Leonid Ivanovich Pantyolkin, better known as Lyonka Panteleev. He was the coolest St. Petersburg bandit of the mid-20s. In the long history of the criminal world of St. Petersburg - Petrograd - Leningrad there is no...
Leonid Ivanovich Pantyolkin, better known as Lyonka Panteleev. He was the coolest St. Petersburg bandit of the mid-20s. In the long history of the criminal world of St. Petersburg - Petrograd - Leningrad, there is no more famous character than Lenka Panteleev. We can safely say that the bandit Lenka has become a kind of St. Petersburg legend. He was so elusive and successful that he was even credited with mysticism...
On February 13, 1923, Lyonka Panteleev, one of the most famous and daring Petrograd raiders, died in a shootout with security officers.
By the age of 20, he managed to take part in revolutionary events, fight in the Red Army with Yudenich’s troops and even serve in the Cheka. And he recruited several former security officers and commissars into his gang.
Although his gang operated only for about a year, rumors circulated throughout Petrograd that Lyonka was elusive, and his name became as famous in Petrograd as Lenin’s.
Exemplary citizen
Leonid Pantyolkin was born in the Novgorod province in 1902. He took the surname Panteleev, by which he became known thanks to his criminal business, later, probably because of its greater euphony.
After studying in elementary school and taking special courses, Panteleev received the profession of a typesetter in a printing house. In those days, printing workers received good money. Some sources report that Panteleev took part in the storming of the Winter Palace in October 1917, and he himself is called a revolutionary sailor.
However, at that time he was 15 years old, he was unlikely to be a sailor, but he could participate in revolutionary events. They didn't ask about age then.
It is known that in 1919, 17-year-old Panteleev volunteered to join the Red Army and took part in hostilities against Yudenich, who was advancing on Petrograd, as the commander of a machine-gun platoon. According to some reports, Panteleev was even captured, but later he was either able to escape or was released.
In 1921, the then huge Red Army was demobilized. After this, Panteleev comes to the Cheka. He had an almost exemplary biography - he was accepted into the service without any problems. So Panteleev, who had barely reached adulthood, became an investigator of the road transport commission of the Cheka of the North-Western railways.
Leonid Panteleev is a current employee of the Cheka (standing fourth from the right).
True, his service was short-lived. Just three months later he is demoted and sent as a controller agent to Pskov. And in January 1922, just six months after the start of his service, Panteleev was fired from the authorities.
The reason for the dismissal remained unknown, due to which later various versions arose, including the most dubious: allegedly Panteleev was introduced into a criminal environment. In fact, Panteleev was suspected of complicity in the raid, but there was little evidence.
The time spent in the Cheka was not in vain: there he managed to find an associate. One of the first members of Panteleev’s gang was his former Cheka colleague Leonid Bass. In addition, the former commissar of one of the units of the Red Army, Varshulevich, joined the gang, and Panteleev’s closest associate, “adjutant,” was party member Gavrikov.
However, the gang included not only former security officers and commissars, but also two professional criminals: Reintop and Lisenkov.
Dashing gang
The first years after the end of the Civil War were the heyday of the raiders. Professional criminals of the pre-revolutionary era were strictly divided into categories and followed unwritten rules and traditions.
But the revolution in those years took place not only in the political, but also in the criminal world. Old traditions were becoming a thing of the past. For example, the most famous Moscow raider Yasha Koshelkov, who once robbed Lenin himself, was a pickpocket before the revolution.
The task of the raiders was made easier by the security officers, who carried out searches every night; in such an atmosphere, it cost them nothing, posing as security officers, to enter houses and rob them.
In 1922–1923 there was a second wave of raiders. Now most of them were no longer professional criminals, but soldiers demobilized from the army who had previously had no problems with the law.
Accustomed to unpunished violence in war and during the suppression of peasant uprisings, they already had difficulty fitting into a peaceful society. In addition, many were disappointed by the NEP that had begun, which the most radical of the ideological communists viewed as a betrayal of the revolution and the restoration of capitalism.
The raiders acted boldly and without fear of anything, often trailing behind them a long trail of bloody crimes. They terrorized the cities and became a headache for the criminal investigation department and the Cheka.
In March 1922, Panteleev's gang committed their first crime. A raid was carried out on the apartment of furrier Bogachev. Threatening the owners with weapons, the bandits searched the apartment and took away several fur items.
However, Panteleev himself was first of all dissatisfied, considering the production insignificant. Therefore, after two weeks, they carried out a raid on the apartment of Dr. Griliches using the same scheme. But even in this case, it was not possible to get hold of money.
After the first failures, Panteleev fell into depression and did not go to work for three months. The craft of a raider turned out to be not as profitable as he expected. Meanwhile, there were many witnesses who remembered him well and described him to the police, and Panteleev was included in the police's wanted list.
In June, a security officer named Vasiliev, who was riding on a tram, accidentally recognized Panteleev and tried to detain the criminal. Panteleev, firing back, fled. The head of the State Bank security, Chmutov, tried to detain him (Panteleev was escaping the pursuit through the courtyard of this institution), but was killed in a shootout. This is how the first blood was shed, and the Panteleevs became very interested in the organs.
The police began searching for Panteleev, methodically detaining and interrogating his numerous cohabitants. The handsome and young Panteleev had many mistresses, whom he used as spotters, preferring women to everyone else, since he believed that a woman in love would never betray him to the police.
The shootout gave the depressed Panteleev additional impetus, and he intensified his activities. The gang raided Dr. Levin's apartment, where they got there under the guise of sailors who came with health complaints. The owners of the apartment were tied up and almost all their belongings were taken out of it.
A few days later, Panteleev’s gang, under the guise of security officers who came with a search, robbed the jeweler Anikeev. At the same time, the bandits played their role so well that they complied with all the necessary formalities with documents, but made mistakes on small things.
The search warrant was issued in the name of Alexei Timofeev, and one of the bandits inadvertently signed his name as Nikolai Timofeev. This fact alerted the owner of the apartment - after the bandits left, he turned to the Cheka for clarification and learned that no search had been carried out or planned.
Panteleev began to change his work pattern, most of the raids brought mere pennies, he stopped disdaining even banal street violence. Bandits began to go out to the Field of Mars at night and stop cabs carrying citizens who seemed wealthy to Panteleev.
After that, at gunpoint, they took away all the valuables they had on them. A similar robbery on Karavannaya Street ended in blood: Panteleev imagined that the victim - Nikolaev - wanted to get a revolver, and he was shot. They also shot the wife so as not to leave any witnesses.
There were rumors about Panteleev that he only robbed Nepmen and did not touch proletarians, but in fact he didn’t care, the main thing was that the victim had some valuables with him.
Lyonka Panteleev (bandit)
Lyonka Panteleev (real name is Leonid Ivanovich Pantyolkin). Born in 1902 in Tikhvin, Novgorod province - killed on February 13, 1923 in Petrograd. The famous Petrograd raider.
