Such a terrible movie

As a gang under the leadership of Major Gai robbed a Gorky film studio

In 1985, a wave of armed attacks with murders swept through Moscow and the Moscow Region. As the police established, a gang armed with revolvers acted. Their most loud attack was the robbery of the Gorky film studio. As it turned out a little later, the gang, on the account of at least ten murders, was headed by Major Gai.

Dangerous training and first attacks

It all began as a neighboring part of a landscape. Armed security officer (VOKhR) Vyacheslav Evstratov and Major GAI Viktor Savchenko lived in the same house. Often crossed at the nearest beer stall, talked for life. From these conversations it turned out that both of them are largely similar to both of them. In 1981, Evstratov, who worked at that time at the Lenin Komsomol Automobile Plant (AZLK, or Moskvich), suggested that Savchenko participate in the theft and subsequent sale of automobile spare parts. Despite the fact that the plant produced only Moskvichi, components at the plant were also produced for the Gorky Automobile Plant (produced Volga cars). Savchenko agreed.

The business turned out to be profitable, but did not allow you to quickly enrich yourself. And then someone from the leadership of the plant noticed that part of the goods was leaving "to the left" and started a guard check. Evstratov considered the best to quit AZLK and go to work in the Gorky Film Studio. He did this in early 1985. By that time, the accomplices decided to move on to more serious matters. For example, to rob the collectors. Taking advantage of his connections in the police environment, Savchenko got two revolvers of the Nagan system, one of whom gave to Eustratov. Gaishnik Savchenko doubted that the Vokhrovets will be able to calmly shoot at a person when it would come to this, and recommended Eustratov to train.

Evstratov decided to practice peculiarly. He left the train to the suburbs, went out onto the road and voted. In those days, people often stopped to help the voter. If the driver was alone, Evstratov shot him, took the money (usually it was 10-30 rubles), threw the car on the sidelines and was hiding. At least three drivers survived. But they could not give a clear description of the passenger.

After the third similar case, the police strengthened the patrol in the suburbs of Moscow. Then Evstratov changed tactics. He began to come to the Sviblovo area, called a taxi from there, called some address in the nearest suburb. As soon as the car was outside of Moscow, Evstratov asked to stop, after which he shot the taxi driver and took the revenue.

After the arrest, it turned out that Evstratov also trained at his own mistress, the saleswoman of one of the stores in Sviblovo Elena. He took her into the forest, put her to a tree, moved away a few meters and shot , trying to get as close to his head as possible. Finally, when Savchenko decided that Evstratov had matured for the “real case”, the neighbors began to plan an attack. The first victim was the collector, collecting revenue from small stores in the south-west of Moscow. In those days, the collectors did not move on special vehicles, but by public transport. He was followed for some time, and on February 21, 1985, Evstratov, dressed as a policeman (Savchenko got his uniform), met a collector at the store on Zarayskaya Street. The approach of the “policeman” did not arouse suspicion of the victim:

The bandit took advantage of this, fired at the collector twice, grabbed a bag from his hands and rushed to run. There were about 15 thousand rubles in the bag, a huge amount at that time, but the accomplices wanted more.

At the suggestion of Evstratov, the next object was chosen by the military unit in Shcherbinka, where the Vokhrovets once served. He knew that for certain numbers at least a million rubles were brought to the unit: the salary of officers, civilian, super-natives and payment of conscripts (in Soviet times, soldiers-rings received 25-30 rubles a month). He also knew what was accompanied by an accountant’s officer with a gun. The driver-river, although there was a machine gun, but they did not give out cartridges to it. The plan was extremely simple: to ram the car of a military unit by a truck, shoot the survivors and pick up the money.

Vigilant inspector and "scapegoat"

Savchenko lurked at the fork, where cars moved from the highway to Shcherbinka. Evstratov was supposed to get a truck and drive there on it. The Vokhrovets “got” the truck with the inscription “Goskino” in the already tested way: he voted on the road, and the driver stopped. Evstratov got into the cabin and shot the driver to his side, dragged him out of the car, threw it into a ditch and left.

However, Evstratov had no experience of managing heavy transport. On the road, he felt uncertainly, and the traffic police inspector, who served urgent in Afghanistan, drew attention to this. The truck stopped at the wand wand, the driver got out of the car and headed for the inspector. A policeman was saved by a flair developed in Afghanistan and an excellent reaction.

Evstratov shot him from a distance of three to four meters, but the traffic cop managed to bend, fell on the asphalt and rolled under the patrol machine. Then he took out a gun and fired in the air. Evstratov did not dare to join the Duel, jumped into the truck and left . The interception plan, announced immediately after a report on an attack on an employee of the traffic police, did not give anything. The truck was discovered near the attack site. You could not find fingerprints. But a wounded truck driver was found. He was able to describe the attacker, the description was supplemented by the traffic police officer, who also noticed that he had shot the Nagan system who had attacking the revolver. The truck driver could not be saved: he died in the hospital. And to find a person in Moscow by a photobot is a too difficult task. But Petrovka employees, 38 (Moscow Criminal Investigation, Moore), was given the task of raising all the crimes in which the Nagan revolver could appear.

Then it turned out that back in early 1985, five revolvers and several packs of cartridges for them were stolen from a safe at the Gorky film studio. The perpetrators failed to find, but the country's main "movie" was noted.

And then in Domodedovo, someone Ivan Sushkov was detained, very similar to the photobot and who did not have an alibi on the day of the murder of a truck driver and an attack on the traffic police inspector.

