Leonid Ivanovich Pantelkin, better known as Lyonka Panteleev, was the toughest St. Petersburg gangster of the mid-20s. In the long history of the underworld of St. Petersburg - Petrograd - Leningrad there is no more famous character than Lenka Panteleev.
We can safely say that the bandit Lenka has become a kind of St. Petersburg legend. He was so elusive and lucky that he was even credited with a mystic...
On February 13, 1923, Lenka Panteleev, one of the most famous and daring Petrograd raiders, died in a shootout with the Chekists.
By the age of 20, he managed to take part in revolutionary events, fight in the Red Army with the troops of Yudenich, and even serve in the Cheka. Yes, and in his gang, he recruited several former Chekists and commissars.
Although his gang had only been active for about a year, rumors circulated throughout Petrograd that Lenka was elusive, and his name had become as famous in Petrograd as Lenin's.
Exemplary Citizen
Leonid Pantelkin was born in the Novgorod province in 1902. The surname Panteleev, under which he became known due to his criminal trade, he took later, probably because of its greater harmony.After studying in elementary school and taking special courses, Panteleev received the profession of a typesetter in a printing house. In those days, printing workers received good money. Some sources report that Panteleev participated in the storming of the Winter Palace in October 1917, and he himself is called a revolutionary sailor.
However, at that time he was 15 years old, he was hardly a sailor, but he could participate in revolutionary events. Then the age was not asked.
It is known that in 1919, 17-year-old Panteleev volunteered for the Red Army and took part in the hostilities against Yudenich, who was advancing on Petrograd, being the commander of a machine-gun platoon. According to some reports, Panteleev was even taken prisoner, but later either he was able to escape, or he was released.
In 1921, the huge Red Army by that time was demobilized. After that, Panteleev comes to the Cheka. He had an almost exemplary biography - he was accepted into the service without any problems. So Panteleev, who had barely reached the age of majority, became an investigator of the road transport commission of the Cheka of the North-Western Railways.
Leonid Panteleev - active member of the Cheka (standing fourth from the right).
True, his service was short-lived. Just three months later, he is demoted and sent as an agent-controller to Pskov. And in January 1922, just six months after the start of the service, Panteleev was fired from the authorities.
The reason for the dismissal remained unknown, thanks to which later various versions arose, up to the most dubious ones: allegedly Panteleev was introduced into the criminal environment. In reality, Panteleev was suspected of complicity in the raid, but there was little evidence.
The time spent in the Cheka was not in vain: there he managed to find an associate. One of the first members of Panteleev's gang was his former colleague in the Cheka, Leonid Bass. In addition, the former commissar of one of the parts of the Red Army Varshulevich joined the gang, and the closest associate, Panteleev's "adjutant", was a member of the Gavrikov party.
However, the gang included not only former Chekists and commissars, but also two professional criminals: Reintop and Lisenkov.
dashing gang
The first years after the end of the Civil War were the heyday of the raiders. Professional criminals of the pre-revolutionary era were strictly divided into categories and observed unwritten rules and traditions.But the revolution in those years took place not only in the political, but also in the criminal world. Old traditions are gone. For example, the most famous Moscow raider Yasha Koshelkov, who once robbed Lenin himself, was a pickpocket before the revolution.
The task of the raiders was facilitated by the Chekists, who carried out searches every night, in such an atmosphere it cost them nothing, posing as Chekists, to enter the dwellings and rob them.
In 1922-1923, a second wave of raiders took place. Now most of them were no longer professional criminals, but soldiers demobilized from the army who had not previously had problems with the law.
Accustomed to unpunished violence in the war and during the suppression of peasant uprisings, they already hardly fit into a peaceful society. In addition, many were disappointed with the beginning of the NEP, which the most radical of the ideological communists considered as a betrayal of the revolution and the restoration of capitalism.
The raiders acted boldly and without fear, often trailing a long trail of bloody crimes behind them. They terrorized the cities and became a headache for the criminal investigation department and the Cheka.
In March 1922, the Panteleev gang committed its first crime. A raid was carried out on the apartment of the furrier Bogachev. Threatening the owners with weapons, the bandits searched the apartment and took away several fur items.
However, Panteleev himself was dissatisfied with the first thing, considering the prey to be insignificant. Therefore, two weeks later, they raided the apartment of Dr. Griliches according to the same scheme. But in this case, it was not possible to get hold of the money.
After the first failures, Panteleev fell into a depression and did not go to work for three months. The craft of the raider was not as profitable as he expected. Meanwhile, there were many witnesses who remembered him well and described him to the police, and Panteleev was included in the reports wanted by the police.