Leonid Pantyolkin, who became widely known as Lyonka Panteleev, was born in 1902 in the city of Tikhvin, Novgorod province.
Graduated in my hometown primary school, received primary education. After graduating from school he was admitted to professional courses, where he received the prestigious profession of typist at that time, and worked in the printing house of the Kopeyka newspaper.
In 1919, Pantyolkin voluntarily joined the Red Army and was sent as part of one of the units to the Narva Front, where he took part in battles with the troops of General Yudenich and units of the Estonian Army. Having extraordinary organizational skills and the makings of a leader, without special education rose to the position of commander of a machine gun platoon. At the end of the Civil War, he was demobilized and, among thousands of Red Army soldiers, was transferred to the reserve in 1921.
Working in the Petrograd Cheka, he participated in the suppression of peasant uprisings in the Poltava region in 1920-1922.
On July 11, 1921, L. I. Pantyolkin was hired as an investigator in the military control part of the road transport Extraordinary Commission of the United North-Western Railways. Soon after this, on October 15, 1921, he was appointed to the position of agent-controller in the department of the Road Transport Emergency Commission (DTCHK) in Pskov.
During his service in the Cheka, Pantyolkin stood for the radical positions of leftist party members and had a negative attitude towards the new economic policy, which was not welcomed then, given the change in government policy towards private enterprise.
According to the archival certificate of the OGPU of the USSR, in January 1922, L. I. Pantyolkin was dismissed from the Cheka “due to staff reduction.” According to the same certificate, the order number and the specific date of dismissal are missing from the personal file.
In 1925, in the magazine “The Trial is Coming,” Sergei Kondratyev, the head of the 1st brigade of the Leningrad criminal investigation department, which was engaged in the fight against banditry, wrote that Panteleev “during one of the searches took up robbery.” That's why they kicked me out of the Cheka. The time was difficult, harsh, and Pskov was actually a border city, so they fired me without specifying the real reason.
Lyonka Panteleev. Raider #1
Raider Lyonka Panteleev
In what period exactly Leonid Pantyolkin took the pseudonym “Lyonka Panteleev” is not known for certain.
At the beginning of 1922, Panteleev settled in Petrograd, where he gathered a gang that included: Leonid Bass, Panteleev’s colleague in the Pskov Cheka, Varshulevich, who was a battalion commissar during the Civil War, a member of the RCP (b) Gavrikov and professional criminals Alexander Reintop (nickname “Sashka” -pan") and Mikhail Lisenkov (nickname "Mishka-Clumsy"). Around the same time, the gang committed a number of robberies in the city of Petrograd and its environs.
The first serious action of Panteleev’s group was a raid on the apartment of the famous Petrograd furrier Bogachev. On March 4, 1922, at four o'clock in the afternoon, when the owners were not at home, three raiders with revolvers in their hands broke into the apartment and tied up the servants. Having broken into cabinets and drawers, the bandits took the valuables in the house and calmly exited through the back door. Exactly two weeks later, Panteleev’s gang robbed the apartment of Dr. Grilikhes, who was engaged in private practice. The handwriting of the raiders was the same - in broad daylight, under the guise of patients, they entered the apartment, robbed its owner and disappeared.
The first case of the Panteleev gang The magazine “The Court is Coming” from 1925 described it this way: “Lenka Panteleev and his gang began their “work” with an armed raid on the apartment of the wealthy Leningrad furrier Bogachev, house number 39 on Plekhanov (Kazanskaya) Street.
At approximately four o'clock in the afternoon on March 4, 1922, there was a knock on Bogachev's apartment. The servant, Bronislava Protas, came to the door and asked:
-Who's there?
She was answered with a question:
– Are Madame and Sima at home and where is Emilia?
Protas replied that Bogacheva was not at home, and Emilia was sick. Then she asked:
– Who is that there, isn’t Vanya?.. (Emilia’s acquaintance.)
Bronislava unlocked the door.
Two unknown men entered the apartment and immediately turned to Bogacheva’s daughter with an exclamation:
- Oh, Simochka!
At the same time, they pointed revolvers at three women and, driving them into the last room, tied them up.
One of the strangers, in a military overcoat, who led the raid, put a pistol to Protas’s head and demanded to see where valuables and expensive things were kept.
“If you don’t tell me, I’ll shoot you in the head like a chicken,” the bandit threatened.
But Protas replied that she did not know where the “master’s” values were. Then the robber in a military overcoat said:
“We’ll find everything we need without you.”
Having broken into the cabinets with a well-sharpened stiletto, the raiders took furs and valuables and, putting them in a basket taken from the kitchen, took it out of the main entrance.
The raider in the gray overcoat was Lenka Panteleev. This raid was his first.
On June 26, he raided Dr. Levin’s apartment at No. 29 on Bolshoy Prospect, Petrogradskaya Side. Dressed as a sailor, he asked the doctor for help, and when he accepted him, two more sailors, Lenka’s accomplices, entered the office.
On July 9, Lenka and his accomplices “took” Anikiev’s apartment at number 18 on Chernyshev Lane (now Lomonosov Street). This time they introduced themselves as security officers and even presented a search warrant. A few days later, Panteleev repeated the search procedure at the apartment of the owner of the Ishchens tavern in Tolmazov Lane (now Krylov Lane).
Panteleev's raids were distinguished by careful preparation, as well as some theatricality and bravado. Panteleev and his people used weapons extremely rarely.
In the spring of 1922, the whole of Petrograd started talking about Panteleev’s gang. The fact is that when carrying out raids, Lenka first shot in the air, and then he was sure to say his name. The catchphrase was the following: “Citizens! Calm down, this is a raid. I’m Lenka Panteeev, I ask you to hand over your money and valuables. In case of resistance, I shoot without warning!”.
This was a psychological move - the bandits created “authority” for themselves, and at the same time suppressed the will of their victims, their ability to resist.
On September 4, 1922, Panteleev was arrested after a shootout in a Kozhtrest shoe store, during which the head of the 3rd department of the Petrograd police, Pavel Barzai, who had been looking for Panteleev for six months, was killed.
In the Kresty prison, Panteleev was imprisoned in cell No. 196, Lisenkov in cell No. 195, Reintop in cell No. 191, and Gavrikov in cell No. 185. All these cells were located in the 4th gallery.
But on the night of November 10-11, 1922, using the help of the warden, this whole friendly company escaped. This, by the way, was the first successful escape from Kresty. Having jumped over the prison fence, the raiders dispersed: Panteleev and Gavrikov went to the Neva in the direction of the Nikolaevsky Bridge, and Lisenkov and Reintop headed towards the Champs of Mars.
Then Panteleev and several accomplices began a new series of armed robberies. This differed from the first episode in that Panteleev sometimes began to kill his victims. Not only the criminal investigation department, but also the GPU authorities were involved in eliminating the gang.
