Sofya Bluvshtein: biography and obituary. Sonya golden pen Sonya golden pen autobiography photos

The famous adventuress and thief Sonya Zolotaya Ruchka, real name Sheindlya-Sura Leibova Solomoniak-Blyuvshtein, the daughter of a small moneylender from the Warsaw district, was born in 1846 and lived in freedom for a little over 40 years (the date of her death is unknown). But during this time, thanks to her resourcefulness and ingenuity, she managed to become a living legend.

Possessing an incredible imagination, she mastered the skill of transformation so much that turning from a nun into a society lady (from a woman to a man, from a maid to a mistress) was a piece of cake for her. And if you add to this her extraordinary attractiveness (she was not particularly beautiful, but she had regular facial features, a good figure and sexually hypnotic eyes) and the ability to outshine the eyes of any mortal, then it becomes clear how this woman managed to pull off the most incredible machinations.

Sophia started stealing when she was still a girl. At first it was petty theft, then she retrained and began to play for money, eventually turning into one of the most brilliant swindlers. The main places of her trade were hotels, jewelry stores, entrances... Moreover, she “worked” not only in Russia, but also in some European capitals.

Who could suspect an attractive, dressed to the nines woman living on someone else’s passport in the most respectable hotels in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Odessa, Warsaw, etc.?

Sonya even developed special method hotel thefts, which she called “guten morgen”.

Its essence was that early in the morning she entered the rooms, having previously put felt shoes on her shoes, and while the unsuspecting owners were sleeping in the sleep of the righteous, she “raked out” all the cash and other valuables. If it happened that the owner of the number suddenly woke up, then she, without hesitating for a minute and without even looking in his direction, began to undress, allegedly having the wrong number. (Of course, few people would think of suspecting a gorgeously dressed lady, hung from head to toe with jewelry, of stealing.) Then, feigning extreme embarrassment and making a bunch of apologies, she disappeared outside the door.

One day, following the developed method, Sonya found herself in the room young man in one of the provincial hotels. Looking around, she saw a young man sleeping on the bed. His pale and exhausted face struck her so much by its resemblance to Wolf (her lover, whose sharp face was never prone to moral suffering) that she decided to figure out what, exactly, was the matter. On the table there was a revolver and a small stack of letters, among them the thief found a letter to her mother. Sonya read it and learned that the young man had committed theft of government money, he was exposed, and now, in order to avoid shame, he is forced to shoot himself. Taking pity on her “comrade in the trade,” she put 500 rubles on the table and quietly left.

This and some other actions of Sonya indicate that kindness and compassion were not alien to her. Once, having committed a theft, and then read in the newspaper that this time her victim was the widow of a minor culprit and the mother of two daughters (Sonka stole 5 thousand rubles from her - all that was left after the death of her husband), Zolotaya Ruchka, who herself had two daughters , was imbued with repentance and sent the poor woman the amount stolen from her, providing her with an accompanying note: “Dear Madam! I read in the newspapers about the grief that befell you, which I was the cause of due to my unbridled passion for money, I am sending you your 5 thousand rubles and I advise you to hide your money deeper in the future. Once again I ask for your forgiveness, I send my regards to your poor orphans.”

As for theft, Sonya had practically no equal in this activity. So, one day the police managed to uncover one of the thief’s hideouts - her apartment in Odessa. Sonya's dress, specially adapted for shoplifting, was found in it. In fact, it was not even a dress, but only its semblance - a fairly spacious bag, the bins of which could easily accommodate a small roll of expensive fabric.

The thief operated with special skill in jewelry stores: in full view of everyone, using special agents, acting as a red rag, she skillfully hid precious stones under long nails or she quietly replaced real jewelry with fake ones, putting the first ones in flower pots. The next day she calmly removed them from the hiding place.

Train passengers often became victims of Sonya. As a rule, she “worked” in first-class carriages, where one could meet bankers, landowners, rich foreigners and even generals (for example, the famous case of General Frolov, from whom Sonya stole no less than 213 thousand rubles).

The thefts in the compartment were carried out as follows: under the guise of some marquise, countess (rich heiress), Sonya won over her fellow travelers, pretending that they made a strong impression on her (fortunately, the thief was better in appearance than any countess), and then Having waited for the victim to fall asleep in the sleep of the righteous, the imaginary aristocrat calmly did her dirty deed. However, often fellow travelers did not fall asleep for a long time, overexcited by the coquetry of the frivolous “aristocrat,” and then all the sleeping pills available at that time were used: from intoxicating perfumes, opium in wine or tobacco to chloroform.

As mentioned above, the adventuress perfectly mastered the skill of transformation: she skillfully used makeup, false eyebrows, wigs, wore expensive French hats and original fur capes, and loved jewelry (she had a special weakness for them).

Sonya was used to living on a grand scale, and therefore did not skimp not only on expensive outfits, but also on vacation (especially since she got all the money quite easily). Posing as a noble person, Sonya preferred to relax in Crimea, Pyatigorsk or abroad - in Marienbad. For this occasion she always had several business cards and romantic stories.

For a long time, the Golden Hand worked alone, but over time she got tired of it and organized her own gang, which included her ex-husbands (the first husband was the merchant Rosenbad, from whom the thief had a daughter), relatives, thief in law Berezin and Martin Jacobson ( Swedish-Norwegian subject). It is interesting that all members of this small criminal organization unconditionally obeyed their leader, trusting her experience and skill.

It should be noted that such cooperation turned out to be beneficial for everyone: it was easier for Sonya to work, and her “colleagues” received good money for their help (having run away from her first husband with 500 rubles, the thief subsequently gave him tips many times, and as a result he received much more , what she stole from him - so both were not at a loss). As mentioned above, the backbone of the gang consisted of the former legal husbands of the Golden Hand. But there was one among them - Wolf Bromberg (nicknamed Vladimir Kochubchik), a twenty-year-old sharper and raider who had inexplicable power over her, and therefore could manipulate her. Sonya not only succumbed to his persuasion and parted with large sums of money, but also took unjustified risks. But it became increasingly difficult for her to disappear into the crowd, since famous thief searched by the police of many cities Western Europe and Russia.

In addition, Sonya’s character deteriorated greatly, she became greedy and nervous. It was even rumored that the Golden Hand had stopped neglecting pickpockets.

