The son of a hero: the story of the maniac Anatoly Biryukov, who abducted and raped babies

What kind of animal can do that to small children? No one could even think that the son of the Hero of the Soviet Union and production drummer Anatoly Biryukov would turn out to be a maniac.

Nikolai’s father, Anatoly Biryukov, began defending his homeland against the Nazis as a division commander and graduated in 1945, becoming a lieutenant general and Hero of the Soviet Union. Anatoly dreamed that his son would follow in his footsteps and make a career in the army. It probably would have happened had it not been for the accident.

Nikolai had been interested in weapons since childhood. Somehow he got to the box of cartridges and decided to saw one off to get gunpowder. But the ammunition exploded, disfiguring the child – the boy’s face was left with deep, ugly scars for the rest of his life.

Because of the marks, other children began to make fun of Nikolai, and he withdrew into himself: he did not play with anyone, he tried not to go out anymore. He now had a persistent aversion to weapons, and so he trained as a locksmith and went to work in one of the Moscow enterprises.

The father was not happy when he learned that Nikolai had decided to become an ordinary worker, but he reconciled. He loved his son, and so he was always happy when he heard that the guy was appreciated for his responsibility and professionalism. Nikolai led the life of an ordinary person – he worked, got married, had two children. No one could even imagine what this calm and polite man would soon do.

For the first time, Nikolai tried to kidnap a baby in 1971 – at that time he was 32 years old. Passing by the children’s polyclinic, Biryukov noticed a stroller with a child and tried to “steal” it. Nothing happened: at that time, the mother came out of the hospital and was fussing. Biryukov was arrested, but the man managed to convince law enforcement that he only wanted to scare the woman and got off with a fine.

In 1972, Biryukov again tried to kidnap the baby – and again got caught. This time, no one believed the joke, but Nikolai still got away with it – he was sentenced to three years in prison. The kidnapper lied that he wanted to steal the stroller to sell it, and didn’t notice the baby inside.

While Nikolai was serving his sentence, his wife filed for divorce from him. Upon his release, Biryukov got a job as a mechanic at the same place where he worked before. For several years he managed to fight his fantasies, but in 1977 the maniac could not bear it: after noticing an unattended stroller on the street, he pulled the child out of it.

With a little girl, a man jumped into the first entrance that crossed. He put the girl on the windowsill, took off the diapers – and the baby cried out. Frightened, the maniac stabbed her in the stomach, almost cutting her in half, and fled.

The baby murder case was immediately closed – and it was a huge mistake. Muscovites continued to leave children on the streets, and Biryukov took advantage of this. Three days later, he kidnapped a three-month-old girl, whose mother left the stroller near the store.

The girl’s body was found in a landfill. The examination showed that the child had died of head trauma. Another conclusion of the doctors shocked even the most knowledgeable agents: the baby was raped.

A month later, Biryukov kidnapped a six-month-old boy – he took him from the hands of a pensioner. The old woman started calling for help, but when people came running, the pedophile had already disappeared. The corpse was found a few days later – the child died as a result of rape, which inflicted too serious injuries on the baby.

After the third murder, the police began detaining any men they thought were suspicious. Somehow they stopped a father walking with his little son, right in front of Biryukov, and the maniac realized that they were looking for him. Then he decided to “hunt” not in the capital, but in Chekhov, where he was born and raised.

In a town near Moscow, he managed to kidnap two girls who were not even a year old. They became his last victims: during the next attempt to steal the child, the maniac was noticed. Passers-by and the mother chased Biryukov: they could not catch up with the killer, but the cap fell off the man and everyone saw his remarkable appearance.

Thanks to the composite portrait, the “production manager” was quickly arrested. Nikolai willingly told investigators how he tortured the children and complained that he did all this because of his wife, whose refusal to have sex distorted his psyche.

The reason for the maniac’s frankness was simple: he was sure that his influential father would “get rid of him”. Anatoly really rushed to save his son, in whose guilt he did not believe, he hired the best and most expensive lawyers … But the evidence that Biryukov Sr. saw at trial was too convincing, and right at the meeting the soldier denied Nikolai.

Specialists from the Serbsky Institute found that Nikolai did not have pyophilia – sexual attraction to babies, but still recognized the man as sane. Biryukov was sentenced to death and all his requests for clemency were denied. The maniac was shot on February 24, 1979.

Photo: Grigory Kalachyan/TASS