Liquidation of Lyonka Panteleev
On the night of February 13, 1923, Panteleev and his partner Lisenkov (Mishka-Koryavy) came to the apartment of the prostitute Mitskevich in the hope of a good rest. Security officer Ivan Busko shot Panteleev at point-blank range in the head. He fell dead to the floor, and Lisenkov tried to escape. He was wounded in the neck. Only Sashka-Pan (Reintop) remained at large. He was detained at a friend's place.
Ivan Busko - the security officer who shot Lyonka Panteleev
One of the operatives sat down at the table and began to write a protocol for examining the scene of the incident and an act of identification of the corpse: “February 1923, 13 days. We, the undersigned employees of the UR, arrived at house No. 38, apt. 21 on Mozhaiskaya Street, and examined the corpse of the murdered man at the scene of the incident. in an ambush, according to all available signs, it was established... The height of the deceased is approximately 176 cm, his hair is dyed, his neck is thick. On the left side, above the eye, there is a scar on the head of the corpse that covers the passage of the bullet. The outline of the face clearly proves the original photograph of the famous recidivist bandit Leonid. Panteleeva...In the pockets of the corpse were found: a Browning Spanish and a Mauser, a black new wallet containing 2,600 rubles, documents addressed to Ivanov: work book and an identity card, two yellow metal chains, a medal with the inscription "For zeal", a yellow metal bracelet, a ring with two white and one red stones, a ring with a lady's portrait, a yellow metal ring with a blue stone." Despite the announcement in the newspapers that that the famous Lyonka Panteleev was killed, the population did not immediately believe it. The fear of the famous raider was so great that the overwhelming majority of Petrograd residents were sure that Panteleev was alive and would show himself. To dispel rumors about Panteleev’s elusiveness, his corpse was put on display by order of the authorities. on public display in the city morgue, where thousands of people could see it.
The corpse was never identified by the deceased's relatives and friends. At the same time, raids and robberies continued in Petrograd on behalf of Lenka Panteleev.
Lenka Panteleev's height: 176 centimeters.
Personal life of Lenka Panteleev:
The raider was not officially married, but he considered a certain Lyubov Kruglova to be his common-law wife.
Lyonka Panteleev in mass culture:
The image of Lenka Panteleev is widespread in popular culture.
E. Polonskaya’s poem “In the Loop” (1923) is dedicated to Lenka Panteleev.
The story of Lev Sheinin and the 3rd episode of the multi-part television film are dedicated to Panteleev "Born of a Revolution". In both works, taking into account their artistic nature and ideological censorship, the image of Panteleev is very far from reality. Sheinin's story describes the bandit's romantic attachment to a robbed woman, while Lyonka is not killed during her arrest, but is sentenced by the court to death penalty, in the film “Born of the Revolution,” Panteleev is credited with a pre-revolutionary criminal past; his service in the Cheka is kept silent (unlike the book on which the film is based).
Lyonka Panteleev - still from the film "Born of the Revolution"
In 2006, the life and “exploits” of Lyonka Panteleev were reflected in a multi-part television film “The Life and Death of Lenka Panteleev”, in which the role of the raider was played by an actor.
Two documentaries were made about Panteleev’s case (from the cycles “The Red Stripe” and “The Investigation Conducted...”). The latter showed Panteleev’s head preserved in alcohol, preserved to this day in one of the laboratories at the Faculty of Law of St. Petersburg State University.
The story of M. Tokarev, based on documents, “Lyonka Panteleev - the thunderstorm of detectives,” is dedicated to the history of Panteleev.
Panteleev is one of the main characters in the fourth trilogy of Andrei Valentinov’s epic “The Eye of Power”. Valentinov himself adheres to the version of Panteleev’s activities as a special operation of the GPU.
In the criminal environment, Lyonka Panteleev still enjoys the reputation of an elusive, dashing raider. More than one song in the “Russian chanson” genre is dedicated to him. The most famous are performed by Vika Tsyganova (Words: V. Tsyganov, music: Yu. Pryalkin) from the album “Walk, Anarchy” (1991) and performed by Anatoly Canvas, from the album “Greetings from Lenka Panteleev” (1990), “Lyonka Panteleev" performed by the author Vladimir Kalusenko from the album "Tramp" (2014).
In Vika Tsyganova’s song, the erroneous opinion is expressed that Lyonka Panteleev acted in Moscow. Similarly, Anatoly Polotno’s song talks about Odessa.
Anatoly Canvas - Lenka Panteleev
The group “Bad Balance” recorded the song “Lyonka Panteleev” in the album Legends of Gangsters (2007).
In May 2012, the premiere of the play “Lyonka Panteleev. Musical" (16+). Directors: Maxim Didenko and Nikolai Dreyden. Playwright - Konstantin Fedorov. The performance is a laureate of the National Award “Musical Heart of the Theater - 2012” in the category “Best Performance”.
Elena Khaetskaya (writes under the pseudonym Elena Tolstaya) wrote the book “Lyonka Panteleev”.
Exactly 90 years ago, employees of the Petrograd GPU killed Leonid Pantyolkin, a famous bandit and raider, better known as Lenka Panteleev. Only for last month In his gangster life, he committed 10 murders, 20 street robberies and 15 armed raids. The number of poems, stories, novellas and even musicals dedicated to the bandit is difficult to count. It seems that there are no fewer of them than the crimes committed by Panteleev.
There are no less biographies of Pantyolkin-Panteleev. In some, he appears as a hero of his time, who mercilessly fought against the “bloodsucking NEP men” who appeared in the early 1920s. In others - as a cruel and cynical killer, for whom nothing was sacred. And here you can’t say that the truth is somewhere in the middle. A bandit is a bandit, no matter what mask he puts on.
But let’s try to integrate everything that has been written about Lenka and see what we get - a portrait of a “Robin Hood” of NEPman times or a bloody bandit. By the way, in what period exactly Leonid Pantyolkin took the pseudonym Lenka Panteleev is not known for certain.
So, Leonid Pantelkin (real name Panteleev) was born in 1902 in St. Petersburg into a working-class family. Not without success, he completed an elementary city school and vocational courses, where he received a prestigious specialty at that time as a printer-compositor. He even managed to work in the printing house of the Kopeika newspaper. A person who received such a specialty had to have an excellent command of grammar, read a lot, and love books. Lenka Panteleev (we will still call him that way, by his gangster name) was a very intellectually developed person, which is confirmed by dozens of publications.
In 1919, Pantyolkin, who had not yet reached conscription age, volunteered for the Red Army and went to the Narva Front. He fought well, but was captured, however, he quickly escaped from there and again joined the Red Army. The unit in which Pantyolkin-Panteleev served was transferred to the subordination of the Cheka and transferred to the Pskov region to fight banditry. This opened a direct path to the “authorities” for the future bandit.
