Black caviar instead of sprat: How the largest corruption scheme collapsed in the USSR due to a minor oversight

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

Almost everyone has heard a couple of incredible stories from their friends that, they say, he bought a sprat for 30 kopecks, and inside there “red caviar, black caviar …”. One can be skeptical about these stories, but the fact remains: the investigation of the largest and most audacious corruption case in the Union began with a jar of ordinary sprat. It is not known how long the criminal scheme would have worked if, by a stupid accident, the sprat "stuffed" with black caviar had not hit store shelves.

Okean stores were the most "fishy place" in the USSR. No wonder that the war veteran, wishing to diversify his table with sprat, went there. What was his surprise when at home in canned food he found not the cheapest fish, but … black caviar. That's the catch, that's the catch!

Let us remind you that it happened in the Soviet Union, and the hero of the events is a war veteran. He did not go to buy the entire batch of the rest of the sprat, but went to the store to find out the reason for this deception. And it was this man's adherence to principles that helped to cover not just a gang of corrupt officials, but to reveal the entire chain of crimes. He took the jar of black caviar with him. The store management apologized and tried to do everything to hush up the incident. They did not want anyone to find out that black caviar was found in the sprat. And most importantly, the regulatory authorities are not interested in how she got there.

But the rumor spread pretty quickly. Not everyone was as noble as a veteran and the country was seized by the "sprat fever". Canned fish were bought from the counters in huge quantities. A kind of lottery with canned food was going on so noisily that it attracted the interest of law enforcement agencies.

Unwinding the ball, the KGB officers came out on two large figures. Feldman, the general director of the Ocean company, and the Fishman director, who headed one of the stores of this chain. The last name of the latter is a pure coincidence, but a very telling coincidence. These two comrades often traveled to Europe, ostensibly on a business trip. However, in reality, they took out money, exchanged it for currency and made deposits in banks.

Here the Soviet intelligence worked, which reported that two Soviet comrades were making fun of money in Czechoslovakia. Interested in buying jewelry. A check began on both of them, at first a secret one. Intelligence found out that both of them are planning to migrate to Israel and are preparing for this, collecting cash and jewelry abroad. Of course, the directors had good salaries, but the sums were so cosmic that there was no question of their honest origin.

Fish instead of meat

By the mid-1970s, it became obvious that Soviet livestock raising was not keeping pace with the growing appetites of Soviet citizens. In addition, the well-being of the population made it possible to buy much more meat than before. The Soviet leadership, instead of increasing the capacity of animal husbandry, although work in this direction was also carried out, decides to change the preferences of the people.

It was rightly decided that it was easier to increase fish production than to raise beef cattle. In addition, fish is clearly superior in nutritional properties and vitamin content to meat products. Fish days at public catering establishments were introduced by Mikoyan back in the 30s. This initiative has been renewed. Again, on Thursdays, they began to cook exclusively fish in all canteens of the country. It cannot be said that Soviet citizens were in any way opposed to such an innovation.

The fish industry at that time was headed by Alexander Ishkov, he had a lot of experience, he convinced the country's leadership that there would be no shortage of seafood. Considering that the Soviet fishing industry was developing rapidly and exceeding all its plans, they readily believed him. Moreover, the powers of Ishkov's department have been significantly expanded. Now he could not only get seafood, but also deal with their sale.

Ishkov, we should give him his due, strove to improve matters in his own household. So, from a business trip to Spain, he returned full of ideas. He was especially impressed by European specialized fish shops with a huge range. The newest equipment, in which the products looked even more attractive and courteous sellers, sunk into Ishkov's soul so much that he decided to organize something similar in his homeland.

Brezhnev supported the minister's initiative, besides, he himself was eager to go on a par with developed European countries. The newest equipment was purchased, premises were equipped, personnel were trained. The production of seafood, which was planned to be sold in the network of new stores, only grew. Five Ocean stores were opened one after another in Moscow. Residents of the capital appreciated this innovation and gladly made purchases in the new chain.

However, in the "Ocean", which is a Soviet model of the European level of trade, it has become almost a place for excursions. Soon, similar stores appeared in other cities.

This fishing campaign of the Soviet state was a success. Citizens actually began to willingly eat fish. In addition, it cost much less than meat, and its nutritional and nutritional properties are no worse. The chain of stores with the large-scale name "Ocean" beat all records in terms of indicators, Ishkov was being prepared for the next award. It is not surprising, because everyone won: the citizens received high-class products for little money, the state received profits, and even solved the problems with meat shortages.

Soyuzrybpromsbyt was created - an organization that was under the department of fisheries and was engaged in the sale of seafood. The new organization was headed by Yuri Rogov. This direction was supervised by Vladimir Rytov, who at that time held the post of deputy minister.

When too good is too bad

Ishkov, taking advantage of the fact that his brainchild is enjoying incredible success, knocked out all the new "buns". Has the right - considered in the government and again allowed the fisheries one or another indulgence. So, Ishkov was in advance so that 0, 1% of the catch could be written off as substandard. It could be a small fish, unmarketable, deformed. Employees even managed to do business at this negligible percentage by selling what was written off as "substandard". In addition, go there and figure out what exactly was written off.

At the next stage, directly in the store itself, it was also possible to write off 10% of the freeze as ice or fish damaged during transportation. Allegedly, there could not be any second-class fish on the shelves of "Ocean". Employees immediately got their bearings and wrote off the elite varieties, which were resold to restaurants or from under the counter. In the manufacture of semi-finished fish products, it was also possible to boil by sending part of the seafood for sale on an illegal grid.