It is not clear what Sonya found in Wolf: he was not handsome, although he could well be classified as handsome. Moreover, he was the only one who dared to set her up, and in the most shameless way. On Sonya’s name day (September 30), Wolf decorated her neck with a velvet cloth with a blue diamond, which was taken as collateral from a jeweler (as collateral, the fraudster provided a false mortgage on part of a non-existent house; the difference of four thousand rubles was paid by the jeweler in cash). The next day he returned the diamond, citing that his beloved did not like the jewelry, and half an hour later the jeweler discovered a fake.

Later it became known that the house that acted as collateral was no longer there. When the deceived jeweler broke into Wolf’s house, he blamed everything on Sonya, accusing her of forging the mortgage and of providing him with a counterfeit. For this, Sonya was brought to trial, which took place from December 10 to 19, 1880.

During the trial, the Golden Hand behaved as if it was not about her at all, but about a completely different person, and she, an honest woman living on the means of her husband and familiar fans, was accused of something that she actually did not commit. However, there were enough people who testified not in Sonya’s favor to deprive her of her property and send her to remote areas of Siberia - to the remote village of Luzhki, Irkutsk province, from where the thief and swindler managed to escape in 1885. But, apparently, happiness turned away from her; Five months later she was recaptured and sentenced to 40 lashes and three years of hard labor.

But even then Sonya did not lose her composure, but using her charm, she made the prison guard fall in love with her. Succumbing to Sonya's charms, he released her into the wild. A new arrest occurred four months later. This time, the Golden Hand had to spend time on Sakhalin.

Since the swindler could not remain without a man for a long time, she even at the stage became acquainted with the seasoned criminal Blokha, and upon arrival at the place she often saw him, paying the warden for each meeting. Despite the short duration of the secret meetings, Sonya and Blokha managed to develop an escape plan. And, although the plan proposed by Blokha was much easier and safer, Sonya insisted on her own, more risky: she always had a special passion for theatrical actions.

As expected, the escape was unsuccessful. Blokha was caught first, and then Sonya. Luckily for her, she turned out to be pregnant, and the doctors decided not to take any additional punitive measures against her. As for her accomplice, he was “awarded” with 40 lashes and shackles (leg and hand).

The child from Flea was never born. Apparently, the difficult conditions of detention took their toll, but Sonya did not calm down and continued her machinations. As a result, she was repeatedly accused of fraud and was even involved as a leader in the murder of a settler shopkeeper. When in 1891 she tried to escape a second time, she was handed over to the cruel executioner Komlev, who inflicted 15 lashes on the naked prisoner to the approving cries of other criminals present.

However, no matter how much pain she felt, Sonya did not utter a sound. Silently she crawled to the cell and fell onto the bunk. After that, she wore shackles for two years and eight months and was kept separately from everyone else, in a tiny solitary cell with a tiny barred window. At that time, a lot of people came to admire the famous criminal, among whom were famous writers, journalists, foreigners. But since the “local landmark” did not like to talk about herself (and if she did, she was confused or lied), visitors tried to at least take pictures with her.

At the end of her term, Sonya was supposed to remain on Sakhalin as a free settler. At one time she even ran a café-chantan, where she sold alcoholic drinks under the counter and organized dances. At that time, her partner was the cruel recidivist Nikolai Bogdanov, life with whom seemed to her much worse than hard labor. When Sonya no longer had the strength to endure his atrocities, she (being sick and exhausted) made one more, last attempt to escape.

The Golden Hand could not go far; the guards soon found her. A few days later, one of the most famous swindlers and thieves died.

On the territory of the Moscow Vagankovskoye cemetery there is a gilded marble tombstone in the form of a figure of a girl without arms and head, located in the shadow of a metal palm tree. The monument was erected to the thief Sonya Zolotoy Ruchka, aka Sofia Ivanovna Blyuvshtein. According to legend, thieves from St. Petersburg and Odessa ordered the statue from a sculptor from Milan.

Sonya's grave is a place of worship for people from the criminal world. The figure of the stone girl is covered from head to toe with requests and appeals to the deceased (more often they pray for wealth and good luck): “Help me repay the debt”, “Give me luck in business”, ““I don’t want to mess around in the zone””, “Sonka, I beg you, let his son’s business be trampled!” And, apparently, something is coming true, as evidenced by the numerous “Thank you” inscriptions. Moreover, the monument is constantly being repainted due to the fact that there is simply no free space left.

Anastasia MIKULCHINA played the main role in Victor Merezhko’s series “Sonka. Continuation of the legend"

It is unknown where the famous swindler is actually buried. Most likely, her real grave is on Sakhalin, where she spent several years in prison and died of a cold in 1902. However, people flock to Vagankovskoye to honor the memory of Sonya (it was said for a long time that four years after her death, the thief’s body was transported to Moscow by order of local authorities). Who is actually buried under the statue remains a mystery.

Gave birth to a granddaughter

At the fence of the Church of the Assumption Mother of God, that at the Perm Yegoshikha cemetery, there is an alley. On its edge lies a tombstone made in the form of a mask with empty eye sockets. The round grave is framed by a cast iron snake biting its own tail. On the tombstone there is an inscription: “Perm police officer Develia’s daughter Taisiya, 6 years 11 months old, died in January 1807.”

Local residents dubbed the slab “the grave damn daughter" And this is the story. Once upon a time there lived a lonely woman with her adult son Develi. They committed the terrible sin of incest. The son, unable to cope with shame, moved forever to the Perm province. And nine months later, the mother died giving birth to her daughter. Only her childless friend knew who the baby’s father was, but she decided to keep it a secret and take the girl with her. Years passed. The bachelor son served as a zemstvo police officer. One day fate brought him to hometown, where he fell in love with a young beauty. Develiy took her with him to Perm, where the couple later got married. Soon the couple had a daughter. The police officer's wife, like his mother, died during difficult childbirth.

When Taechka was six years old, Develi received a letter from a woman. "I'm dying. Come urgently - I want to tell you a terrible secret,” was the message. I arrived and found out that he had married his eldest daughter, whom his mother gave birth to. The man freaked out and chased his daughter and granddaughter out into the street, after cursing her. Less than a year had passed since the girl died. Develiy ordered her to be buried on the road near the church fence, so that everyone who came to the cemetery would trample the grave. And, they say, when the head of the snake biting its own tail is erased, then the curse will be destroyed.

But Perm residents avoid this place. They are convinced that if they look at this snake, trouble will happen in the family. For example, one man just took a photo of a tombstone and a month later his wife left him for no apparent reason, forbidding him to communicate with his son, and he himself became seriously ill.