In June, Panteleev, who was riding in a tram, was accidentally recognized by a Chekist named Vasiliev and tried to detain the criminal. Panteleev, firing back, fled. Chmutov, the head of the security of the State Bank, tried to detain him (Panteleev escaped the chase through the courtyard of this institution), but was killed in a shootout. Thus, the first blood was shed, and the authorities became very interested in Panteleev.
The police began searching for Panteleev, methodically detaining and interrogating his many cohabitants. The pretty and young Panteleev had many mistresses, whom he used as guides, preferring women to everyone else, since he believed that a woman in love would never betray him to the police.
The firefight gave Panteleev, who had become moping, an additional impetus, and he stepped up his activities. The gang raided the apartment of Dr. Levin, where they got under the guise of sailors who came with health complaints. The owners of the apartment were tied up and almost all things were taken out of it.
A few days later, Panteleev's gang, under the guise of Chekists who came with a search, robbed the jeweler Anikeev. At the same time, the bandits played their role so well that they complied with all the necessary formalities with the documents, but made a mistake.
The search warrant was issued in the name of Aleksey Timofeev, and one of the bandits inadvertently signed as Nikolai Timofeev. This fact alerted the owner of the apartment - after the bandits left, he turned to the Cheka for clarification and found out that no search had been carried out or planned.
Panteleev began to change the scheme of work, most of the raids brought mere pennies, he ceased to disdain even banal street violence. The bandits began to go out at night on the Field of Mars and stop cabs transporting citizens who seemed wealthy to Panteleev.
After that, at gunpoint, they took away all the valuables they had with them. A similar robbery on Karavannaya Street ended in blood: it seemed to Panteleev that the victim - Nikolaev - wanted to get a revolver, and he was shot dead. They also shot and killed his wife, so as not to leave witnesses.
There were rumors about Panteleev that he only robs NEPmen and does not touch the proletarians, but in fact he didn’t care, the main thing was that the victim had some valuables with him.
Lyonka got caught
In September 1922, Panteleev's career almost came to an end. He fell into the hands of the police. After another successful robbery, Panteleev and Gavrikov went into a shoe store to buy new shoes. Quite by chance, policeman Bardzai, who recognized Panteleev, went there.A shootout ensued, as a result of which the policeman was killed. However, colleagues who arrived to help were able to detain the bandits. Panteleev was severely hit on the head during the arrest, so the most famous photograph taken after the arrest shows him with a bandaged head.
The trial began, and, given the rich track record of Panteleev and several murders, it could only end with a death sentence. However, at the trial, Panteleev was surprisingly calm and even imposing.
Later, Panteleev's calm behavior became clear: he was already preparing his escape. Escape from the courtroom was unthinkable, the bandit was guarded by a double convoy. But this does not mean that it is impossible to escape from the Crosses.
One of the guards, named Kondratiev, was promised 20 billion rubles (a significant amount, but, given the inflation of that time, not so huge) for help. He had to distract another guard, and then turn off the light so that Panteleev's accomplices placed in neighboring cells and himself could escape. The plan worked brilliantly.
Free again
But now it was already much more difficult for the Panteleev gang. Thanks to a high-profile trial and no less high-profile escape, the entire Petrograd police and the Cheka hunted for the bandits. And every third inhabitant knew Panteleev by sight.The bandits split up, Panteleev and Gavrikov began to work on the Field of Mars, robbing belated passers-by. However, there were few wealthy people among them, Panteleev received mere pennies from his craft. In addition, the police became interested in the sharply increased number of robberies on the Field of Mars, and Panteleev left this place.
He became suspicious, everywhere he seemed to be agents of the criminal investigation department and the Cheka. He even shot a random sailor when he thought he was following him. An attempt to get close to the bandits through the recruited overseer Kondratiev also failed, Panteleev noticed the surveillance of the overseer and did not show up for the meeting.
In the winter, the gang got back together and made the last and bloodiest series of raids. This time they broke into apartments and killed their victims at the slightest suspicion that they would resist.
The VChK patrol is looking for Panteleev on the streets.
After a series of bloody robberies, Panteleev was taken especially seriously. A special strike group of the GPU was created, whose task was to search for and capture the raider.
In mid-December, Panteleev and Gavrikov, having drunk a lot, decided to visit the Donon restaurant. The restaurant was fashionable, its visitors were mainly those who were then called NEPmen, and the drunken Panteleev and Gavrikov were refused to be allowed into the hall. They made a scandal, as a result of which the head waiter called the police.
Seeing the policemen, the bandits rushed to run, but they were detained. Since the police did not recognize Panteleev, he was escorted as an ordinary hooligan. Thanks to this, Panteleev managed to escape, hitting the guards. A shootout ensued, but the bandit, wounded in the arm, managed to get away from the chase, hiding in the church building. However, his accomplice remained in the hands of the police.
