesty - the palace cutter Rex. The unfortunate tailor was robbed for a fantastic sum for those times - three thousand rubles.
Having tasted light thieves' bread twice in this way, Vanka got a taste and personally planned the third robbery. This time, its former owner, the merchant Filatyev, was not lucky.
Filatyev was robbed merrily and noisily. The chests were opened with a butt, loudly joking among themselves. An alarm went up in the house. Having picked up the loot, the night guests rushed over the fence. The servants follow them. Running with sacks filled to the brim with dishes and jewelry was hard. And the chase did not want to lag behind. But even here Vanka was not taken aback. Running past the "great mud" known throughout Moscow near the Chernyshev Bridge, the robbers threw what they had stolen into the mud. Of course, the drowned sacks could be retrieved later, when everything calms down.
But this is not in the nature of Cain. A true virtuoso of his craft, an intelligent and calculating thief, Vanka loved to work beautifully, so that his partners would take their breath away. So this time, without waiting for the onset of morning, the gang went to the house of General Shubin. It was not difficult to lure out the watchman. Making sure that the path was clear, Vanka went to the general's stables and chose several horses to his liking. They were harnessed to the "Berlin" that was standing there and then drove to Milyutin's factory, to a familiar woman of one of the robbers. Taking an amateur actress (the role was prepared for her as a responsible one), the whole gang returned to Chistye Prudy. There, in the attic of an old merchant's house, Vanka had his own dressing room.
The factory prima was dressed up as a lady and drove to the Chernyshev Bridge, where the comedy conceived by Vanka was played. Having driven into the mud, the robbers took off two wheels from the "Berlin", the woman dressed up as a lady stood up to her full height and began to yell in a bad voice:
Bad dogs! I’m already for you! It was not possible to see at home whether everything was intact! I will tell you to tear it out with cats! I'll shave my foreheads!
"Frightened lackeys", whose role was brilliantly played by Vankin's associates, quickly left the loot in "Berlin", put on the wheels and, having dispersed the onlookers who had come running, set off on their way.
That same evening, taking all the money and jewelry they had gotten in the last few days, the gang disappeared from Moscow. And Vanka has already gone to the Volga. People to see and show themselves.
The inventiveness of the young chieftain knew no bounds. A striking example of this is the sensational robbery of the world famous Makaryevskaya fair. A wealthy Armenian merchant became a victim of the Moscow gang. The day on arrival was spent scouting the situation. In the morning of the next day, the gang set out on business - on a campaign against the Armenian cash register. The sun had already risen and was burning mercilessly when the merchant left his barn and went to the bazaar for meat. At the same moment, the guy sent by Vanka followed him. Further events unfolded in full accordance with the conceived plan. Passing the guardhouse, the robber shouted: "Help!" The soldiers on duty, hearing the cry, seized both: the Armenian merchant and Kainov's comrade. Meanwhile, the other members of the gang ran to the barn and reported "the most unpleasant news" to the merchant's companion. He locked the warehouses and hurried to the rescue of his comrade. The cashier was left unattended. Having broken through the wall, Vanka took all the proceeds and buried the money in the sand a few meters from the barn. After that, one of the gang members went to the pier and bought everything necessary for the construction of a hut there. It was placed on the very spot where the "Armenian millions" were buried. While the merchant freed from custody rushed about in search of the missing cash register, Vanka sat in a hut and sold the braid and other haberdashery trifles bought in the next row to all honest people.
The rumor about the daring raider spreads throughout the Lower Volga. Cain's gang grows - from six people to several hundred. Feeling the strength, the young chieftain embarks on large-scale operations. Takes the winery by storm, burns several villages. As soon as his bandits appear in one village, all the churches in the area on both sides of the Volga begin to sound the alarm. The government, concerned about the thieves' lawlessness, begins to take measures to capture the robber, and Vanka disappears for a while.
What happens next is hard to explain. On December 27, 1741, on the threshold of the Moscow detective order, a handsome young man with a thick beard and shoulder-length blond hair appeared, who declared that he, Vanka, himself a thief, knew many thieves in Moscow and other cities, and therefore .. . offers its services to their capture. On the same day, the celebrated thief and robber becomes an official. Now Vanka-Kain is the informer of the detective order, at his disposal a military team of 15 people.
Hard times are coming in the life of Moscow criminals. The chronicle of the first night of Vanka the detective looks impressive. In the house of one deacon 45 people were seized, in the house of the archpriest (that's where the brothels were!) - 20 thieves with the leader Yakov Zuev. A rifle store was found in the Tatar baths beyond the Moscow river, and 16 fugitive soldiers were arrested there. And so almost indefinitely. A total of 150 people were taken that night. Cain also betrayed his old acquaintance, a beggar soldier Alexei Solovyov. Following the example of the Roman emperor, he kept a thieves' journal every day, where he wrote down all his "exploits". Having looked through the notes of the new Moscow Caesar, the detectives came across a very detailed list of thieves and swindlers living in the city. Among them was Cain himself.
The Senate, where Vanka turned with the lowest request for pardon, forgave him all past sins and appointed him a detective. For almost two years Vanka has been a threat to his former comrades. Dozens of thieves, murderers and all sorts of swindlers are arrested in Moscow every day and night.
Cain had his first problems with the authorities in November 1743. Thinking of getting married, he turned to the detective's order with a request to give him money to pay off debts and henceforth for food. But he was refused. Offended to the depths of his soul, the "first Russian thief" decides to play a double game.
Since the state does not want to pay him for work, he is able to support himself. Refusal forces Cain to start a new life, even more dangerous than before. And the magnificent wedding of an employee of the detective's order turns into a thieves' gangway.