JUST A FACT

Several years ago, a tombstone with a snake was taken to the regional museum. And a duplicate was placed on the grave. So there is nothing to be afraid of anymore.

Madness Instead of Treasures

There is in Yakutia, a few kilometers from the Alazeya fort, the village of Svatai. It was there that the “white one” was born, or, as the locals called her, the “Russian shaman” - Fekla Berezhnovaya. She had the gift of healing. At the age of 19, Thekla drowned after falling through the ice. If you believe the stories of the Yakuts, Berezhnova’s grave was never overgrown with grass and bushes. Just like fires, frequent in the forest-tundra, always stopped when they reached Thekla’s burial place. And people who came to the grave, asking for the health of their relatives, always received it.

Repeatedly local residents They saw the ghost of a crying shaman wandering along the banks of the Alazei River. In 1975, three visiting covens, having heard enough stories about Thekla, dug up her grave in search of treasures. But they found nothing. There were only a couple of iron amulets in the coffin, and a copper cross hung on the deceased. Having gotten pretty drunk out of frustration, the men threw Thekla’s remains out of the grave. Berezhnova’s revenge was not long in coming: one went crazy after two months, the other two died in terrible agony.

For a reduced sentence, go to a German doctor

One of the most famous tombstones at the Moscow Vvedensky cemetery is the grave of Doctor Fedor Haaza(born Frederich Joseph Haas). He served as the chief prison doctor in Moscow and received large fees. But at the end of his life, all Haaz had left of the estate and his rich crew was a spyglass. The “holy doctor” (as he was popularly called) spent all the money on prisoners and improving their living conditions.

Often Fyodor Petrovich knelt before officials to beg for forgiveness for the arrested person and not to leave the child without a father. Haaz walked thousands of kilometers along the Vladimirsky Highway along with those sentenced to exile. The doctor controlled the attitude of the guards towards the prisoners and did not give them offense. Out of compassion for the prisoners, he even developed a lighter version of the shackles, testing them on himself.

Now relatives of the convicted come to Fyodor Petrovich’s grave to ask for a mitigation of their sentences. They also beg that the prisoner does not have problems in the zone. After their release, the prisoners themselves go to Haaz’s grave to help them start a normal life.

He treated with his gaze

Hundreds of pilgrims come to Rylsk, 120 kilometers from Kursk, every year to venerate the elder’s grave. Hippolyta. Father helps to cope with bad habits, find true love, get pregnant.

The former rector of the St. Nicholas Monastery, Archimandrite Ippolit, was known among the people as a miracle worker. Locals said that the priest could determine what was troubling a person without asking. And without touching, heal from any ailment. So, one day a woman came to the elder with her son, who had AIDS. The priest crossed the young man with his index finger, looked intently into his eyes and sent him on his way. Upon arrival home, the guy took tests - the diagnosis was not confirmed.

The archimandrite died of a massive heart attack on March 17, 2002. During the funeral, a rainbow shone in the sky. And the oak cross on the grave streamed myrrh several times.

Three times around the chapel

Patroness of St. Petersburg and family ties Ksenia the Blessed can fulfill any wish. You need to write a request on a piece of paper, and then walk around the chapel located above her grave at the Smolensk cemetery three times. Then put this note under the box with candles. Ksenyushka, like Matrona of Moscow, helps to get rid of infertility and connect with your lover, even if it seems almost impossible.

Culinary secrets

In 2008, a tombstone was discovered at the Moscow Vvedensky cemetery Lucien Olivier, the same one who came up with your favorite New Year's salad. A native of Provence, he made an enchanting career in Moscow, surprising the guests of his Hermitage restaurant with exquisite dishes, the unique taste of which was given by spicy sauces (Olivier kept the ingredients in the strictest confidence).

It is believed that if a cook comes to Olivier’s grave, the position of chef will not be long in coming. Restaurateurs also go to the Frenchman. They say that at the dawn of his career he Arkady Novikov I went to Lucien to ask for help in business. And it is already a tradition for students of culinary colleges to visit a famous chef before the session. Luck smiles especially broadly on those of them who come with a gift: a cake or candy - Olivier had a sweet tooth.

An erection will save you from infertility

Buried at Père Lachaise Cemetery French journalist Victor Noir, shot at age 22 by his nephew Napoleon on the eve of the wedding. They say that Victor had no equal in bed. He could turn the head of any lady and had many illegitimate children. According to eyewitnesses, Noir had an erection in the morgue. Word of the miracle spread throughout the world. It is believed that if you rub the bulge in the pants area of ​​Victor's tombstone and kiss him on the lips, Noir's spirit will cure his infertility. And if you saddle the bronze handsome man...

Think about it!

There is a legend that if you independently (without maps or a navigator) find a grave in the Prague Jewish Cemetery Yehuda Liweh Ben Bezalel(he was the chief rabbi of the Czech capital and died at 97 years old), put a pebble on it, make a wish, and it will definitely come true.

Just a fact

They say that kissing the tombstones of the lead singer of The Doors helps in matters of love. Jim Morrison and writer Oscar Wilde.

Sonya Zolotaya Ruchka, or Sofya Ivanovna Bluvshtein, is a legendary thief and fraudster who has gone down in history as a person with extraordinary criminal talent. But what do we know about this woman?

Since her whole life was connected with deception, the facts about her biography are also varied, and not all are reliable.

According to one version, Sonya was born in large family Jewish barber in 1895 in Berdichev. After the death of her mother, and then her father, at the age of four she ended up in her stepmother’s house in Odessa. At the age of twelve, she ran away from her and began to serve the famous artist Julia Pastrana. It was the luxury with which Yulia was surrounded that pushed Sonya to steal.

At the age of 17, she, along with the son of a shopkeeper, escapes from Odessa, taking with her a considerable amount of money from her lover’s father. Over time, the hero-lover returned to his father, and Sonya married a sharper from Odessa, Blushtein. When he went to prison, Sonya turned to fraud to feed her children. She also ends up in prison through a young lover, whose guilt she took upon herself. The thieves' world of Odessa respected and supported Sonya the Golden Hand in every possible way.

According to another version, everything was not so romantic. Documents from the Ministry of Internal Affairs confirm that Sofya Ivanovna Blyuvshtein (nee Sheindlya-Sura Leibova Solomoniak) was a Warsaw bourgeois. She was born in 1846 in the town of Powązki (Warsaw district) in the family of a small merchant. Sonya's family was engaged in buying stolen goods and smuggling.