The end of Panteleev
This meant that Panteleev lost most of his safe houses, where he could lay low and wait out the storm. Now it was pointless to come there, an ambush could wait in each of them.January 1923 was the last month of the gang's activities. Panteleev, driven into a corner and spending the night at train stations, went into all serious trouble. His gang sometimes committed several robberies a day. During his last month at large, Panteleev committed more murders than in his entire life.
Ten people became victims of Panteleev this month, and in total he and his accomplices committed almost 40 robberies and raids during this period. The city was in a panic, all the crimes committed there were attributed to Panteleev and his gang.
S. Kondratiev, head of the operational group of the GPU, who led the search for L. Panteleev.
Ambushes were set up in almost every one of Panteleev's safe houses. Panteleev went there several times to check, but he managed to evade ambushes. So it was until February 13, 1923.
At night, Panteleev, together with a colleague nicknamed Clumsy, decided to visit a familiar prostitute who lived on Mozhayskaya Street. They were sure that law enforcement officers knew nothing about this apartment. With a guitar and booze, they showed up at the apartment and stumbled upon an ambush - four Red Army soldiers, led by Chekist Busko, were already waiting for them in the dwelling.
Panteleev did not even have time to get a weapon, as he was shot dead. Crooked man, who was standing next to him, was wounded and arrested. However, the news of Panteleev's death was greeted with disbelief, after he escaped from prison and escaped the chase so many times, Panteleev became famous as an elusive criminal, he even received the nickname Lyonka Lucky. In addition, robberies and raids continued to occur in the city.
To put an end to the rumors, Panteleev's body was put on public display in the morgue, so that everyone could be convinced of the death of the famous criminal.
The second birth of the myth of the elusive Lyonka occurred already in the Brezhnev era and coincided with another wave of revolutionary romance in Soviet culture. Panteleev and the fight against him was dedicated to one of the episodes of the extremely popular Soviet series "Born by the Revolution" - the epic story of the Soviet police.
True, in the film, the image of Panteleev differs significantly from the real one, in addition, more than 80 murders are attributed to him, while in reality there were about fifteen of them. Thanks to this film, the image of Panteleev migrated to the then underground thieves' song, and after the collapse of the USSR, Panteleev became the hero of numerous songs in the chanson genre.
It was thanks to the film that Panteleev became known as raider No. 1, although in reality his gang was neither the bloodiest nor the most successful. Around the same time, much more cruel and even more terrifying gangs were operating: the Kotov gang (which accounted for 116 murders), the Belov gang (27 murders). However, no one remembers their names now. And Panteleev became a kind of symbol of the Petrograd crime.
For Petrograd, the years of the civil war were almost as terrible as the years of blockade for Leningrad. The population of the former imperial capital decreased by five times. Monstrous hunger, cold, devastation. In the middle of 1922, the city miraculously begins to recover: the New Economic Policy, private trade, lobsters in the windows of the former Eliseevsky shop, fashionistas in the Roof restaurant of a European hotel, an elegant crowd on Nevsky. Glitter, luxury and a sharp rise in crime. The criminal world of Petrograd was incredibly colorful and diverse. The gangs of Vanka cast iron, Vova the sailor, Vanka the squirrel, Vasya the cat were noisy. Ligovka is covered with thieves' raspberries.
Petrograd bohemia during the NEP. Restaurant "Donon".
In the spring of 1922, from 40 to 50 armed raids were carried out in Petrograd every month. In the 1920s, what could be the attitude of a worker from St. Petersburg who returned from the front, where he fought against the world bourgeoisie, or a Chekist who had recently put "counter" against the wall? What did you fight for, comrades? Why was blood shed? Leonid Pantelkin, known to us as Lenka Panteleev, was such a front-line soldier and Chekist.
In the early 1920s, the Soviet government was still trying to apply a class approach to criminals, and they could often count on leniency. Some theorists of Marxism have stated that if theft is for the benefit of the working people, then it is not a crime. And for the inhabitant, tired of poverty, political bandits seemed to be new Robin Hoods, who are taken from the rich and given to the poor. The most popular then, of all those published in the city, "Krasnaya Gazeta" from issue to issue depicted the adventures of only one gang of Panteleev. The party newspaper could do this only on orders from above - in other words, the St. Petersburg city leadership intensively "PR" Lenka, for some reason making him a criminal "star".
Tikhvin in the Leningrad region, the former Novgorod region, the birthplace of Lenka Pantelkin.
Leonid Pantelkin was born in 1902 in the city of Tikhvin. At the age of three, together with his parents, he moved to St. Petersburg. His father worked as a carpenter, his mother worked as a laundress. Lenka graduated from professional courses, where he received the profession of a printer-typesetter, which was prestigious at that time. He worked as a typesetter in the largest Petrograd newspaper Kopeyka.