The story of Vanka's marriage is interesting in itself. With Arina, that was the name of the bride, Vanka had known for a long time. Once they lived in the same house, and Vanka often went to her father, a retired sergeant, "for a cup of tea." The pretty little girl clung to her young and beautiful neighbor, but she flatly refused to marry him. The soldier's daughter was frightened by the thieves' tricks of the chosen one. Having become a detective, Vanka again wooed Arina, and again unsuccessfully. Cain, who did not like to retreat, found a way out that the creators of modern thrillers never dreamed of. Enraged by the refusal, he went straight to the detective order and persuaded the counterfeiter sitting there to incriminate the discerning bride. As if Arina knew about his illegal fishing and did not report it to the police. After only half an hour, the girl, who did not understand anything, was dragged into the order and interrogated "under a cruel whipping." Only after the woman sent by Vanka explained to Arina that the torture would stop when the girl answered “yes” to her boyfriend, did the unhappy bride consent to the marriage ...
There were a great many who wanted to see Vankin's wedding. But the priest, looking at the "wedding memory" submitted by the groom, refused to marry the young. "Memory" turned out to be a fake. A way out of the uncomfortable situation was found quickly: several people loyal to Cain rushed into the street. And grabbing the first priest they came across, they dragged him into the temple. The frightened shepherd performed the ceremony without unnecessary questions and, happy that he got off lightly, rushed out. But Vanka could no longer calm down. Now his fellows prowl the Moscow streets and catch all the merchants passing by. When there were about forty such involuntary guests, Cain ordered the young wife to pour peas into a bag and go out with this treat to the people standing in the yard. The merchants were brought plates of dry peas, and they were forced to pay off the inedible treats. Having collected a sufficient amount of money, Vanka dismissed the merchants to their homes.
Having saved up some more money, Cain buys himself a luxurious house in the prestigious Moscow district, Kitay-gorod. In the light rooms of his new home there are images in silver and gilded frames, on the walls there are mirrors and printed pictures with a portrait of Peter the Great, for whom the illiterate thief had special respect. During the day, Vanka is in the service - he catches criminals, and at night he collects criminal authorities. Vodka flows like a river, counterfeit money and marked cards are used. There is also a torture chamber in one of the rooms of the new house. Now all the thieves and swindlers caught by his team fall into the search through the house of Cain. If the offender pays off, he is released. Those who have nothing to butter up the owner go to the order.
For the time being, Vanka is calm: the entire detective order, from his superiors to a petty scribe, is at his mercy. But Cain is smart and understands that this cannot go on for long. In September 1744, he appeared in the Senate and asked to sign a decree that would protect him from denunciations of the criminals he had caught. A month later, he reappears in front of the senators and reports that he has caught more than 500 thieves and swindlers, casually noticing that there are still many of them in Moscow. But Moscow officials do not help him in catching the villains; on the contrary, they interfere. In this regard, Cain asks to give him instructions and to announce to Moscow commands, "so that they do not put obstacles in the way of detecting and catching thieves."
As a result, the Senate endows Vanka with tremendous powers, in fact entrusting him with the dictatorship over all of Moscow. The 26-year-old thief, born a peasant in the Yaroslavl province, becomes the full-fledged owner of the second most important Russian city. Now all of Moscow is not a decree for him. And it is far from St. Petersburg.
The thieves' empire created by Vanka existed for a little more than three years. Catching and betraying petty thieves, he hid big thieves; pursuing street swindlers, gave free rein to the authorities. The number of fugitive soldiers, murderers and robbers increased in Moscow every day. This accumulation of scumbags, as the historian justly remarked, "should have expressed itself as a public disaster." And so it happened.
In the spring of 1748, terrible fires began in Moscow. Thousands of houses are burning, hundreds of townspeople die, suffocating in the smoke. Panicked people leave their homes and spend the night in an open field outside the city. Frightened by the events in Moscow, the empress orders to send troops into the city and establish a special commission under the command of Major General Ushakov. Vanka's position changed dramatically. Ushakov's team, preventing arson, caught all suspicious people and dragged them not to the detective order, where Cain had all his own and ours, but to the commission.
The rapid decline of the huge Vanka empire began. Everything suddenly floated out: arson, robbery, extortion and kidnapping of girls - Cain was always "passionate about women." In the end, a new Chief of Police, Tatishchev, was sent to Moscow, who ordered Vanka-Kain to be arrested in connection with the theft of 15-year-old daughter of Taras Zevakin. At first, Cain tries to deny everything, goes into unconsciousness, but after torture he makes a confession, from which the new police chief's hands tremble and his eyes widen.
The entire Moscow administration is on the hook for Vanka-Kain. And the thief backed to the wall reveals to Tatishchev the whole mechanism of the bureaucratic lawlessness reigning in Moscow. From Count Sheremetev, who takes bribes in rubles, caftans and rams, to an unnamed protocolman who demanded arshins of black velvet for his services. Shaken to the depths of his soul, Tatishchev petitioned for the establishment of a special commission on the Vanka-Kain case.
The investigation lasted six years. In 1755, the court sentenced Ivan-Cain (nee Osipov) to death by wheel. The Senate commuted the sentence. Cain was whipped, his nostrils were ripped out, and V.O.R. was burned out on his cheeks and forehead. In the same year, the former "master of Moscow" was exiled to hard labor in Siberia.
But even at the beginning of our century, the tract, where Vanka-Kain organized a festivities on the occasion of his own wedding, was called Cain's Mountain among Muscovites.
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