The first person she robbed is believed to be Isaac Rosenbad, whom she married in 1864. She held on for a long time and tried to pretend to be an exemplary wife and even gave birth to a daughter. But after a year and a half of married life, she took 500 rubles from her husband’s store and disappeared.

For the second time she marries a rich, old Jew, Shelom Shkolnik (1868), whom she will also leave without money. For the third time, her fate will bring her together with the railway thief Michel Blyuvshtein. Further, it is under his name that she will appear in all court cases. In this marriage she had a daughter, Tobba.

According to eyewitnesses, despite her small height (153 cm) and not very attractive appearance (she had wide nostrils, too thin lips, pockmarked face, wart on the right cheek), Sonya broke the hearts of many men. The gift of transformation, special artistry, and subtle instincts allowed her to subjugate any person to her will. Cunning, talent, and immorality made this provincial woman a real genius of a scam, the queen of the underworld.

Sonya was arrested for the first time on April 14, 1866 in the city of Klin. She was accused of stealing a suitcase from cadet Gorozhansky. This case is called the first and last time when the Golden Hand was caught red-handed.
Sonya carefully prepared for all her affairs; she did not like impromptu and small matters. She stole mainly from jewelry stores, hotels, and trains. She spoke five languages ​​perfectly, knew social manners. She was proud of her nickname.
In 1872, she received an invitation to join the community of Russian scammers “Club of Jacks of Hearts”, which she would soon lead.

When she was caught (she was betrayed by her young lover Vladimir Kochubchik, a petty swindler), the court sentenced her to exile to a settlement in remote area Siberia. Later she served a prison sentence on Sakhalin.

When and how the famous swindler died is also not known. Some claim that Sonya was taken away by her daughters, and she died in Moscow, where she was buried Vagankovskoe cemetery. Others say that she secretly lived on Prokhorovskaya Street in Odessa.

Real name - Sheindlya-Sura Leibova Solomoniak-Blumstein (1846 - ?). An inventive thief, a swindler, capable of transforming into a society lady, a nun or a simple servant. She was called “the devil in a skirt,” “a demonic beauty whose eyes enchant and hypnotize.”

Popular in late XIX century, journalist Vlas Doroshevich called the legendary adventuress “all-Russian, almost European famous.” And Chekhov paid attention to her in the book "Sakhalin".

Sofya Bluvshtein, whose maiden name was Sheindlya-Sura Leibova Solomoniak, did not live in freedom for too long - hardly forty years. But when she started as a girl with petty thefts, she didn’t stop until Sakhalin. She has achieved perfection in the game. And talent, beauty, cunning and absolute immorality made this young provincial woman a genius of a scam, a legendary adventurer.

The Golden Hand was mainly involved in thefts in hotels, jewelry stores, and hunted on trains, traveling around Russia and Europe. Smartly dressed, with someone else's passport, she appeared in the best hotels in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Odessa, Warsaw, carefully studying the location of rooms, entrances, exits, and corridors. Sonya invented a method of hotel theft called "guten morgen". She put felt shoes on her shoes and, silently moving along the corridors, entered someone else's room early in the morning. While the owner was fast asleep before dawn, she quietly “cleaned out” his cash. If the owner unexpectedly woke up, an elegant lady in expensive jewelry, as if not noticing the “outsider,” began to undress, as if mistakenly mistaking the room for her own... It all ended in skillfully staged embarrassment and mutual shuffling. This is how Sonya ended up in a provincial hotel room. Looking around, she noticed a sleeping young man, pale as a sheet, with an exhausted face. She was struck not so much by the expression of extreme suffering as by the amazing resemblance of the young man to Wolf - whose sharp face could never depict anything close to true moral torment.

On the table lay a revolver and a fan of letters. Sonya read one - to her mother. The son wrote about the theft of government money: the loss was discovered, and suicide is the only way to avoid dishonor, the ill-fated Werther informed his mother. Sonya placed five hundred rubles on top of the envelopes, pressed them with her revolver and just as quietly left the room.

Sonya's broad nature was not alien to good deeds - if her whimsical thought at these moments turned to those whom she loved. Who, if not her own distant daughters, stood before her eyes when Sonya learned from the newspapers that she had completely robbed the unfortunate widow, the mother of two girls. These 5,000 stolen rubles were a lump sum benefit for the death of her husband, a minor official. Sonya didn’t think twice: she sent the widow five thousand and a small letter by mail. “Dear Madam! I read in the newspapers about the grief that befell you, which I was the cause of due to my unbridled passion for money, I am sending you your 5,000 rubles and I advise you to hide your money deeper in the future. Once again I ask for your forgiveness, I send my regards to your poor orphans.”

One day the police found her in Sonya’s Odessa apartment. original dress, made specifically for shoplifting. It was, in essence, a bag in which even a small roll of Expensive fabric could be hidden. Sonya demonstrated her special skills in jewelry stores. In the presence of many customers and with the help of her “agents,” who cleverly distracted the attention of clerks, she quietly hid precious stones under specially grown long nails, replaced rings with diamonds with fake ones, and hid the stolen goods in a flower pot standing on the counter so that she could come back the next day. and pick up the stolen goods.

A special page in her life is occupied by thefts on trains - individual first class compartments. Bankers, foreign businessmen, large landowners, even generals became victims of the fraudster - for example, she stole 213,000 rubles from Frolov on the Nizhny Novgorod Railway.

Exquisitely dressed, Sonya sat in the compartment, playing the role of a marquise, countess or rich widow. Having won over her fellow travelers and pretending that she was succumbing to their advances, the impostor marquise talked a lot, laughed and flirted, waiting for the victim to begin to fall asleep. However, captivated by the appearance and sexual appeals of the frivolous aristocrat, the rich gentlemen did not fall asleep for a long time. And then Sonya used sleeping pills - intoxicating perfumes with a special substance, opium in wine or tobacco, bottles of chloroform, etc. From one Siberian merchant, Sonya stole three hundred thousand rubles (huge money at that time).

She loved to go to the famous Nizhny Novgorod fair, but often traveled to Europe, Paris, Nice, preferred German-speaking countries: Germany, Austria-Hungary, rented luxury apartments in Vienna, Budapest, Leipzig, Berlin.

Sonya was not particularly beautiful. She was small in stature, but had an elegant figure and regular facial features; her eyes radiated a sexually hypnotic attraction. Vlas Doroshevich, who talked with the adventuress on Sakhalin, noted that her eyes were “wonderful, infinitely pretty, soft, velvety... and they spoke in such a way that they could even lie perfectly.”