He knew how to write and read well, which was a rarity in the pre-revolutionary working environment. In February 1918, Panteleev, who had not yet reached draft age, voluntarily joined the Red Army. During the battles with the Germans, he was captured and spent three months in a filtration camp. He was released along with a group of prisoners of war in May 1918. Then he fought with Yudenich and the White Estonians, rose to the position of commander of a machine-gun platoon.
In the summer of 1921, when a large-scale reduction in the army began, Panteleev was transferred to the reserve. But he was immediately invited to serve in the Cheka.
Leonid Panteleev - active member of the Cheka (standing fourth from the right).
More recently, a personal file of Panteleev was discovered in the archives of the FSB, from which it follows that: “Pantelkin L.I., born in 1902, on July 11, 1921, was accepted as an investigator in the Military Control Unit of the Road Transport Extraordinary Commission (VChK DTChK) United Northwestern Railways. On October 15, 1921, he was transferred to the position of agent-controller in the DTChK department in the city of Pskov, and in January 1922 he was fired due to staff reductions. The number of the order and the specific date of dismissal are not indicated.
The second stage of Panteleev's service in the Cheka. According to some reports, Lenka was admitted to the Cheka for the first time in December 1917, and this happened after an interview with F.E. Dzerzhinsky. They say that “Iron Felix” liked the young compositor very much, and he even uttered something like the following phrase: “This is what kind of Chekists we need - young, literate, from the workers.” In February 1918, when the German troops rushed to Narva and Pskov, all the young Chekists were sent to the front. And here Lenka was not lucky. During the battle, he was captured. After his release from the German camp, Panteleev was no longer taken to operational work, for obvious reasons. And he continued to serve as a private in the Red Army, where he proved himself from the very best side.
In July 1921, he was again invited to serve in the Cheka, to a fairly serious position as an investigator. The reasons for the second dismissal of Panteleev from the authorities are not completely clear. There are many versions. The most common of them - he turned out to be dishonest, was caught red-handed, etc. But another option is more realistic - Panteleev stood on the radical positions of party members - leftists and had a negative attitude towards the new economic policy, which was the reason for his dismissal. They say that Lenka lost his nerve, and he arranged a scuffle with shooting right at the party meeting.
According to another version, being an acting Chekist, Lenka put together a small gang and began racketeering the Nepmen. But he was exposed and arrested. However, it is only known for sure that at the end of 1921, Leonid Panteleev was under some kind of investigation, and was in the inner prison of the Petrograd Gubchek. It was located on Shpalernaya Street and was intended for persons arrested on very serious charges - counter-revolution, espionage, crimes in office.
It is also known that in February 1922 he was released, but dismissed from the Cheka. However, just from February 6, 1922, this organization was called differently: the State Political Directorate (GPU)
One way or another, but in February 1922 Panteleev was again in Petrograd. His hometown met him unkindly. Despite the wealth of the counters of private Nepman stores, most Petrograders had a hard time. The workers were especially poor - almost all plants and factories were standing.
Mass unemployment has become commonplace. In a long queue at the labor exchange, Panteleev met his peers - Nikolai Gavrikov and Mikhail Lisenkov. Gavrikov during the Civil War served in the Red Army, was a member of the CPSU (b). He began his service as a private, then was a platoon commander, a company commander, and at the end of the war - a battalion political instructor. Fought in Siberia against Kolchak. After demobilization, he arrived in Petrograd, where he joined the criminal investigation department of the Murmansk Railway. But he worked in the police for only three months, after which he was fired.
Lisenkov (nickname Mishka-Clumsy) came from "cadre" Lig hooligans. Then they were joined by petty criminal Alexander Reintop, nicknamed Sashka-pan, who came to Petrograd from Odessa. All of them were quite young people 20-22 years old. This four formed the core of the bandit group. Not having a permanent income, the friends decided to raise money with the help of robbery.
Getting weapons in post-revolutionary Petrograd turned out to be a simple matter - at any flea market you could buy quite a decent "trellis" and a dozen other cartridges for cheap.
Kazanskaya street, formerly Plekhanov street, in the house number 39 Panteleev raided the apartment of the furrier Bogachev.
The first serious action of the Panteleev group was a raid on the apartment of the famous Petrograd furrier Bogachev. March 4, 1922, at four o'clock in the afternoon, when the owners were not at home, three raiders with revolvers in their hands broke into the apartment, tied up the servants. Having broken cabinets and drawers, the bandits took the valuables that were in the house and calmly left through the back door. Exactly two weeks later, Panteleyev's gang robbed the apartment of Dr. Griliches, who was in private practice. The handwriting of the raiders was the same - in broad daylight they entered the apartment under the guise of patients, robbed its owner and disappeared.