In the summer of 1921, Leonid Pantyolkin was hired as an investigator in the Military Control Unit of the road transport Cheka of the North-Western Railways. The position, frankly speaking, is very high for young man, and gave a lot of power. But already in January 1922, Panteleev was dismissed from the ranks of the Cheka. According to some sources, the official wording is to reduce staff. In fact, no one knows for sure why he was kicked out of the KGB. Although there is a version that, having left the Cheka, he continued to carry out some tasks of the “authorities”, even receiving a salary from the Cheka.
True, based on the number of victims who died at the hands of Panteleev and his cronies, this version is hard to believe - even the Cheka could not afford such a “luxury” as keeping a bloody serial killer. By the way, for a long time, Soviet literature, for obvious reasons, kept silent about the fact that the bandit Lenka Panteleev was once a security officer. Only in recent years it still “surfaced”.
After Panteleev’s resignation from the Cheka, the young bandit carried out a whole series of high-profile raids, calculated, as they would say now, on public opinion. They say that a whole brigade of Petrograd residents he hired successfully spread “heroic” rumors about Panteleev as a “noble robber” who robbed only rich Nepmen. Which the starving Petrograd residents hated with every fiber of their soul, even despite the fact that the Nepmen at least somehow fed the city. This is PR - according to all the rules...
Both in the KGB archives and in fiction You can find evidence relating to those turbulent times about the robbery of furrier Bogachev, doctor Grilhes, merchant Anikeev, owner of the tavern Ishches, artel worker Manulevich. In all cases there were no casualties; the raids were carefully thought out and carried out on a tip. It must be said that Lenka Panteleev, judging by his biographies, was an experienced and gallant womanizer and enjoyed considerable success among maids and housekeepers, who in bed willingly talked about where the treasures of their owners were kept. Lenka sold the spoils, went on a spree with the proceeds, and willingly distributed the rest to everyone he missed. A typical noble robber, in short.
At some point, the Petrograd Soviet and the city Cheka realized: Lenka’s truly popular popularity (inflated by himself and his cronies) could seriously threaten the security of the “cradle of the revolution.” Lenka quickly became an object of imitation for other gangs, much more numerous than his own. Peter was literally overwhelmed by a storm of banditry. The GPU receives the right to shoot raiders and bandits at the scene of the crime. A real raid is being organized on Panteleev.
What follows is a legend, the truth of which the author of these lines does not vouch for, but which appears in almost all biographies, official and not, of Lenka Panteleev. Allegedly, in September 1922, he was completely accidentally and even somehow absurdly caught along with his closest accomplice, a certain Dmitry Gavrikov. Under heavy security, Panteleev and Gavrikov were taken to the Kresty detention center. A couple of days later, several more of Panteleev’s accomplices were captured.
The investigation was led by experienced security officer Sergei Kondratyev. In 1926, he published his memories of conversations with Panteleev in the magazine “On Post”. Lenka willingly answered all questions. He said that his gang carried out almost all the raids with the help of female gunners, who also happened to be his mistresses. At the last interrogation, Panteleev, already leaving for the cell, said to the investigator: “Well, be there, dear comrade! We won’t see you again...” What he meant became clear a little later.
On November 10, 1922, in the hall of the Petrograd Tribunal, the trial of previously captured members of Lenka Panteleev’s gang began. The hall was crowded. The defendants looked confident and even seemed to chuckle. Looking at Panteleev, the audience whispered that Lenka would probably run away. But it was impossible to escape from the courthouse!
But on the night of September 11, 1922, on the then official Police Day, something happened in St. Petersburg Crosses that happens here extremely rarely. Over the entire twentieth century, five prisoners managed to escape from the famous prison, and the first to escape was Lenka Panteleev.
The city once again shook in horror. Smolny, where the city leadership sat, was furious. At the same time, Panteleev’s popularity reaches an extraordinary level. The criminal rampant of other gangs began, inspired by his escape.
In February 1923, the GPU and police throughout the city organized countless raids, “rowing” everyone who was in any way connected with criminals. Finally, during one of the raids on Mozhaiskaya Street there was a shootout, where Lenka was safely (no matter how strange it may sound) killed by a young employee of the GPU strike group Ivan Busko. But what happened next? Completely intimidated by Panteleev’s name alone, Petrograd residents did not believe in the bandit’s death, and then the city authorities took an unprecedented step...
For the only time in the history of the city, the Petrograd Soviet took an extraordinary measure - in the morgue of the Obukhov hospital the corpse of Lenka Panteleev was put on public display. Thousands of Petrograd residents came to see the king of bandits! Then, during other raids, other gang members were caught. 17 raiders and accomplices of Panteleev, five of them women, were sentenced to death. It began to seem that the story of the legendary bandit was over. But that was not the case!
You could say it was just beginning. Panteleev became a popular literary character. Even then, in 1923, the popular poetess of those times Elizaveta Polonskaya wrote the poem “In the Loop”, where exactly Lenka Panteleev - main character, no more, no less. Then he never left the pages and screens.
Thus, the life and gangster “exploits” of Panteleev were reflected in the multi-part television film “The Life and Death of Lenka Panteleev.” The story is dedicated to Panteleev famous writer, former security officer Lev Sheinin, and one of the episodes of the multi-part television film “Born by the Revolution”. By the way, in this film Panteleev is credited with a pre-revolutionary criminal past; his service in the Cheka is kept silent (unlike the book on which the film is based). In the same film, a voice-over reports, with reference to the Petrogradskaya Pravda newspaper, that from November 1917 until his arrest, Panteleev committed 82 murders, 170 robberies and 192 robberies.
In 2004, Alexander Bondar’s story “Lenka Panteleev” was published, which is like a modern remake of Sheinin’s story. Two documentaries were made about the Panteleev case (from the cycles “The Red Stripe” and “The Investigation Conducted...”); in the latter the head of Panteleev preserved in alcohol was shown, preserved to this day in one of the laboratories at the Faculty of Law of St. Petersburg State University.
Life story
Calm down, I’m Lenka Panteleev!
Leonid Panteleev (real name Pantelkin, was changed by him for conspiracy purposes) was born in 1902 in the city of Tikhvin, now Leningrad region. He graduated from primary school and vocational courses, during which he received the prestigious profession of a printer and typesetter at that time, then worked in the printing house of the Kopeyka newspaper. In 1919, Panteleev, who had not yet reached conscription age, voluntarily joined the Red Army and was sent to the Narva Front. It is reliably known that he took direct part in the battles with Yudenich’s army and the White Estonians, and rose to the position of commander of a machine gun platoon.