Sonya constantly wore makeup, false eyebrows, wigs, wore expensive Parisian hats, original fur capes, mantillas, and decorated herself with jewelry, for which she had a weakness. She lived on a grand scale. Her favorite vacation spots were Crimea, Pyatigorsk and the foreign resort of Marienbad, where she posed as a titled person, fortunately she had a set of different business cards. She did not count money, did not save for a rainy day. So, having arrived in Vienna in the summer of 1872, she pawned some of the things she had stolen in a pawnshop and, having received 15 thousand rubles as bail, spent it in an instant.

Gradually she got bored of working alone. She put together a gang of relatives, ex-husbands, thief in law Berezin and Swedish-Norwegian citizen Martin Jacobson. Members of the gang unconditionally obeyed the Golden Hand.

Mikhail Osipovich Dinkevich, the father of the family, a respectable gentleman, after 25 years of exemplary service as the director of the men's gymnasium in Saratov, was dismissed. Mikhail Osipovich decided to move to his homeland, Moscow, with his daughter, son-in-law and three grandchildren. The Dinkevichs sold the house, added to their savings, and accumulated 125 thousand for a small house in the capital.

While walking around St. Petersburg, the retired director turned into a pastry shop and in the doorway almost knocked over an elegant beauty who had dropped her umbrella in surprise. Dinkevich involuntarily noted that before him was not just a St. Petersburg beauty, but a woman of an exceptionally noble breed, dressed with the simplicity that is achieved only by very expensive tailors. Her hat alone was worth the annual salary of a gymnasium teacher.

Ten minutes later they were drinking coffee with cream at the table, the beauty was pinching a biscuit, Dinkevich had the courage to have a glass of liqueur. When asked about the name, the beautiful stranger answered:

"Exactly".

“Oh, Sofya Ivanovna, if only you knew how drawn I am to Moscow.”

And Mikhail Osipovich, suddenly experiencing a surge of confidence, explained his needs to the countess - about a pension, and about a modest capital, and about a dream about a Moscow mansion, not the most luxurious, but worthy of a good family...

“And you know what, my dear Mikhail Osipovich...” the Countess decided after a moment’s thought, “my husband and I are looking for a reliable buyer. The Count has been appointed to Paris as His Majesty’s Ambassador...”

“But Countess! I can’t even handle your mezzanine! You have a mezzanine, don’t you?”

“We have,” Timrot grinned. “We have a lot of things. But my husband is the chamberlain of the court. Should we bargain? You, I see, are a noble, educated, experienced man. I wouldn’t want any other owner for Bebut’s nest... "

“So your father is General Bebutov, a Caucasian hero?!” - Dinkevich was alarmed.

“Vasily Osipovich is my grandfather,” Sofya Ivanovna modestly corrected and rose from the table. “So when will you deign to look at the house?”

We agreed to meet in five days on the train where Dinkevich would board in Klin.

Sonya remembered this town well, or rather, the small station, since out of the whole city she knew only the police station. Sonya always remembered her first adventure with pleasure. At that time she was not even twenty, and with her small stature and grace, she looked sixteen. It was six years later that they began to call her the Golden Hand, when Sheindlya Solomoniak, the daughter of a small moneylender from the Warsaw district, became famous as the think tank and financial god of “raspberries” of international proportions. And then all she had was talent, irresistible charm and school." family nest", of which she was no less proud than Countess Timrot, the Nest of not a general, but a thieve, where she grew up among moneylenders, buyers of stolen goods, thieves and smugglers. She was at their beck and call, easily learning their languages: Yiddish, Polish, Russian, German I watched them, and like a true artistic person, I was imbued with the spirit of adventure and merciless risk.

Well, then, in 1866, she was a modest thief “in trust” on the railroad. By this time, Sonya had already managed, by the way, to run away from her first husband, the merchant Rosenbad, taking not so much for the trip - five hundred rubles. Somewhere “among people” her little daughter was growing up.

So, approaching Klin, in a third-class carriage, where she was doing small things, Sonya noticed a handsome cadet. She sat down, bowed, flattered him with “colonel” and so innocently looked at his cockade, sparkling boots and suitcase next to them with all her eyes (the power of which she already knew well) that the young military man immediately felt the impulse characteristic of all men encountered on Sonya’s path: to protect and take care of this girl with the face of a fallen angel - if possible, until the end of her days.

At the Klin station it cost her nothing to send a conquered cadet - well, let's say, for lemonade.

This was the first and last time, when Sonya was caught red-handed. But even here she managed to get out. At the police station, she burst into tears, and everyone, including Misha Gorozhansky, who had been duped and had fallen behind the train, believed that the girl had taken her fellow passenger’s suitcase by mistake, confusing it with her own. Moreover, in the protocol there was a statement from “Sima Rubinshtein” about the loss of three hundred rubles from her.

A few years later, Sonya went to the Maly Theater. And in the brilliant Glumov I suddenly recognized my Klin “client”. Mikhail Gorozhansky, in full accordance with his pseudonym - Reshimov - abandoned his military career for the theater and became the leading actor of Maly. Sonya bought a huge bouquet of roses, put a witty note in it: “To a great actor from his first teacher,” and got ready to send it to the premiere. But on the way, I couldn’t resist and added a gold watch from a nearby pocket to the offering. Still young, Mikhail Reshimov never understood who played a prank on him and why the cover of the expensive souvenir was engraved: “General-in-Chief N for special services to the fatherland on his seventieth birthday.”

But let’s return to “Countess” Sophia Timrot. In Moscow, as expected, she was greeted by a chic departure: a coachman all in white, a gig sparkling with patent leather and lush coats of arms, and a classic pair of bay horses. We stopped by the Dinkevich family on the Arbat - and soon the buyers, as if not daring to enter, crowded at the cast-iron gates, behind which stood a palace on a stone plinth with the promised mezzanine.

Holding their breath, the Dinkevichs examined bronze lamps, Pavlovian chairs, mahogany, a priceless library, carpets, oak panels, Venetian windows... The house was sold with furnishings, a garden, outbuildings, a pond - and for only 125 thousand, including mirror carps! Dinkevich's daughter was on the verge of fainting. Mikhail Osipovich himself was ready to kiss the hands not only of the countess, but also of the monumental butler in a powdered wig, as if specially called upon to complete the moral defeat of the provincials.

The maid with a bow handed the countess a telegram on a silver tray, and she, squinting myopically, asked Dinkevich to read it aloud: “In the coming days, presentation to the king, presentation of credentials period, according to the protocol, together with his wife, period, urgently sell the house, leave, period, I’m looking forward to Wednesday, Grigory.”