In the crime statistics of the spring-summer of 1922, such facts became commonplace. Sometimes 40-50 raids were carried out in the city daily. Two-thirds of the raiders had never dealt with criminality before - need forced them to embark on such a slippery path. It is clear that the police could easily solve these crimes committed by non-professionals. In fact, after the second or third robbery, such gangs were liquidated by the criminal investigation department.
But in the face of Panteleev, the police met a worthy opponent. While serving in the Cheka, Lenka learned the basics of operational-search work, the rules of conspiracy well. He was skilled in hand-to-hand combat and was an excellent shot. In terms of his intellectual abilities, Panteleev was head and shoulders above ordinary bandits. And, perhaps most importantly, he enjoyed a certain sympathy and support from the poorest sections of the population of Petrograd. In their eyes, the identity of the raider was not so odious - he robbed only rich Nepmen, not touching ordinary inhabitants.
In the spring of 1922, all of Petrograd spoke about the Panteleev gang. The fact is that when making raids, Lenka first shot into the air, and then he necessarily called his name. The catchphrase was the following: "Citizens! Calm down, this is a raid. I am Lenka Panteeev, I ask you to hand over money and valuables. In case of resistance, I shoot without warning!"
VChK patrol on the streets of Petrograd (operation to capture Lenka Pantileev).
It was a psychological move - the bandits created "authority" for themselves, and at the same time suppressed the will of their victims, their ability to resist. The militia seriously was engaged in impudent gang. On June 12, on Zagorodny Prospekt, a criminal investigation officer identified Lenka by signs and tried to detain him. A gunfight broke out, police officers joined the chase. But Panteleev left through the courtyards, shooting one of the guards. The fact that the police got on the tail of the gang did not at all embarrass its leader. On June 26, Dr. Levin's apartment was robbed. This time the raiders were dressed in the uniform of Baltic sailors.
Building 29 on Bolshoy Prospekt of the Petrograd side, where Dr. Levin's apartment was robbed.
Then Panteleev bought a leather jacket and a cap at a flea market and began impersonating a GPU officer. According to fake warrants, the gang searched and requisitioned valuables from NEPmen Anikeev and Ishchens. In August, the bandits stopped a cab on the Field of Mars during the day and robbed three of its passengers - they took away money, watches, gold rings. A few days later, the same robbery was committed at the Splendid Palace nightclub.
Nevsky prospect, house 20. It was here in September 1922 that the Kozhtrest store was located.
On September 4, the raiders decided to rob the Kozhtrest shoe store, located on the corner of Nevsky Prospekt and Zhelyabova Street. But here an ambush awaited them. The bandits offered fierce resistance during the arrest, opening fire from revolvers. The gunfight soon escalated into hand-to-hand combat. Lenka managed to twist only after he was stunned. During a shootout in the shop hall, an assistant to the 3rd police department, Bardzai, was killed.
Panteleyev and Gavrikov were taken under heavy guard to the Kresty pre-trial detention center. Soon other members of the gang were also arrested.
Prison "Crosses".
The investigation was carried out rather quickly, and in October the trial began. At court sessions, Panteleev behaved at ease, artistically pretending to be a thug and obviously playing for the public. He appeared in the hall surrounded by a powerful convoy of eleven people.
The guards were armed to the teeth - rifles, checkers, revolvers. The court was attended by numerous and diverse spectators - journalists, lawyers, businessmen, exalted NEP ladies, Komsomol members, hooligans from Ligovka. The public still retained the pre-revolutionary habit of going to trials as if they were going to a theatrical performance.
Panteleev felt it and showed himself in all its glory. Sitting on the dock, he sang thieves' songs, including his favorite: "I love the Samara beer house, where Tamara often visits," and so on. He answered boldly to the questions of the court and the prosecutor, and in the end he declared: "Citizens of the judge, why all this farce? Anyway, I will soon run away."
Panteleev was kept in cell No. 196, located on the top floor of the investigation building. His accomplices were located nearby. Lisenkov was in cell 195 next door, Raintop in cell 191, and Gavrikov a little further away in cell 185.
Panteleev managed to contact his colleagues in the criminal "business". Raintop, who was a prison servant, also decided to run away. He managed to establish "business relations" with the overseer of the fourth gallery, Ivan Kondratiev. He had long had contacts with the Petrograd underworld.
The escape was originally scheduled for November 7th. But on this day, something went wrong. Although already that night the doors of many cells were open. According to some reports, Panteleev planned to raise an armed uprising in the "Crosses" on November 7th. He intended to open the fireproof cabinet of the office of the Ispravdom, seize several rifles, a light machine gun, kill the guards and arrange a mass escape. But professional criminals refused to get involved "in politics." Then the disappointed Panteleev played back and decided to run away only with his gang.
