Table of contents:
- Tattoo and assertive waitress
- Enterprising manager and porridge cutlets
- A table for Brezhnev and the protectorate of the authorities
- Fatal movie salon and an unmarked grave
Video: For which the USSR sentenced to death "Iron Bella": The path from waitresses to swindlers
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
In the entire history of the USSR, only 3 women were sentenced to death. The first two were the killer Tonka the machine gunner and Tamara Ivanyutina, who deliberately poisoned dozens of people. The third criminal did not trade in murders. She was ruined by her connections with high-ranking Soviet leaders. The capital punishment shocked the defendant, who became a bargaining chip in the showdown of the first officials.
Tattoo and assertive waitress
In the stagnant Brezhnev era, the Gelendzhik catering was run by Bella Borodkina (actually Berta). The Great Patriotic War did not allow the savvy and stubborn girl to graduate from school. Later in the Kuban it was rumored that Bella actively collaborated with the Germans, as evidenced by a specific tattoo on her arm. True, Bella allegedly cut off the drawing along with the skin, and there were no witnesses or evidence of her betrayals. After the Victory, the woman did not bother to continue her studies and got married in Odessa.
The marriage began to weigh on her, and leaving her husband, she settled in Gelendzhik. Here Bella met a new fate - a retired captain who became a second spouse. But this marriage did not last long - the woman was widowed. Fortunately, the bread profession helped - Bella got a job as a waitress in a resort cafe. Vacationers in Gelendzhik did not skimp on tips, and Borodkina's grasping stay in the rank and file did not plan. Very soon she was appointed a barmaid, and then the head of a cafe.
Enterprising manager and porridge cutlets
Having absorbed the principles of work in several areas of the Soviet public catering, Borodkina quickly mastered the methods of deceiving the consumer for the "left" income. She put this approach on stream in her institution. It became common practice to dilute sour cream with water, and tint the tea with caramelized sugar. But the most profitable focus was the adjusted recipe for meat dishes. Cheap cereals or ordinary bread was plentifully added to the minced meat, and the saved meat brought a considerable income. According to the investigators involved in the Borodkina case, the manager earned 80 thousand rubles a year on this alone. Alcohol was another regular source of income.
Without adding or diluting alcoholic beverages, one could get good profits. The banal counting of visitors who walked along the conveyor belt in the seaside town was also practiced. As the musician of that period Mimikonov, who played in resort restaurants, recalled, in the high season on weekends, hundreds of shift workers flew to Gelendzhik from Siberia and the Arctic Circle, who knew how to have a beautiful party. The calculation of clients who wasted money was hundreds of rubles for each check. Borodkina had a huge income and did not even try to hide it, dressing in expensive furs and making chic gifts for young lovers. For her craving for luxury, the locals called her Shahiney, and the close swindlers called her Iron Bella behind her back. With her punchy character, she achieved incredible, becoming the head of the trust of canteens and restaurants in Gelendzhik. Borodkina, who had no education, was appointed the queen of catering in a prestigious resort district.
A table for Brezhnev and the protectorate of the authorities
Borodkina knew how to properly receive "dear" guests. The head of the seaside catering service set the tables for Brezhnev himself, and her close friends were "the owner of the Kuban" Sergei Medunov and the first secretary of the local city committee Nikolai Pogodin. Borodkina spared no expense to satisfy the higher leadership. When she started organizing a friendly banquet, the list of treats included red and black caviar, exquisite overseas fruits, collection wine and expensive cognac. Bella was tempted by the pride of officials and other entertainments - she arranged sea races on boats, organized bath leisure in a pleasant company of accommodating girls and simply gave hefty bribes. So unscheduled inspections of her institutions were not practiced, and her career was steadily going up.
Fatal movie salon and an unmarked grave
In 1981, law enforcement officers unexpectedly took on the invulnerable Queen of Gelendzhik. Moreover, the reason was not restaurant scams, but a closed cinema salon in one of the sponsored cafes. According to the investigation, an indifferent local resident reported to the prosecutor's office about the organization of underground porn screenings with the light hand of Bella. Although, it is easy to guess that the reasons for interest in Borodkina's activities lay in a deeper plane.
It was at that time that the "Krasnodar affair" was being rocked in the Kuban - a large-scale operation against corrupt officials and bribe-takers, initiated by the chief of the KGBs, Andropov. And it so happened that it was Bella Borodkina who happened to become the main character of the show trial. Andropov undertook at all costs to discredit the Krasnodar "lord" Medunov, and the prosecutor's office opened a fierce hunt for the catering system in every settlement in the region. Then even the most self-confident "masters of life" got nervous.
According to witnesses of those events, some potential defendants even took their own lives. And Bella Borodkina alone did not succumb to general panic, even when she was in jail. During an authorized search in the house of "Iron Bella", money and valuables worth half a million rubles were seized. The figure for those times is stunning. And even now Bella continued to calmly await the intervention of her powerful patrons. But all those who only yesterday ate themselves from the table generously laid by Shakhin preferred to keep quiet, so as not to fall into the field of view of the militant Andropov.
The last months of the life of the former Queen of Gelendzhik were spent in the dungeons of the Novocherkassk prison. The court's decision was a blow not only for the defendant, but also struck everyone who was in the know. Capital punishment for a female economic crime - no one expected this. The death sentence was carried out in August 1983. And the daughter of Borodkina, who asked for permission to betray her mother's body to the earth, was categorically refused. Iron Bella found her refuge in an unmarked grave.
The execution of a woman is certainly an egregious case. However, there are such individuals who deservedly received executions. For example, executioner Tonka Machine gunner. And after the execution it happened to her family.
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