The "Countess" and the buyer went to the notary's office on Lenivka. When Dinkevich followed Sonya into the darkish reception room, the obliging fat man quickly jumped up to meet them, opening his arms.

This was Itska Rosenbad, Sonya’s first husband and the father of her daughter. Now he was a buyer of stolen goods and specialized in stones and watches. The cheerful Itska adored the clinking breguettes and always had two favorite Bure with him: a gold one, with an engraved hunting scene on the lid, and a platinum one, with a portrait of the Emperor in an enamel medallion. On this watch, Itska once beat an inexperienced Chisinau plucker by almost three hundred rubles. To celebrate, he kept both braces for himself and loved to open them at the same time, checking the time and listening to the gentle discord of the ringing. Rosenbud did not hold a grudge against Sonya; he forgave her five hundred rubles a long time ago, especially since, based on her tips, he had already received a hundred times more. He paid the woman who raised his girl generously and visited her daughter often, unlike Sonya (Although later, having already had two daughters, Sonya became the most tender mother, did not skimp on their upbringing and education - neither in Russia, nor later in France. However, her adult daughters disowned her.)

Having met two years after the escape of his young wife, ex-spouses began to “work” together. Itska, with his cheerful disposition and artistic Warsaw chic, often provided Sonya with invaluable help.

So, the notary, aka Itska, losing his glasses, rushed to Sonya. “Countess!” he cried. “What an honor! Such a star in my pitiful establishment!”

Five minutes later, the notary's young assistant drew up a bill of sale in elegant handwriting. The retired Mr. Director handed over to Countess Timrot, née Bebutova, every penny of the savings of his respectable life. 125 thousand rubles. And two weeks later, two tanned gentlemen came to the Dinkevichs, who were stunned with happiness. These were the Artemyev brothers, fashionable architects, who rented out their house while traveling around Italy. Dinke-vich hanged himself in cheap rooms...

Sonya's main assistants in this case were captured a couple of years later. Itska Rosenbad and Mikhel Bluvshtein (butler) went to prison companies, Khunya Goldshtein (coachman) went to prison for three years, and then went abroad “with a ban on returning to the Russian state.” Sonya loved working with her family and ex-husbands. All three were no exceptions: not only the Warsaw resident Itska, but also both “Romanian subjects” were at one time legally married to “mother”.

She came across more than once. Sonya was tried in Warsaw, St. Petersburg, Kyiv, Kharkov, but she always managed to either cleverly escape from the police station or achieve an acquittal. However, the police were hunting for her in many cities of Western Europe. Let's say, in Budapest, by order of the Royal Court of Justice, all her belongings were seized; In 1871, the Leipzig police transferred Sonya to the supervision of the Russian Embassy. She escaped this time too, but was soon detained by the Viennese police, who confiscated her chest of stolen items.

Thus began a streak of misfortune; her name often appeared in the press, and photographs of her were posted in police stations. It became increasingly difficult for Sonya to disappear into the crowd and maintain her freedom with the help of bribes.

She shone during the happy times of her stellar career in Europe, but Odessa was the city of luck and love for her...

Wolf Bromberg, a twenty-year-old sharper and raider, nicknamed Vladimir Kochubchik, had an inexplicable power over Sonya. He extorted large sums of money from her. Sonya took unnecessary risks more often than before, became greedy, irritable, and even descended to pickpocketing. Not too handsome, from the category of “pretty” men with a mustache shaved into a thread, narrow in bone, with lively eyes and virtuoso hands - he was the only one who once risked setting Sonya up. On the day of her angel, September 30, Wolf decorated the neck of his mistress with a velvet with a blue diamond , which was taken as bail from an Odessa jeweler. The collateral was a mortgage on part of the house on Lanzheron. The cost of the house was four thousand more than the cost of the stone - and the jeweler paid the difference in cash. A day later, Wolf unexpectedly returned the diamond, announcing that the gift was not to the lady’s taste. Half an hour later, the jeweler discovered the fake, and an hour later he established that there was no house on Lanzheron. When he broke into Bromberg’s rooms on Moldavanka, Wolf “admitted” that Sonya had given him a copy of the stone and that she had concocted the false pledge. The jeweler went to see Sonya not alone, but with a police officer.

Her trial lasted from December 10 to December 19, 1880 in the Moscow District Court. Feigning noble indignation, Sonya desperately fought with the judicial officials, not admitting either the charges or the presented material Evidence. Despite the fact that witnesses identified her from a photograph, Sonya stated that Zolotaya Ruchka was a completely different woman, and she lived on the means of her husband and familiar fans. Sonya was especially outraged by the revolutionary proclamations planted in her apartment by the police. In a word, she behaved in such a way that the jury later attorney A Shmakov, recalling this trial, called her a woman capable of “putting a good hundred men in her belt.”

And yet, according to the court’s decision, she received a harsh sentence: “The Warsaw bourgeois Sheindlya-Sura Leibova Rosenbad, aka Rubinstein, aka Shkolnik, Brenner and Bluvshtein, née Solomoniak, having been deprived of all rights to her fortune, be exiled to a settlement in the most remote places of Siberia.”

The place of exile was the remote village of Luzhki, Irkutsk province, from where in the summer of 1885 Sonya escaped, but five months later she was captured by the police. For escaping from Siberia, she was sentenced to three years of hard labor and 40 lashes. However, even in prison, Sonya did not waste time; she fell in love with the tall prison guard, non-commissioned officer Mikhailov, with a lush mustache. He gave his passion a civilian dress and on the night of June 30, 1886, brought her out. But Sonya only enjoyed four months freedom. After a new arrest, she ended up in the Nizhny Novgorod prison castle. Now she had to serve a hard sentence on Sakhalin.

She couldn’t live without a man, and even at the stage she became friends with a fellow convict, a brave, hardened elderly thief and murderer, Blokha.

On Sakhalin, Sonya, like all women, at first lived as a free resident. Accustomed to expensive “luxuries” of the European class, to fine linen and chilled champagne, Sonya slipped a penny to the guard soldier to let her into the dark barracks entryway, where she met with Blokha . During these short meetings, Sonya and her seasoned roommate developed an escape plan.