The next attempt was made on the night of November 10-11. As you know, on this day a big holiday is celebrated - the Day of the Police. Therefore, the guards of the "Crosses" got drunk and lost their vigilance. Kondratiev freely released Lisenkov, Raintop, Panteleev, Gavrikov from the cells, and cut off the light in the gallery. Moreover, he managed to de-energize the entire body.
A reasonable question arises - why, after the lights went out, did the guards not announce a general alarm? The answer is simple - in those days, city substations worked at the limit of technical wear and tear, and blackouts in the prison were commonplace. The guards of the "Crosses" did not react in any way to the next "accident".
In the darkness, four bandits and Kondratiev began to move towards the main post. Warden I.Kondratiev did not escape, and voluntarily surrendered to the authorities. He helped Panteleev not only for money, but also for ideological reasons. After the escape, the head of the prison and his deputy were removed from office, and in 1937 they were shot for their negligence.
After the escape, Panteleev put together a new, even more powerful gang. The raiders decided to celebrate their successful escape from prison in the fashionable Nepman restaurant "Donon". On December 9, Panteleev fell into the Donon along with his right hand, Gavrikov, and another raider, Varshulevich, with whom they served in the Pskov Cheka.
Restaurant "Donon" Moika embankment, 24.
In the restaurant, Panteleev went over cognac and clashed with some NEP company. A fight ensued. The head waiter called the police. Seeing the guards, the raiders drew their weapons and opened fire. A shootout ensued. Turning the tables, the bandits rushed to the back door. During the flight, Varshulevich was mortally wounded in the back. Panteleev was wounded in the arm. But he and Gavrikov managed to escape. Having chosen the embankment Washers, friends rushed in all directions. Gavrikov on Nevsky Prospekt was detained by a detachment of mounted police. After several interrogations, he was shot.
Lenka ran towards the Pavlovsky barracks (now the Lenenergo building), crossed the Field of Mars, and took refuge in an abandoned church on Panteleymonovskaya Street. Agents of "Ugro" with a service dog rushed in his wake, but they could not find the raider. The skirmish at Donon created a lot of noise, and rumors spread around Petrograd about Panteleev's perfect elusiveness. From that moment on, he was called Lenka Lucky in criminal circles.
Church of St. Panteleimon on the street. Pestel, where Lyonka Panteleev took refuge.
In the next three months, the Panteleev gang committed approximately 10 murders, 15 armed raids, and 20 street robberies (the exact figure could not be established). The raiders repeatedly engaged in a skirmish with guards, agents of the "threat", and even patrols of mounted police. And always safely escaped from persecution. In the spring, after the snow melted, the bandits planned to cross the border and take refuge in Estonia.
Realizing that the police were unable to cope with the impudent gang, the GPU joined the case. Several special shock groups were created, which included experienced Chekists and Red Army soldiers of the GPU special regiment. The Chekists once again analyzed Panteleev's connections. Twenty ambushes were set up at the places of its possible appearance. One of Panteleevsky's "raspberries" was located at No. 38 on Mozhayskaya Street.
One of the "raspberries" Panteleev on Mozhayskaya, 38
Late in the evening of February 12, two unidentified men in Red Army uniform entered this apartment, opening the door with their key. The Chekist ambush had been here for the second day. Everyone was taken aback by surprise. The more experienced Panteleev was the first to come to his senses. He took a sharp step forward and said in a firm voice: "What's the matter, comrades, who are you waiting for here?" At the same time, he tried to pull a revolver out of his overcoat pocket. However, the trigger caught on clothes, an involuntary shot rang out. After that opened fire and ambush. Panteleev, shot through the head, collapsed dead on the floor. Lisenkov, wounded in the neck, tried to escape, but was detained.
The next day, a small article appeared in the newspapers with the following content: “On the night of February 12-13, a well-known bandit, who has recently become famous for his brutal murders and raids , Leonid Pantelkin, nicknamed "Lenka Panteleev." During the arrest, Lenka showed desperate armed resistance, during which he was KILLED.
On March 6, according to the verdict of the GPU board, the remaining 17 members of the gang were shot, including A. Reintop and M. Lisenkov. The Panteleev gang was liquidated, but rumors stubbornly circulated around Petrograd that Lenka was alive and would still show himself. Several times during the raids, unknown bandits called themselves either Panteleev, or Lisenkov, or Gavrikov. And then the authorities took an extraordinary measure. Panteleev's body was skillfully "restored" and put on public display in the morgue of the Obukhov hospital.
Obukhov hospital.
Thousands of Petrograd residents came to see the legendary raider. It was only after that that the rumor curve went down sharply.Lenka's head was severed from the body and placed in the window of one of the shops on Nevsky Prospekt. She stayed there for several months. And the headless body was buried in a common grave at the Mitrofanevsky cemetery.Later, the head, having been alcoholized, was sent to the study room of criminalistics of the threat. Three years ago, this "exhibit" was accidentally discovered at the Faculty of Law of St. Petersburg State University.