In the spring of 1921, the five-million-strong Red Army, which had won the civil war, was sharply reduced. Thousands of demobilized Red Army soldiers scattered throughout the country, and each of them had to arrange his own destiny. It was not known exactly what Panteleev did after demobilization. And only very recently the rumors were confirmed - indeed, at that time he served in the Cheka! It took a lot of time to document this fact. Only recently was Panteleev’s personal file found in the FSB archives.
The text of the archival certificate is short, but informative: “Materials of the operating funds department ... - personal file No. 119135 on Leonid Ivanovich Pantelkin, born in 1902, native of the city of Tikhvin, former Novgorod province. As can be seen from the materials of this case, Pantelkin L.I. On July 11, 1921, he was hired as an investigator in the military control unit of the Road Transport Extraordinary Commission (VChK DTChK) of the united North-Western Railways. On October 15, 1921, he was transferred to the position of agent-controller in the DTChK department in the city of Pskov. January 1922, dismissed due to staff reduction. The order number and specific date of dismissal are not indicated."
In general, it is clear for what reasons these facts were not widely advertised. A security officer turned bandit is ideal ground for various speculations. Moreover, the reason for Panteleev’s dismissal from the Cheka is still unclear. There are many versions. The most common one is that he turned out to be dishonest, was caught red-handed, etc. Perhaps he did not have a good relationship with his superiors. Another option is not excluded - Panteleev stood on the radical positions of leftist party members and had a negative attitude towards the new economic policy, which was the reason for his dismissal.
One way or another, at the beginning of 1922 Panteleev found himself in Petrograd, put together a small gang and began robbing. The composition of the gang was quite varied. It included Panteleev’s colleague in the Pskov Cheka Varshulevich, Gavrikov, who was a battalion commissar and member of the RCP(b) during the Civil War, as well as professional criminals such as Alexander Reintop (nickname Sashka-Pan) and Mikhail Lisenkov (nickname Mishka-Clumsy).
The first serious action of Panteleev’s group was a raid on the apartment of the famous Petrograd furrier Bogachov. On March 4, 1922, at three o'clock in the afternoon, when the owners were not at home, three raiders with revolvers in their hands broke into the apartment and tied up the servants. Having broken into cabinets and drawers, the bandits took the valuables in the house and calmly exited through the back door. Exactly two weeks later, Panteleev’s gang robbed the apartment of Dr. Grilikhes, who was engaged in private practice. The handwriting of the raiders was the same - in broad daylight, under the guise of patients, they entered the apartment, robbed its owner and disappeared.
In the spring of 1922, the whole of Petrograd started talking about Panteleev’s gang. The fact is that when carrying out raids, Lenka first shot in the air, and then he always called his name. This was a psychological move - the bandits created authority for themselves, and at the same time suppressed the will of their victims, their ability to resist. Moreover, the raiders took only rich Nepmen to the “gop-stop”, without touching ordinary people. Moreover, Panteleev personally allocated small sums of money to some nice ragamuffins and street children, which earned him the reputation of “Petrograd Robin Hood.”
The police took the daring gang seriously. On June 12, on Zagorodny Prospekt, a criminal investigation officer identified Lenka by signs and tried to detain him. A shootout broke out, and police officers joined the chase. But Panteleev left through the passage yards, shooting one of the guards. The fact that the police were on the tail of the gang did not bother its leader at all. On June 26, Dr. Levin's apartment was robbed. This time the raiders were dressed in the uniform of Baltic sailors.
Then Panteleev bought a leather jacket and cap at a flea market and began to pretend to be an employee of the GPU. Using forged warrants, the gang searched and requisitioned valuables from Nepmen Anikeev and Ishchens. In August, bandits stopped a carriage on the Champs de Mars and robbed three of its passengers - they took money, watches, and gold rings. A few days later, the same robbery was committed at the Splendid Palace nightclub.
On September 1, the raiders decided to rob the Kozhtrest shoe store, located on the corner of Nevsky Prospect and Zhelyabova Street. But here an ambush was already waiting for them. The bandits offered fierce resistance during the arrest, opening fire from revolvers. The firefight soon escalated into hand-to-hand combat. They managed to subdue Panteleev only after he was stunned. During a shootout in the store, assistant to the 3rd police department Bardzai was killed.
Jailbreak
Under heavy security, the raiders were taken to the 1st correctional home - now the Kresty pre-trial detention center. The investigation moved quickly, and already in October the accused Leonid Panteleev, Nikolai Gavrikov, Mikhail Lisenkov and Alexander Reintop appeared in court.
Once in the dock, Panteleev behaved confidently and even brazenly. He used criminal words, swore, read Sergei Yesenin’s poems by heart, tried to sing obscene songs, and even managed to have a “platonic” affair with his lawyer’s fiancée, who regularly attended the trial. In general, he made the most favorable impression on the audience.
Lenka answered the prosecutor’s questions boldly and, in the end, said: “Citizens of the judge, why all this farce? I’ll run away soon anyway.” And indeed, on the night of November 10-11, Leonid Panteleev and three accomplices escaped from the strictly guarded Kresta prison.
Escaping from prison has always been difficult. And even more so from the Crosses.
The famous St. Petersburg prison was built in 1893, not far from the Finland Station. It got its name, at first unofficial, due to the fact that two buildings for holding prisoners were built in the form of crosshairs of equal length. The prison buildings were surrounded by a powerful six-meter fence surrounded by barbed wire. Towers with floodlights (a technical innovation at that time) and security were installed at the corners of the perimeter. The sentries on the towers were armed with Colt or Lewis light machine guns. All this reliably guaranteed against escapes.
Panteleev was kept in cell No. 196, located on the second floor of the investigation building. His accomplices are nearby. Lisenkov is in the neighboring 195th cell, Reintop is in the 191st, and a little further away Gavrikov is in the 185th cell.
The prison telegraph immediately started working. Panteleev managed to contact his colleagues in the criminal business. Reintop, who was a prison servant, also decided to escape. He managed to establish business relations"with the overseer of the fourth gallery, Ivan Kondratiev. He had long had contacts with the Petrograd underworld and agreed to help the gang escape.
Kondratyev pointed out to the arrested a weak spot on the outer wall. Just not far from the bathhouse adjacent to Komsomol Street, firewood was piled against the wall. Winter was approaching, and the prison was still heated in the old fashioned way - with stoves. The top of the wood piles almost reached the top level of the wall. But jumping to the other side from a height of many meters was dangerous. Therefore, Lisenkov, unnoticed by the guards, began to weave ropes from blankets and sheets, along which it was possible to descend from the high wall to the ground.
The escape was originally scheduled for November 7th. But on this day something didn’t work out. The next attempt was made on the night of November 10-11. Warden Kondratyev released Lisenkov, Reintop, Panteleev, Gavrikov from their cells and turned off the lights in the gallery. Moreover, he managed to de-energize the entire building.
A reasonable question arises: why, after the lights went out, did the guards not declare a general alarm? The answer is simple - in those days, city substations worked at the limit of technical wear and tear, and power outages in prison were common. The Krestov security did not react in any way to the latest “accident”.