I must say that escaping Sakhalin was not such a difficult task. This was not the first time that Blokha had fled and knew that from the taiga, where three dozen people work under the supervision of one soldier, it would cost nothing to get through the hills to the north, to the narrowest place of the Tatar Strait between Capes Pogobi and Lazarev. And there is desolation, you can put together a raft and move to the mainland. But Sonya, who even here had not gotten rid of her passion for theatrical adventures, and was also afraid of days of hunger, came up with her own version. They will follow the well-trodden and lived-in path, but they will not hide, but will play a game of convict assignment: Sonya in a soldier’s dress will “escort Flea.” The recidivist killed the guard, and Sonya changed into his clothes.

The flea was caught first. Sonya, who continued her journey alone, got lost and went to the cordon. But this time she was lucky. The doctors of the Alexander Infirmary insisted on removing corporal punishment from the Golden Hand: she turned out to be pregnant. Bloch received forty lashes and was shackled in hand and leg shackles. When they flogged him, he shouted: “For my cause, your honor, for my cause! That’s what I need!”

Sonya Zolotoy Ruchka's pregnancy ended in miscarriage. Her further imprisonment in Sakhalin resembled a delirious dream. Sonya was accused of fraud; she was involved - as a leader - in the case of the murder of settler-shopkeeper Nikitin.

Finally, in 1891, for the second escape, she was handed over to the terrible Sakhalin executioner Komlev. Stripped naked, surrounded by hundreds of prisoners, under their encouraging hooting, the executioner inflicted fifteen lashes on her. Not a sound was uttered by Sonya. The Golden Hand crawled to her room and fell onto the bunk. For two years and eight months, Sonya wore hand shackles and was kept in a damp solitary confinement cell with a dim, tiny a window covered with a fine lattice.

Chekhov described her this way in the book “Sakhalin”, “a small, thin, already graying woman with a rumpled old woman’s face... She walks around her cell from corner to corner, and it seems that she is constantly sniffing the air, like a mouse in a mousetrap, and her facial expression is mousey." At the time of the events described by Chekhov, that is, in 1891, Sofya Bluvshtein was only forty-five years old...

Sonya Zolotaya Ruchka was visited by writers, journalists, and foreigners. For a fee you were allowed to talk to her. She didn’t like to talk, she lied a lot, and was confused about her memories. Exotic lovers took pictures with her in a composition: a convict woman, a blacksmith, a warden - it was called “Shackling by Hand.” famous Sonya Golden Hand." One of these photographs, sent to Chekhov by Innokenty Ignatievich Pavlovsky, a Sakhalin photographer, is kept in the State Literary Museum.

After serving her sentence, Sonya was supposed to remain on Sakhalin as a free settler. She became the owner of the local "café-chantant", where she brewed kvass, sold vodka under the counter and organized fun evenings with dancing. At the same time, she became friends with the cruel repeat offender Nikolai Bogdanov, but life with him was worse than hard labor. Sick, embittered, she decided to escape again and left Aleksandrovsk. She walked about two miles and, having lost strength, fell. The guards found her. A few days later the Golden Hand died.

And on Sakhalin, legends multiplied one after another. Many believed that the real Sonya escaped along the road, and her “replacement” ended up in hard labor. Anton Chekhov and Vlas Doroshevich, who spoke with Sonya on Sakhalin, noticed the age discrepancy between the legendary Sonya Bluvshtein and the “person in hard labor.” They also talked about the prisoner’s bourgeois mentality. And, as we remember, Sonya was very smart and educated even for high society.

In the 20s, Nepmen used to scare each other with it. But at that time, numerous followers acted under the name Sonya, often acting simply as guides. They were far from Sonya's talents. Yes, and the time was different. Residents of Odessa claim that the Golden Hand lived under a different name in Odessa on Prokhorovskaya Street and died only in 1947.

And in Moscow at the Vagankovskoye cemetery there is a monument to Sonya. Female figure in full height made of a piece of white marble walks in the shade of forged palm trees. This sculpture was specially commissioned from a Milanese master and then brought to Russia (they say it was done by Odessa, Neapolitan and London swindlers). There are also many secrets around this grave. There are always fresh flowers and scatterings of coins on it. Inscriptions from “grateful thieves” often appear. True, over the past 20 years, out of three palm trees, only one has remained. And the sculpture is without a head. They say that during a drunken fight, Sonya was dropped and her head was taken away.

L The legendary Sonya - the Golden Hand a hundred years ago was famous in the criminal world.
Her full name and surname are Sofya Ivanovna (Sheindlya-Sura Leibovna) Bluvshtein (nee Solomoniak). She was born far from the banks of the Neva, but her first “fame” came to her in our city.

Her biography is extremely confusing, since she largely falsified her own biography.
According to official court documents, Sonya was born in the town of Powazki, Warsaw province in 1846. However, when baptized according to the Orthodox rite in 1899, she indicated the city of Warsaw, 1851, as the place and date of birth.

She received an education (according to other sources, she did not receive it at all and learned everything herself), knew several foreign languages. She had the gift of artistry and theatrical transformation.

Having run away from her stepmother at the age of twelve, the smart and pretty Sonya ended up in the service of the famous artist Julia Pastrana. At the same time, her childhood years were spent among traders and buyers of stolen goods - moneylenders, profiteers and smugglers. At a young age she bombed trains.

Among the surnames she used throughout her life were Rosenbad, Rubinstein, Shkolnik and Briner (or Brener) - the surnames of her husbands. She was married several times, most recently official husband there was a card sharper Mikhail (Mikhel) Yakovlevich Blyuvshtein, with whom she had two daughters.

She was involved in organizing large-scale thefts, gaining fame in the criminal world thanks to her adventurous component, penchant for mystification, theatrical change of appearance and talent for getting “dry” from the “wet” situations. Even abroad, she was repeatedly detained, but was always released and often with an apology.

According to contemporaries, she was a charming woman, but she did not shine with beauty. She had an extraordinary inner charm that was impossible to resist.

Aristocrats are not only Russian Empire, but in many European countries, without the slightest hesitation, they accepted her as a lady of their circle. That is why she could freely travel abroad, where she presented herself as a viscountess, a baroness, or even a countess. At the same time, no one had the slightest doubt about her belonging to high society.

A prison photo of the real Sonya, the Golden Hand, has been preserved, as well as police directions used to search for the criminal. They described a woman who was 1.53 cm tall, with a pockmarked face, a wart on her right cheek and a moderate nose with wide nostrils. She was a brunette with curly hair on her forehead, from under which moving eyes looked. She usually spoke impudently and arrogantly. Sonya never started a new scam without calculating the possible development of the situation in advance.