Alcoholized head of Lenka Panteleev.
The vast majority of Petrograd residents did not believe that Panteleev was shot dead on a thieves' "raspberry". That is why the city authorities put the corpse of the raider on public display in the morgue of the Obukhov hospital. But the corpse of a 30-year-old man presented to the public somehow did not look very much like Lenka, who was much younger. An open trial of the accomplices of the raider, which the people of Petrograd were looking forward to, never took place. 17 people from Panteleev's gang were hastily shot on March 6, 1923, virtually without trial or investigation. It became clear that the authorities were trying to hush up the “case” and were carefully hiding something.
Chekist Ivan Busko, who shot Panteleev.
In a strange way, the fate of the young Chekist Ivan Busko, who shot Lenka in an ambush on Mozhayskaya Street, also developed. Instead of receiving a well-deserved reward and promotion, Busko was demoted to Sakhalin Island (!) and appointed assistant head of the border outpost. He stayed there until June 1941. During the Great Patriotic War, Busko served in SMERSH, retired from the authorities with the modest rank of lieutenant colonel, and returned to Leningrad only in 1956. He lived very modestly, categorically refusing to communicate with journalists and any public speaking. I. Busko died in 1994, in complete obscurity.
Sergei Kondratiev, head of the GPU task force.
Approximately the same was done with S. Kondratiev, the head of the special task force of the Petrograd GPU, which was hunting for the Panteleev gang. By the way, it was his biography that served as the basis for the script for the film "Born by the Revolution". With only one significant amendment - after the Panteleev "case" he was also prosecuted in the service. S. Kondratyev was transferred from Leningrad to Petrozavodsk (and not at all to Moscow), where he headed the local criminal investigation department for a long time, and lived after his retirement. Subsequently, his wife claimed that L. Panteleev in the spring - summer of 1922 came to their house several times and had some conversations with her husband. Chekist, who led his search!
Another mystery is the fate of the other four Chekists who were part of the special group: Sushenkov, Shershevsky, Davydov and Dmitriev. They, in fact, caught the legendary raider, their signatures appear under the protocol for examining the body of the murdered L. Panteleev. All of them in the near future, under various pretexts, were dismissed from the "authorities", and their names are not mentioned even in serious historical and scientific literature. Including, in such a solid publication as "Chekists of Petrograd" (ed. 1987).
This fact is also interesting: in the early 1920s, many gangs were operating in Petrograd. But the most popular then, of all those published in the city, Krasnaya Gazeta, from issue to issue, depicted the adventures of only one gang of Panteleev. The party newspaper could do this only on orders from above - in other words, the St. Petersburg city leadership intensively "promoted" Lenka.
The apartment at 38 Mozhayskaya Street, where L. Panteleev was allegedly shot, also raises a number of questions. In all documents, it is called the thieves' "raspberry", but it clearly does not look like the latter. The real "raspberries" at that time were semi-basement and basement premises, in fact, rooming houses, in which sometimes up to fifty thieves and mazuriks lived. And here is a completely comfortable two-room apartment, in which only three people lived: the Polish thief Mickiewicz with his wife and adult daughter. And this at a time when there was an acute shortage of housing in the city and only a select few from among the party bosses had individual apartments. It looks like it was the so-called "lighthouse" - the operational apartment of the Chekists or the police.
All this, taken together, seriously reinforces the new version that Panteleev was not an ordinary raider, but a person closely associated with the GPU. The theme of Panteleev's high patrons in the party environment, who had unlimited levers of power in the early 1920s, is also promising. In Petrograd at that time, Grigory Evseevich Zinoviev, the party boss, chairman of the Council of the Northern Commune and head of the Comintern, almost single-handedly disposed of. Zinoviev was a supporter of the permanent revolution, Trotsky and an ardent opponent of the NEP. Economic and political stabilization in Russia directly contradicted his official and personal interests.
G. Zinoviev.
Zinoviev and his entourage staked on the world revolution, and actively defended their position in party discussions. Zinoviev directly told Lenin: “Look, Vladimir Ilyich, the Petrograd workers, the beauty and pride of the revolution, are very dissatisfied with the NEP. Some even took up arms, organized gangs, killed and robbed bourgeois. We must end the NEP, this is an erroneous line!” It is very likely that Panteleev was a trump card in this subtle political game.
In other words, Lenka was a typical undercover agent. But the task before him was specific - not to destroy a specific gang, but to bring a small "hype" in the city, robbing and killing the Nepmen. However, here Lenka and his patron G. Zinoviev obviously overdid it. A real panic broke out in Petrograd. After dark, people were afraid to go out into the streets. Hardware workshops were inundated with orders for ingenious locks and chains. All the robberies, robberies and murders committed in the city were attributed by rumor to Panteleev. Lenka got dozens of "unauthorized" followers and doppelgangers. The situation began to get out of control. And then the operation "Robin Hood" had to be urgently curtailed.