“In 1985, I graduated from the police school and was aimed at the internship just at the Grandmother's RUVD, on the territory of which the Domodedovo district is located,” the police colonel Igor S. was presented as a huge success. Moreover, Sushkov almost immediately admitted in attacks. Only on the sidelines of the Internal Affairs Directorate was there a firm opinion that recognition from Sushkov was simply knocked out. Even the opera from Petrovka drew attention to the fact that there was not even indirect evidence against Sushkov, a revolver was not discovered, he was confused in the testimony of “street” (the interrogation of the suspect directly at the scene of the crime), I did not know how much money the collector killed on Zarayskaya. In general, there were a lot of inconsistencies. But from the Moscow headquarters the instructions came to close the case, and Sushkov began to be prepared for court. If Eustratov and Savchenko were suffered at least a couple of months, the case of attacks on the collectors would be closed and they would be stopped looking for them. But they did not want to wait.

The next object of the attack was employees from the collective farm of the Ilyich Path near Moscow. In June 1985, they returned home at UAZ, taking 26 thousand rubles with them - a loan issued to the collective farm with a Sberbank.

“Then the bandits acted clearly on the tip, but it was not possible to establish exactly who informed them of the collective farmers,” recalls Colonel Igor S. - the car was stopped on a country road. Most likely, one of the bandits was dressed in the shape of an traffic police officer, because the collective farmers stopped. There were five of them in the car: an accountant, driver, chief engineer and two accountant accompanying. All five were killed. But this time, according to the traces left, it was possible to establish that there were three attackers. The sleeves could not be detected, the bullets were very deformed. The examination established that the Nagans were used again. The leadership of the Moscow police found himself in a delicate situation: it became clear that Sushkov had nothing to do with it. But in the hands there was a “queen of evidence” - recognition, and therefore continued to be detained.

The last thing is the gang

The third member of the gang was the subordinate Evstratov Vladimir Kastemirov. He also worked in the VOKhR film studio and was closely friends with Evstratov. Kastemirov was instructed to get the key to the safe, which stored money for salaries to the staff of the film studio. The key was constantly carrying the cashier of the film studio Valentina Teenkov.

“She was a sweet, good-natured woman, such a single mother who was friends with everyone and which everyone loved,” said Boris Grachevsky in 2008, the artistic director of the Journal of Yeralash magazine. - Having learned about her death, all the staff of the film studio were in shock. Why killed an innocent woman? "

In court, the defendants claimed that they did not want to kill Teenkov, but simply planned to steal the keys and make casts. But when this did not work, Castemirov, dressed in the form of a police officer, came to her home. He introduced himself as a district police officer (a neighbor heard this), and Valentina let him into the apartment. As soon as the woman turned her back to him, Castemirov fired twice in the head, took the key and left the apartment.

The body of the murdered was discovered by the son of Valentina, a graduate of PTU. He called the police and ... became the main suspect. The guy got confused in the testimony, could not say where he was the night before, and generally behaved suspiciously. But quite quickly it turned out that he simply did not want to substitute his father of his fellow practitioner on the vocational school. It turned out that on the eve of the guys received their first salary, which they decided to wash in a friend’s apartment. In those days, due to the involvement of minors in drunkenness, their father could have serious problems. Here Tendkov tried to shield him.

“As it turned out later, Evstratov was preparing quite carefully for this robbery,” says Colonel Igor S. “He brought a couple of bottles of vodka to the studio in advance, drove the security officers and himself sent them home.” Then he turned off the alarm and surveillance cameras, let in Castemirov, together they opened the safe.

How many accurately they stole from the safe, and remained a mystery: one version - 50 thousand rubles, on the other - 30 thousand. Then the case was classified, and few knew the details.

The bandits even simulated the hacking of the door to the room where the safe was to confuse the investigation. But already at the departure, Evstratov met one of the employees who detained at the studio. Castemirov hid in the toilet with money, and Eustratov scolded the employee for violation of the regime and took the pass. And, apparently, it was this meeting that forced Evstratov the next day to take Rids and urgently go to the mother of his mistress in Tambov. This, of course, aroused suspicions.

When the examination concluded that the Teenkova apartment was shot from the nagan, the puzzle developed. Moore operatives compared the abduction of the Nagans from the safe of the studio, which occurred almost immediately after Evstratov settled down at the film studio senior guard outfit, his hasty departure and being in the studio on his own weekend (the day before at night).

The police went for Evstratov to the house of his mistress Elena's mother. However, in order not to frighten off, police officers said that they were collecting reports in the case of the theft of the props. And Eustratov who believed them voluntarily went to Petrovka.

During the first interrogation, it was not about the theft of the props, but about attacks on collectors and the murder of Telenkova. Evstratov “split” quite quickly and told the employees about all the crimes, having handed over all the accomplices. Even aunt Major Savchenko, at home in which the bandits hid used trunks.

To initiate the case under Article 77 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR Banditism, the operatives from Petrovka had to take special permission from the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the USSR. The investigation and the court took place in an accelerated and secret regime, so it is still not known exactly how many a person killed the bandits. Savchenko, Evstratov and Kastemirov were sentenced to the highest degree of punishment. Elena Evstratova’s mistress was recognized as an accomplice, but deserving condescension, and therefore received only six years in prison. The verdict was carried out in the shortest possible time. And Ivan Sushkov was quietly freed, without even apologizing.