In St. Petersburg the Golden Handle was invented new way hotel thefts, which later became very popular. It was called as a radio program - "With Good morning!" and consisted of the following: elegantly dressed Sonya stayed in one of best hotels, carefully studied the room plans, looked closely at the guests, and then early morning, wearing soft slippers, entered the victim’s room and took money and jewelry.

If a guest unexpectedly woke up, he would find a smartly dressed lady in expensive jewelry in his chambers. She pretended not to notice anyone and began to slowly undress. At the same time, the owner had the impression that the woman mistakenly mistook his apartment for her own. In the end, the thief masterfully feigned horror, shame and embarrassment and blushed sweetly apologetically, and easily charmed the rich simpleton. She sold the stolen jewelry to a friend, the jeweler Mikhailovsky, who remade and sold them.

Sonya acted brazenly, successfully, with ruthless professionalism, but compassion was not alien to her. Entering someone else's hotel room one day at dawn, the Golden Hand was surprised to see a young man sleeping in his clothes, next to whom lay a revolver and a letter to his mother. The young man wrote that he had wasted 300 government rubles and asked not to blame anyone for his death. According to legend, the touched Sonya took a 500-ruble banknote from her reticule, put it next to the revolver and quietly left.

One day she accidentally learned from a newspaper article that the woman she had robbed turned out to be the poor widow of a small employee. As it turned out, after the death of her spouse, the victim received a benefit in the amount of 5 thousand rubles. As soon as Sophia recognized her victim in her, she immediately went to the post office and sent it to the poor woman a large amount than it was stolen. In addition, she accompanied her transfer with a letter in which she deeply apologized for her actions and advised him to hide the money better.

In 1880 in Odessa for major fraud, Sonya was arrested and transferred to Moscow. After trial in the Moscow district court on December 10-19 of the same year, she was exiled to a settlement in the most remote places of Siberia. The place of exile was determined to be the remote village of Luzhki in the Irkutsk province. In the summer of 1881 she escaped from her place of exile.

Before her arrest in 1885, she committed a number of major property crimes in provincial cities of Russia. In 1885, she was captured by the police in Smolensk. For major thefts and fraud, she was sentenced to 3 years of hard labor (hard labor was served at the discretion of the court in hard labor prisons in the European part of the Russian Empire until 1893) and 50 lashes. On June 30, 1886, she escaped from the Smolensk prison, using the services of a warden who was in love with her.

They say she had very beautiful eyes - wonderful, infinitely pretty, velvety, which “spoke” in such a way that they could lie perfectly.

After four months of “freedom”, she was arrested in the city of Nizhny Novgorod, and now she was again convicted for escaping from hard labor and new crimes, and sent in 1888 from Odessa by steamship to hard labor at the Aleksandrovsky post of the Tymov district on the island of Sakhalin (now Alexandrovsk-Sakhalinsky Sakhalin region), where after two escape attempts she was shackled.

Shackling “Sonka the Golden Hand”, 1888

In total, she made three attempts to escape from the Sakhalin penal servitude, for which she was subjected to corporal punishment by decision of the prison administration.

In 1890, Anton Chekhov met her, who left a description of the convict Sophia Bluvshtein in the book “Sakhalin Island”:
“This is a small, thin, already graying woman with a rumpled, old woman’s face. She has shackles on her hands: on the bunk there is only a fur coat made of gray sheepskin, which serves as both warm clothing and a bed for her. She walks around her cell from corner to corner, and it seems that she is constantly sniffing the air, like a mouse in a mousetrap, and she has a mouse-like expression on her face. Looking at her, I can’t believe that just recently she was beautiful to such an extent that she charmed her jailers...”

But the famous “old woman” convict at that time was only 40 years old.

Sonya's signature of the Golden Pen.

After her release in 1898, Sonya Zolotaya Ruchka remained in a settlement in the city of Iman (now Dalnerechensk) in the Primorsky Territory. But already in 1899 she left for Khabarovsk, and then returned to Sakhalin Island to the Aleksandrovsky post.

In July 1899, she was baptized according to the Orthodox rite and given the name Maria. Priest Alexey Kukolnikov performed the sacramental ritual over Sonya.

About 5 million rubles - approximately the same amount the famous adventurer earned from her frauds (known to the police). But in reality, of course, there is much more.

At the beginning of the 20th century, versions were circulated about her successful escape and about a figurehead serving hard labor for her. Already in Soviet times, the aged Sonya Zolotaya Ruchka was allegedly seen either in Odessa or in Moscow.

Known about three daughters Sofia Bluvshtein:

Sura-Rivka Isaakovna (née Rosenbad) (born 1865) - abandoned by her mother, remained in the care of her father, Isaac Rosenbad, in the town of Powązki, Warsaw province, fate unknown.
Tabba Mikhailovna (née Bluvshtein) (born 1875) is an operetta actress in Moscow.
Mikhelina Mikhailovna (née Bluvshtein) (born 1879) is an operetta actress in Moscow.

Sofya Bluvshtein died of a cold in 1902, as evidenced by a message from the prison authorities, and was buried in the local cemetery at the Aleksandrovsky post. Initially, the monument looked like this: a thin female figure, carved from white marble, stands under tall forged palm trees. As of 2015, of the entire composition, only the statue survived, and even that one with its head broken off. It is not known for certain who is buried in this grave, but it is always decorated with fresh flowers and strewn with coins. In addition, the entire pedestal of the monument is literally covered with inscriptions of a criminal nature. There is a strange belief that Sonya helps even after death and brings thieves' luck to those who ask for it...

Quotes from Sofia Bluvshtein:

“My dear mother... I’m so lonely, it’s so hard without you. Dad lives with the rude and uncouth Evdokia, who, out of nowhere, came into our heads. For this redneck, the main thing is for dad to steal more.”

“I think He rewarded me... I take risks. But this is the life that pulls me forward with such force that my head is spinning all the time.”

"- What did you steal? - Gold, or what? - Not only, more diamonds. - This is not theft. Pampering. - What is theft? - Theft is when souls are stolen."

Recently in Russia there was a series about her. The portrait likeness of the actress playing the main role is simply amazing.

The thieves' name Sonya Zolotaya Ruchka in the 20th century went to another criminal - Olga von Stein. In popular rumor, the crimes of these two thieves merged together. And the result was a legendary collective image...

The basis of information and photos (C) SYL.ru, http://fb.ru/article, etc. The first photos (according to the owner) belong to Sonya and (most likely) one of her husbands. (C) Sergeich.