In the darkness, four bandits and Kondratyev began to advance towards the main post. Here they unexpectedly came across the chief overseer of the 4th gallery, Vasiliev. He struck a match, recognized Kondratyev and said:
- Why are you wandering here in the dark, Ivan? Drunk or something, he almost knocked me off my feet. And what kind of gavriki is this with you?
Vasiliev didn’t have time to say anything more. Panteleev and Reintop attacked him and strangled him with a clothesline. For appearances, Kondratyev was stunned and tied with another rope. Lenka changed into the uniform overcoat of the murdered warden, put on his cap, put his revolver in his holster, and began to pose as a guard. The entire group managed to calmly get out of the building. They went out into the street through an emergency passage, along which the prisoners were taken to the bathhouse. On ordinary days there was no watch there. The keys to the doors were taken from Kondratyev. Then everything went like clockwork. The raiders ran across the narrow prison yard, climbed onto a stack of firewood, and cut the barbed wire with special scissors. Then they unwound the pre-prepared ropes, secured them, and descended into freedom. In the nearest alley, a reckless driver with a covered top was already waiting for the fugitives. The guards on the tower did not notice anything; it was raining heavily with snow, and the spotlight was shining in the other direction.
Fight in Donon
Panteleev decided to celebrate his successful escape at the fashionable Donon restaurant. In those days it was a hot spot, known throughout Petrograd. Raiders, robbers, all sorts of shady personalities, as well as wealthy businessmen, representatives of the new, Nepman elite, regularly gathered there.
On December 9, 1922 (four weeks after the escape!), Panteleev fell into Donon along with his right hand Gavrikov and another bandit - Varshulevich. On the occasion of the holiday, Lenka dressed up in a new officer's jacket and polished his boots until they shined.
At first everything went well. But Panteleev had too much cognac and got involved with some Nepman company. To prevent a fight, the head waiter called the police. Seeing guards in the restaurant hall, Panteleev pulled out a Mauser.
The famous television series "Born of the Revolution" claims that Panteleev was shot dead in the hall of the Donon restaurant. But this is the creative invention of the director and screenwriter. In fact, events unfolded differently. In the ensuing shootout, Varshulevich was killed. Panteleev and Gavrikov jumped out through the back door and ran in all directions. Gavrikov was detained on Nevsky Prospekt by a mounted police patrol. Soon he was shot.
Panteleev was luckier. Wounded in the arm, he escaped the fray. I ran along the Moika embankment to the Pavlovsk barracks, and then moved towards Liteiny Prospekt. Criminal investigation agents arrived at the scene with a service dog. She led the detectives to the Champ de Mars, where the trail of the repeat offender ended. The agents walked at random along Panteleimonovskaya Street, passed the church and... did not notice Panteleev lying there. The raider lay all night on the stone floor of the church, and in the morning he took refuge on one of his “raspberries”.
The fight in the restaurant caused a lot of noise. Rumors again spread around the city about Panteleev’s elusiveness and his extraordinary luck. After the shootout in Donon, Panteleev became twice as careful and circumspect.
He had a new plan. He decided to leave Petrograd and make his way to Estonia. It was planned to cross the border in the Pskov region - these places were well known to Lenka from his service in the Red Army. But the raider did not decide to leave the cordon empty-handed - he needed money and jewelry.
Panteleev quickly put together a new gang, which was particularly active for three months, leaving behind bloody trails. The raiders split into pairs and lived on different apartments, uniting only during robberies. Then everyone ran away and lay down on the bottom. Later, police officers calculated that Lenka had more than thirty reliable shelters in different areas of the city.
The new tactics bore fruit. The police lost sight of Panteleev. It is believed that over the past three months the gang has committed 10 murders, 15 raids, and 20 street robberies. But these are approximate figures; no one knows the exact statistics. The Panteleevites used their weapons without warning.
The bloodiest raid was on the apartment of engineer Romanchenko. Having burst into the hallway, the bandits used knives to finish off the owner and his wife, and shot the dog that rushed at them with a point-blank shot.
One day Panteleev felt he was being followed. The young sailor had been following him for two blocks, without turning anywhere. Lenka turned the corner, took out his Mauser, and when the “tail” appeared, he fired the entire clip into it. But I was mistaken - the sailor did not serve in the criminal investigation department, but was simply going home on leave.
A day later, Panteleev shot a real Ugro employee who followed him on the street. Panic gripped the city. When darkness fell, people were afraid to go out. Hardware workshops were inundated with orders for various ingenious locks and chains. Rumor began to attribute all the robberies, robberies and murders committed in the city to Panteleev.
The raiders several times entered into a firefight with mounted police patrols, Ugro agents, and guards and successfully escaped.
Bloody finale
To help the criminal investigation department eliminate the dangerous gang, the GPU got involved in the case. Several special strike groups were created, which included experienced security officers. They once again analyzed Panteleev’s connections. Twenty ambushes were set up in places where he might appear. One of Panteleev’s “raspberries” was located in house No. 38 on Mozhaiskaya Street. Late in the evening of February 12, two unknown people entered this apartment, opening the door with their key. In the ambush were four Red Army soldiers of the GPU special regiment and the senior group, young security officer Ivan Busko. Everyone was somewhat taken aback by surprise. The more experienced Panteleev was the first to come to his senses. He stepped forward sharply and said in a firm voice:
- What’s the matter, comrades, who are you waiting for here? At the same time, he tried to pull the pistol out of his pocket. However, the trigger caught on clothing and an involuntary shot rang out. Then the ambush opened fire. Panteleev, shot through the head, collapsed dead on the floor. Lisenkov, wounded in the neck, tried to escape, but was detained.
One of the Red Army soldiers ran to the nearest police station and called the task force by phone. She arrived very quickly. The GPU officers saw the following picture - there was a huge pool of blood in the corridor, and the entire floor in the apartment was stained with it. In the kitchen, right at the entrance, a corpse lay with its head towards the window. In the room, on a chair, swaying from side to side, sat a young guy, bandaged. He was guarded by two Red Army soldiers with rifles.
One of the operatives sat down at the table and began to write a report on the inspection of the scene and the act of identifying the corpse:
"1923 February 13 days.
We, the undersigned UR officers, arrived at house No. 38, apartment 21 on Mozhaiskaya Street, examined the corpse of the man killed in an ambush at the scene of the incident, and based on all available signs we established... The height of the deceased is approximately 176 cm, his hair is dyed, his neck is thick. On the left side, above the eye, there is a scar on the corpse’s head that covers the passage of the bullet. The outline of the face clearly proves the original photograph of the famous recidivist bandit Leonid Panteleev. ...In the pockets of the corpse were found: a Browning Spanish and a Mauser, a black new wallet containing 2,600 rubles, documents addressed to Ivanov: a work book and an identity card, two yellow metal chains, a medal with the inscription “For Diligence,” a yellow metal bracelet , a ring with two white and one red stones, a ring with a lady's portrait, a yellow metal ring with a blue stone."