No one would have ever seen a corruption component in a working scheme, if not for the aforementioned situation with black caviar in a sprat can. After all, everything was fine with everyone, and there was no shortage of raw materials. In addition, from the outside, everything seemed more than decent. But the corruption component, which was at all levels of the fish farm's work, too quickly corrupted its workers so that their appetites only grew.

Double-entry bookkeeping and continuous mutual guarantee, in this scheme everyone knew what and how to turn in order to get rich and not get caught. The corruption scheme, however, became larger and larger, and the volume of theft was growing.

It was Fishman who went the farthest, organizing the export of black caviar abroad, under the guise of an ordinary sprat. Considering that the difference in the price of the products, one can only guess what kind of “fat” Fishman received. He understood perfectly well that staying in the shadows for a long time with such an income would not work. That is why he planned to move to Israel, but greed did not allow him to do it too quickly. Apparently I wanted to steal the maximum of the possible.

Under the personal control of Andropov

There was enough evidence to press Fishman and Feldman to the nail, and they themselves did not deny it. They tried to actively help the investigation, believing that for this they would be punished. The case was overgrown with more and more new names - the corrupt officials willingly betrayed each other.

Unraveling the case, the investigators went to high-ranking people, and it became clear that even they were not yet the top of the whole chain. Yuri Andropov understood that this was the largest corruption scheme, therefore he created a separate investigation team, which included not only the most experienced, but also the most reliable employees. At first, the checks were carried out in Moscow, but it became clear too quickly that the grid was much wider, all the way to the border. The staff of this special group included 120 people.

Fishman and his accomplice even revealed a scheme according to which they packed black caviar instead of sprat and took it abroad. And this happened during packing in the store. It is impossible to falsify caviar from a tin can, but it came to stores in large quantities of 0.5-1.8 kg. In such cases, it was much easier to carry it through a corruption scheme.

But the case developed so rapidly that the simple honesty of the investigators was no longer enough. Then Yuri Andropov took the matter under his control, without the personal attention of the KGB leadership, it was impossible to find the one with whose permission this was done.

Almost everyone who was involved in the case as a suspect spoke of the "Boatswain", to which all the ends led. Many were not even aware of who was actually hiding under this speaking pseudonym. But the investigators found out that we are talking about Vladimir Rytov, the deputy minister of the fish farm.

It is worth paying tribute to the Soviet law enforcement agencies. Rytov was summoned for interrogation, he did not particularly believe that he would be punished, with a grin told the investigator that his colleague had already promised him five years in prison. However, the interrogator hastened to disappoint him, saying that he could face at least 15 years for organizing a corruption scheme. And given the volume of values, then the execution.

Rytov quickly realized that there was no place to wait for help, and began to cooperate with the investigation. Here the names of a new level were revealed. Investigators never ceased to be amazed at what Boatswain was saying. They could not believe their ears, as it turned out that corruption had seized almost all branches of Soviet power.

In addition, everyone who worked in this system, one way or another, fell into a corruption scheme. Even if the director of a single store “Ocean” refused to cooperate with a criminal gang, he was quickly put in his place. This was done simply, they stopped sending good products to the store, the demand fell, the plan was not fulfilled. It was possible to get out of this whirlwind only by slipping an envelope or other benefits to the right person. This was equated to the fact that a person becomes part of the system.

The investigation did not even doubt that such volumes of theft could be possible only with the participation of the top management - Comrade Ishkov. The case was drawing to a close, and the operatives collected the maximum amount of information on the most eminent minister and some other high-ranking officials.

Andropov personally participated in the preparation of documents for the arrest of the fish farm minister Ishkov. But Brezhnev did not allow the arrest of an old friend. Even Andropov could not do anything about it, the minister was quietly escorted to a well-deserved rest, and all the dogs were lowered to Rytov. Say, it was he behind the back of his leader who performed such machinations.

The Deputy Minister was searched and found 300 thousand rubles. In translation, not real estate - it is about 50 Moscow apartments. The promoted case was quickly brought to justice, and Rytov was sentenced to capital punishment - execution. There is still an opinion that such a harsh sentence is a consequence of the fact that the suspect generously surrendered all his high-ranking accomplices. Apparently they still had the opportunity to influence his verdict.

Feldman and Fishman, who started it all, were sentenced to 12 years in prison. In total, one and a half thousand people answered before the court.

The criminal case seriously affected the fish industry, and in particular the Ocean stores. So far, the court, and the case with the shops, no one really dealt with, and later a negative connection remained with them. Already in the 80s, the network lost its former glamor and gloss, and then completely ceased to exist.

Where is the money, Zin?

The "fish business" became one of the most notorious criminal trials of that era. Even after the collapse of the Soviet Union, echoes of fish machinations have surfaced every now and then. But these were not the 90s, the criminals did not order killers for each other and did not blow up cars. Everything was much more humane.

In addition, Ishkov, despite his involvement in such a dirty scheme, was a legendary figure. He held this position under three leaders of the country: Stalin, Khrushchev and Brezhnev - for almost 40 years. It was thanks to him that a large-capacity fish fleet appeared, fish factories on the water, which could go on expeditions for several months and not only catch fish, but also immediately process it. Ishkov initiated the use of refrigerators, which made it possible to achieve deep freezing and deliver fresh fish to regions remote from the seas. Under this minister, the number of ships engaged in fishing reached 40 thousand. And most importantly, the USSR ranked second in the world in the number of fish caught after Japan.

The criminal case, which was closed in 1978, became unique - it was the first Soviet experience in the fight against corruption. And, given the fact that it was loud, and the perpetrators were found at the top of the government, it could be considered quite successful. If not for one "but". Where's the money?

Yes, this question has remained open, the colossal sums stolen from the state have not been found. And who got the foreign accounts of the participants in the process is also a very interesting moment.