Rostov-dad and not only: which cities were the most criminal in the USSR

There is a legend that one of the towns was cleared of robbers and murderers, releasing hundreds of plainclothes military into the streets, who fired on anyone who tried to attack them. Where did this operation take place? Let’s talk!

Odessa was famous for the exorbitant number of bandits even before the revolution. It is here that the famous Mishka Yaponchik and Sonya the Golden Handle performed their machinations. October changed little, and after the Victory the situation in the city became critical: in the evening, the inhabitants simply did not dare to go out into the streets.

It didn’t help: Members of the Black Cat and Dodge 3/4 robbed apartments, slaughtering entire families. Victims of bandits often became officers of the Soviet army who came on vacation to the sea. That is why the army was involved in the suppression of crime in Odessa.

They say Marshal Georgy Zhukov was responsible for Operation Masquerade. According to legend, he sent plainclothes policemen and military intelligence officers into the streets, ordering them to shoot anyone who tried to rob them. Thanks to this, the underworld of Odessa was defeated.

Who was first in terms of the number of criminals – Odessa or Rostov-on-Don – historians still argue. It was in Rostov that a gang of “ghosts” “worked”, who robbed shops and banks down on their heads. The criminals there acted in a coordinated and clear manner, which the police even suspected: the case was not going without Western intelligence services.

The “hosiery” was replaced by the “black captain”: the three Samoylenko brothers and their friend Sergei Lezhennikov stopped cars on the highways and killed passengers. The gang got its name from the uniform of the police captain, which the criminals got during one of the robberies and actively used it.

In 1980, the “captains” were arrested, but they were immediately replaced by “nurses” – a criminal group whose members entered apartments in medical uniforms, cutting off the owners. The “caregivers” were arrested in 1981, but only one was sentenced to death: powerful bosses helped the others out.

In the capital of the Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, the largest organized criminal group in the USSR, the Tyap-Lyap gang, operated. Funny name, right? But the bandits weren’t funny at all. The group takes its name from the name of the area where most of its members lived – the area of ​​the Teplokontrol factory.

The Tyap-Lap included only non-drinking, non-smoking teenagers and young men who literally lived in basement gymnasiums. The organized crime group, consisting of more than 300 well-trained fighters, very quickly became the most powerful in Kazan, gaining leadership in wall-to-wall battles with other groups.

Typical “Tyap-Lap” occupations were robbery and racketeering. But the “tyap-lyapovites” had another “entertainment” – they organized mass races, slaughtering to death everyone they met. During one of the races, three police officers died – then the authorities declared war on organized crime groups. Several dozen bandits ended up in the settlement, one of the three leaders, Zavdat Khantemirov, was sentenced to death.

In Dnepropetrovsk, a group of Alexander Milchenko, nicknamed Sailor, “worked”, which set a record for “survivability” – the gang hunted for 10 years. This was possible due to the fact that the city, where many of Brezhnev’s compatriots lived, enjoyed privileges – since 1970 no inspection checks of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs have been carried out there.

The “sailors” engaged in elimination of card debts, cheating and racketeering. The gang managed to invite athletes – weightlifter Sultan Rakhmanov and world boxing champion Viktor Savchenko. Milchenko had his own men in the force, and the 11 cases against the gang fell apart. The situation changed when the city lost its special status and a special brigade of the Ministry of Internal Affairs was sent to it from Moscow. The sailor was sentenced: he received 12 years.