Far Eastern "Millionka", or how the NKVD fought the Chinese mafia in Vladivostok in the 1930s

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Until the mid-1930s, one of Vladivostok's quarters, Millionka, was perhaps the main problem of the authorities. First, the Russian Empire, and then Soviet Russia. This was the case until 1936, when the NKVD Chekists liquidated this criminal "cancer in the body" of the eastern city. In this article, we will tell about the birth, flourishing and complete collapse of the criminal quarter of Vladivostok itself.

Criminal neighborhoods

Almost every city in the world has its own neighborhoods, districts or neighborhoods that are considered secret criminal centers. As for the Russian Empire, one cannot but recall the Bogatyanovsky descent in Rostov, the "Grachevka" in Moscow, the "Pit" in Kiev or the Odessa "village of Kotovsky". It was better for ordinary people not to appear in all these "ghettos". Not only at night, but even sometimes during the day.

There was also a criminal region in Vladivostok. Now on the site of this "Chinatown" is a historical art space. However, even less than a century ago, this area was considered a real headache for law enforcement officers and officials. The name of this "criminal ghetto" of Vladivostok, which was simply teeming with all sorts of flophouses, brothels, gambling houses and opium smoking houses - "Millionka".

The history of the formation of "Milliona"

The territories of Ussuriysk and the Amur region became part of the Russian Empire in 1858-1860. after the signing of the Beijing and Aigun Peace Treaties. It was during these years that an army post was organized in the Golden Horn Bay, which, having rapidly expanded, soon received the status of a city. With the beginning of the era of industrialization of the Russian Empire and the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway, Vladivostok became its final destination. Large-scale construction projects attracted more and more labor migrants. And not only from the regions of the Russian Empire.

In those days, in almost all large cities of the Far East, there were Chinatowns, which were popularly called "millionaires". They got this name because of the large number of Chinese migrants who inhabited them, who, according to the local feelings, were too many. For the municipal authorities, the presence of such "Chinatowns" at first was very useful - it was in them that the cheapest labor force was concentrated.

Romance and flavor of Milliona Vladivostok

Since its inception, Chinatown in Vladivostok has become a kind of "Mecca" for visiting people of all kinds of creative professions: artists, poets and writers. "Milliona" clearly contrasted with the boring backdrop of an industrial city. Colorful signs and decorations on the narrow streets of the Chinatown made it a kind of romantic palette on the “gray canvas” of Vladivostok. The "Milliona" became especially popular during the celebrations of the Chinese New Year.

Bright colorful processions with dragons, hundreds of glowing paper lanterns in the sky, fireworks and fireworks attracted not only crowds of people from workers' quarters and outskirts of Vladivostok, but also tourists from other regions of the Russian Empire. However, "Millionka" was popular not only on holidays, but also on weekdays.

Enterprising Chinese knew how to brighten up the gray and boring everyday life of both the local population of Vladivostok and numerous visitors. With the onset of the evening, "Millionka" was transformed - in the very depths of the quarter, all kinds of drinking establishments, gambling houses and brothels opened their doors to visitors.

For those who wanted to relax and “forget”, the quarter had special offers - opium censers. Most of these drug dens were focused exclusively on the "outbound" contingent of visitors.

Crime paradise

The sale of alcohol, drugs and prostitution brought fabulous money to the elders of the Chinese communities in Vladivostok. Naturally, in order to maintain the functioning of their "empire", the Chinese leaders had to pay bribes to local officials, police officers and gendarmes. Corruption and organized crime began to flourish in the city. All this in the local newspapers was called by the journalists an unaccustomed to that time, but already fearful ominous word - "triad".

In the vast territories of Russian Primorye, Chinese and Korean migrants set up hectare poppy plantations. From which a potent drug containing morphine, opium, was subsequently produced and sold in large Far Eastern cities. The drug addicts were out of reach for the police and gendarmes. The Delki hid in the hard-to-reach areas of the surrounding taiga.

To ensure the safe operation of their business, local "drug lords" gave part of the poppy harvest, and sometimes the finished opium, to the leaders of the Chinese mafia. Most of which were directly related to the "Chinatown" of Vladivostok. They, in turn, provided protection to planters from law enforcement and authorities.

The system was so fine-tuned that "Millionka" quite calmly adjusted to the political changes in the country - it safely survived the revolution, the Civil War, the Far Eastern Republic, as well as the first years of the Soviets' rule in the Far East. However, it was the Soviet government that managed to deal with the triad in Vladivostok, turning "Millionka" from a criminal quarter into a story or legend, shrouded in gangster romance to this day.

The beginning of the end of Millionka in Vladivostok

By 1922, among the entire population of Vladivostok, almost a third (about 30 thousand) were Chinese. In the first years of its existence, the Soviet government tried in every possible way to win the sympathy of the proletarians from the Celestial Empire. Schools for workers' children, various circles and sections were organized in the city. However, the Chinese stubbornly continued to live according to their traditions and were in no hurry to become not only "conscious", but even "sympathetic" to the proletarian regime.

In the mid-1920s, militia units tried to fight organized crime in Vladivostok by inflicting “pinpoint strikes”. But all this struggle was brought to naught by a scheme with dummies. It worked like this: the actual owner of the brothel contained one or several dummy "owners" with whom the representatives of law enforcement agencies dealt.

In the event of a raid or raid, these "fake owners" ended up behind bars, receiving a substantial fee from the real "boss". As a result, the brothel continued to work and generate income for the leaders of the triad. A similar scheme was described by I. Ilf and E. Petrov in their "Golden Calf", where such a "professional" dummy head of the firm "Horns and Hooves" was the chairman of Pound. Such schemes almost completely nullified the efforts of law enforcement officers in the fight against the Chinese mafia in Vladivostok.

The destruction of Milliona by the Chekists in Vladivostok

In 1932, after the Japanese occupied Manchuria, diplomatic relations between the USSR and the Japanese Empire heated up significantly. Chinatowns in the cities of the Far East began to be regarded by the Soviet authorities as potential centers of activity for Japanese agents. Which supposedly could easily enter the "Chinatowns" under the guise of Chinese refugees. In Vladivostok, the special services are beginning to organize operations to cleanse "Milliona" from "unreliable elements", to which the members of the "triad" naturally belonged.

Throughout 1936, the NKVD worked hard in the "Chinatown" of Vladivostok: Chekist raids, raids and searches are being carried out. Sometimes forceful methods became truly repressive - about a thousand people were shot either in dungeons or right during their detention. In addition to this "forced terror", the national security organs initiated a massive deportation of the Chinese population from Vladivostok.

In 1936, over 5 thousand people fled or were expelled to the Celestial Empire. And by the end of 1938, another 12 thousand Chinese were forcibly deported to their homeland, or to the steppe regions of Kazakhstan specially prepared for this purpose. Thus ended the history of one of the most influential and sinister criminal quarters of the Russian Empire and the young Land of the Soviets - "Milliona" of Vladivostok.