In the morning, a small note appeared in the Petrograd newspapers: “On the night of February 12-13, the anti-banditry strike group at the provincial department of the GPU with the participation of the criminal investigation department, after a long search, caught the famous bandit, who has recently become famous for his brutal murders and raids, Leonid Pantelkin, nicknamed “Lenka Panteleev”. During his arrest, Lenka offered desperate armed resistance, during which he was KILLED.”
On March 6, 1923, by verdict of the GPU board, the remaining nine members of the gang were shot. But rumors persisted in Petrograd that Lenka was alive and would show himself. Several times during the raids, unknown bandits called themselves Panteleev, Lisenkov, or Gavrikov. And then the authorities took an extraordinary measure. Panteleev’s body was skillfully “restored” and put on public display in the morgue of the Obukhov hospital. Thousands of Petrograd residents came to see the legendary raider. Only after this did the rumor curve go down sharply.
And Lenka’s head, preserved in alcohol, was sent to the criminal investigation classroom of the criminal investigation department. Three years ago, this “exhibit” was accidentally discovered at the Faculty of Law of St. Petersburg State University.
Raider No. 1 Lenka Panteleev
In the early 20s of the 20th century, the name of the bandit Lenka Panteleev was known to everyone. Much water has passed under the bridge since then, but who the storm of St. Petersburg really was - a criminal or a security officer - still remains a mystery
Gangster Petersburg
Usually after every war there is a crime wave. This is understandable: there are too many weapons in the hands of the population, the habit of violence is too strong. However, after the revolution of 1917 and the civil war, the crime situation in Soviet Russia completely out of control. Robberies, murders, and robberies were common occurrences, almost commonplace. Especially in Petrograd, where at the beginning of 1922 the star of the raider Lenka Panteleev rose.
Fartovy is not in favor with the GPU
However, at first the name and surname of the criminal did not appear in the robbery case. Only the nickname was known - Fartovy. And who was hiding behind it, the local Pinkertons cared little. After all, showing high class consciousness, Fartovoy’s gang robbed only Nepmen and categorically did not touch socialist property. And the scope of the bandits’ violent activity did not exceed the general trend.
The situation changed after the intervention of the GPU.
One day, Fartovoy’s carefully planned “projects” gave the security officers the unexpected idea that one of the police officers was helping the criminals, and in order to dispel the doubts that had arisen, they decided to help their colleagues from the UGRO (criminal investigation department) in searching for the previously elusive Fartovoy.
UGRO is on the trail
Since the Cheka is not sleeping, things got more fun. Soon the first results appeared.
After interviewing the victims, Pavel Barzai (a third-generation detective who made a name in the criminal investigation department even before the revolution and for this was allowed by the new government to engage in operational activities) compiled a verbal portrait of Fartovoy.
In St. Petersburg, “Operation Interception” immediately began. The police seized and dragged into government houses all passers-by who more or less matched the description. Dens and raspberries were gutted with enviable regularity by sailors - the “mask shows” of that time.
By the way, ninety years ago, as now, in order to force “legal” criminals to help the authorities find “illegal” ones, security forces carried out massive checks, searches and raids, preventing criminals from working fruitfully and having a good rest
As a result, tired of the excessive attention of the security forces, the secret police brought a certain citizen to Barzai, who told the authorities that he had seen Fartovoy before and that the bandit seemed to be working then in... the transport Cheka.
Yes, security officer!
Soon the detective knew everything about Fartovoy.
Leonid Panteleev (real name Pantelkin) was born in 1902 in the city of Tikhvin, a printer-compositor by profession, served in the Red Army, graduated civil war as a machine gun platoon commander. Since July 1921 - employee of the transport Cheka. In January 1922, he was dismissed from staff reduction agencies.
Barzai also found out the composition of the gang. Quite varied, by the way. Among the professional criminals, it included another ex-chekist, a colleague of Panteleev, and even a former battalion commissar.
With friendly greetings
The UGRO information immediately appeared in the newspapers: “Fartovoy’s secret has been revealed,” screamed the headlines. But this was a clear exaggeration. Both the detectives and the criminal understood this, who now, as if in mockery, began to introduce himself to his victims. Moreover, Panteleev kept a business card elegantly printed on chalk cardboard with the inscription: “Leonid Panteleev is a free artist-robber” and on the back he invariably left his opponents several nice words, like: “Friendly greetings to the employees of the criminal investigation department. Leonid."
A la Robin Hood
Time passed, the number of Panteleev’s “exploits” grew, and the police and security officers were still trailing behind the events. Meanwhile, the matter was taking a political turn.
Newspapers and rumors in the spring of 1922 turned the “knight of the Ligovskaya panel”, “robber-gentleman”, “thunderstorm of NEP” into folk hero. And not in vain! Panteleev still attacked only the rich, did not touch ordinary people and even sent small transfers for charitable purposes to universities and other institutions requiring care. Notes: “Enclosing one hundred ducats, I ask you to distribute them among the most needy students. With respect for the sciences, Leonid Panteleev,” immediately became the subject of wide discussion. And somewhere even admiration!
Lenka was popular even among his colleagues. He was brave, daring and creative. It was at his instigation that the “gop-stop” method – an armed invasion of apartments – came into criminal use.
Keeping order
The greater the fame that surrounded Panteleev, the more furiously the GPU and UGRO searched for the bandit. Was created special brigade under the leadership of the best St. Petersburg investigator Sergei Kondratiev (uncovered 33 gangs). However, chance helped the detectives.
One day, a UGRO employee was driving to work and on the tram noticed two young men with very cheeky behavior. In one he identified Lenka Panteleev and tried to detain him. Lenka rushed to run, began to shoot back and killed the head of the State Bank security. He just went outside, saw the chase and tried to help...
After this, Panteleev became the blood enemy of all St. Petersburg cops. He found himself outside the law and knew for sure: if necessary, they would shoot at him to kill. Fortunately, shortly before that, a new decree of the Motherland was issued calling for tougher measures to combat crime.
Panteleev’s next meeting with the security forces took place three months after the incident on the tram. And again chance played a role. The raiders and the police clashed in a shoe store. A shootout ensued, during which Pavel Bardzai died, and Lenka Panteleev and his comrades went to jail.
State house
Panteleev willingly told investigators about himself.
From the age of eighteen he served in the Cheka, he conducted inquiries himself, he liked the work, but did not satisfy him financially. The resentment against the Nepmen weighed heavily. They enjoyed life. And he, the combat commander of the Red Army, was forced to count pennies.