In this regard, the version that Lenka, having completed a special assignment, returned to serve in the authorities, does not seem absurd. They say that he was seen several times in the 30s in the corridors of the Big House, in the form of an employee of the GPU. And he died in 1937, when the whirlpool of repression swallowed up his former boss G. Zinoviev. According to other sources, Panteleev, naturally under a different surname, successfully survived the repressions, the war, the blockade and died in the 70s in Leningrad. However, it has not yet been possible to document this outrageous version.
Posthumous photograph of L. Panteleev.
Apparently, at the end it is worth saying a few words about Panteleev's relatives. His mother and two sisters, Vera and Claudia, were repressed in connection with this criminal case. The raider was not officially married, but he considered a certain Lyubov Kruglova to be his common-law wife. They did not have joint children, so the rumors about Panteleev's daughter are most likely a hoax. After the defeat of the gang, L. Kruglova was sent from Petrograd to Karelia for a settlement. In 1937, she was shot by the NKVD "troika" in the city of Kem.
In 1995, a gang was arrested in Moscow, which traded in "black real estate", taking away apartments from elderly Muscovites. It included a certain Andrei Manzhov, who called himself the great-grandson of the legendary raider. But even if he really has a relationship with him, then most likely he is the great-nephew of Leonid Panteleev.
Based on materials
At the end of his life, he managed to complete the confession "I believe ...". About the childish faith, which he suddenly lost after his father went missing, and also about the vile atheistic pamphlets that flowed from under his pen like a river. About new idols and gods that replaced God: Comintern, revolution, international... About the first satanic theft in a convent. About fatherlessness and homeless childhood in a labor re-education colony SHKID - Dostoevsky School.
"The Republic of ShKID", written by Panteleev together with his friend Grigory Belykh, was read by everyone. In a country where hundreds of homeless children from murdered white and red parents passed through the colony, the book by Leonid Panteleev and Grigory Belykh was a bestseller. But in 1938, Grigory Belykh was arrested. And the book was banned and, it seemed, consigned to oblivion forever. Moreover, Makarenko himself, a supporter of strict military drill and iron discipline, spoke out against the "Republic of SHKID". The liberal-democratic Viktor Nikolaevich Sorokin - Vikniksor - is a direct antipode of the author of the Pedagogical Poem.
In fairness, it should be noted that both Makarenko and Shkidovites have become a new generation, if not intellectuals, then at least highly qualified specialists. Evidence of this is the fate of Leonid Panteleev himself. Atheistic fanaticism and revolutionary obstinacy were washed away like water during the Leningrad blockade. German bombs were falling from the sky. One exploded a few meters from his bed. Heavily shell-shocked, a little alive from hunger, whispering prayers that popped up from nowhere, he crawled out onto the landing. And, as if answering a prayer, a woman came out, bent over the dying man and saved his life by pouring boiling water into her mouth, slightly sweetened with condensed milk. But she was staggering from hunger.
Panteleev was sure that prayers suddenly escaping from his lips saved him from bombs, from starvation, from execution.
For the generation of the 1960s, one of the signs of a thaw was the publication, and then the wonderful film adaptation by Gennady Poloka of "The Republic of ShKID". The whole country memorized the prayer of the street child Mommy: "The cat has four legs, / it has a long tail behind it. / But you can't touch it, you can't / because of its small stature, small stature." Touched, still touched. And Panteleev himself recalls with horror how he tore an amulet from the chest of a homeless child by force. There was a cross and a handful of native land. Ruined everything. And then they became friends. Many, many years later, in the early 1950s, that homeless child became the director of a Karelian publishing house and was the first to publish the story of the disgraced writer, for which he was trampled on for a long time by his colleagues in his native party. The same man published Mayu Lassila's famous novel "For Matches".
Speaking about this fate, Panteleev noted that many atheists and members of the party remained Christians in their hearts. They must be judged by their deeds, not by forced words. Panteleev himself was loved primarily for his words. For the touching documentary story about the daughter "Our Masha", for the penitential book of memoirs "I Believe ...". And, of course, for an island of freedom in an unfree state - the Republic of ShKID. All the heroes of this documentary utopia have long since died, but the republic itself remains. Who created it? Vikniksor, Mommy, Belykh, Panteleev. Homeless children of an orphaned country.
Everyone has a country of childhood. Lev Kassil has Shvambrania, Panteleev has the essentially Christian republic of ShKID. This book, like all the writer's work, is written over barriers. Political systems come and go, but a person remains himself. The words "Unless you are like children, you will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven" have long become a proverb. Leonid Panteleev entered - along with a whole generation of homeless children of the twentieth century.