Panteleev explained his collusion with the criminal element and assistance in organizing various shady affairs by chronic lack of money. However, Panteleev was not a “werewolf in uniform” for long. Quite quickly he was exposed, put in prison, and then for some reason, unlike usual, he was not shot, but released in peace, having previously been dismissed from the authorities.
But not for pig feed. Panteleev was not filled with gratitude for the mercy shown, but, on the contrary, harbored a new grudge. She pushed the former security officer first onto the criminal path, and then brought him alone to Kresty.
Escape
By the way, in the 20th century there were only five escapes from the famous St. Petersburg prison. The first one was organized by Lenka Panteleev.
Even at the trial, he said: “Citizens of judges, why all this farce? I’ll run away soon anyway.” And indeed, on a November night the raider left the walls of the Crosses. And not alone, but in the company of accomplices.
The overseer who helped organize this unprecedented “event” was promised a huge sum. However, the gang “for some reason forgot” to pay off their accomplice.
Luck of Fartovoy
But the rumor remembered everything and kept records of everything.
After the escape, and especially after the incident in the Donon restaurant, Lenka Panteleev was already considered not just Fartov, but a real darling of fate.
That evening Panteleev walked in one of the best establishments in the city, the chic Donon. The table was laden with drinks and food. Money flowed like a river. But what's a holiday without a fight? In search of thrills, the bandits started a showdown with one of the visitors. And when a police squad called by the administration entered the hall, they opened fire...
Next - a classic of the genre...
Bullets and ladies screamed, the orchestra and obscenities thundered with chords, drowning out the roar of shots, the clink of broken dishes and the groans of the wounded.
Lenka's hand was grazed - a trifle... The main thing is that he remained alive and literally miraculously escaped pursuit. As it turned out later, the criminal investigation agents walked two steps away from the place where the criminal was hiding, but did not notice Panteleev lying on the ground.
Hunted Beast
After Lenka Panteleev escaped, he stopped playing at being noble. He stupidly and mercilessly robbed and killed everyone who came to hand.
The matter was coming to a fatal conclusion. It was obvious. It was possible to escape by going beyond the cordon to Estonia. But this required money, a lot of money, and Lenka and the new gang (the old one mostly died in Donon) persistently collected “tribute” from the working people and merchants.
For three months Panteleev committed atrocities and committed outrages. In just one month: ten murders, fifteen raids, twenty street robberies. For three months Petrograd lived in panic. Wealthy people ordered ingenious locks and door chains. The poor were shaking for their lives. Lenka killed everyone in whom he saw prey, enemies, policemen, informers. And hunted, chronically drunk, under the influence of drugs, he saw a threat everywhere.
At the bottom
Meanwhile, the GPU and the UGRO were zealously digging the ground. The duel with the criminal, which the city watched with constant interest (people believed that all crimes in St. Petersburg were the work of the Panteleev gang), could and should have ended only in the victory of the young Soviet police.
In the meantime, we had to endure one defeat after another.
The gang split into small groups, “went to the bottom” and gathered only to carry out the next raid. Panteleev hid the loot somewhere, so it was impossible to reach him through buyers of stolen goods. The raider’s girlfriends were also silent, not betraying their friend.
It got to the point that Panteleev visited his main “opponent” Kondratiev, but not finding him at home, drank tea with his wife and... left. Showing “who’s boss”!
Fenita la comedy
February blizzards swirled over Petrograd...
And in places where Lenka Panteleev might appear, there were ambushes for days. Twenty grand!
Lenka ran into one of these ambushes on February 13, 1923.
He opened the apartment with his key, saw men in military uniform, was not taken aback, and said in a firm voice: “What’s the matter, comrades, who are you waiting for here?”
However, self-control did not help. The bandit didn’t even have time to get his weapon before he collapsed with a bullet through his head.
Soon the remaining members of the gang were detained and executed by court order: seventeen raiders and accomplices, five of them women.
Life after death
The official version of the destruction of Fartovoy’s gang did not calm the city. There were persistent rumors that Lenka managed to escape this time too, that he was alive and would have his say. Of course, there were enough people who wanted to cling to someone else’s loud fame. Here and there, while carrying out raids, the bandits called themselves either Lenka Panteleev or the names of his comrades.
To put an end to this story, the authorities took extreme measures and put Panteleev’s body on public display. A crowd of thousands lined up at the morgue where the “show” took place. It seemed that the whole city had gathered to look at the famous bandit.
But time passed, the excitement subsided, and the multimillion-dollar northern ex-capital forgot its hero-villain.
Question and answer time
But researchers still remember those ancient events and are still surprised by their absurdities.
Firstly, it is not at all clear why the young investigator Panteleev, who was arrested for abuses, was not shot, but ended up free?
Secondly, it is not clear why, when carrying out raids, Panteleev introduced himself using his own name, helping the investigation and exposing his relatives to attack?
Thirdly, why does a bandit need class tricks? Why did Lenka so stubbornly rob only the Nepmen and not attack government offices?
Fourthly, how did he escape from the impregnable Crosses?
One version provides answers to these and other questions.
Lenka Panteleev could be a “mole” embedded in the criminal world of St. Petersburg. However, one can only guess about the purpose of his mission. For example, Panteleev could rob the general trading community for the sake of replenishing the state treasury or for the sake of intimidating/demoralizing the growing Nepman stratum. You should not miss such moments: Lenka’s fame could lead him to the top of the criminal diocese.
Guessing game
However, with the same success, Panteleev’s fame helped his opponent, the young Soviet police, to establish themselves.
Judge for yourself: a gang begins to “work” in the city, and it is by no means the most numerous and bloodthirsty. However close attention The GPU and the press were focused on her, although there were probably plenty of other gangs in northern Palmyra.
The next moment: the very first (accidental!) meeting of a law enforcement officer with Lenka ended in an accidental (!) murder. Moreover, the head of the State Bank security. Then, naturally, again, by coincidence, after the first “wet” case of Panteleev, an order appeared allowing the security forces to tighten the methods used and shoot the raiders and bandits right at the scene of the crime without trial or investigation.
Further - in the same spirit...
Panteleev’s accomplices noted: he never had great values. Meanwhile, they had to take place.
However, even here some people have certain doubts. At the trial, state prosecutor Kristin said that Panteleev was unlucky, he was deceived, he had to pay bribes for his release... in general, the famous raider was naive, like a high school student, and practically poor.
It is also surprising that Panteleev’s relatives and friends never identified the corpse. The absence of an order number and a specific date of dismissal from the Cheka in Panteleev’s documents is confusing. After all, despite the rebellious times, the office conducted its affairs very carefully.
And in general, somehow for too long two such serious organizations as the GPU and the UGRO fought with a twenty-year-old boy, an amateur bandit Lenka Panteleev. But then, having received the go-ahead to shoot the bandits, they very quickly restored order in St. Petersburg and the country...
Based on materials from Wikipedia (www.ru.wikipedia.org), “People” (www.peoples.ru)