Thief vanka. Biography

The legendary thief Vanka Cain was a real Robin Hood who robbed the rich and helped the poor by giving them gold. The life and adventures of the thief Vanka Cain, with whom many songs and legends are associated.

Moscow thief, robber and detective. The son of a peasant in the Rostov district, the village of Ivanovo. After adventures in Moscow, he went to the Volga, where he joined the lower freemen and robbed in the gang of the famous ataman Mikhail Zarya. In 1741, he appeared in the Moscow detective order and offered his services in catching thieves. In May 1775 he was sentenced to be quartered. Later, the death sentence was commuted to eternal hard labor.

Ivan Osipov, who later received the nickname Cain, began to steal from childhood, as soon as his parents gave him into the service of the Moscow merchant Filatiev. At first, he stole a little from the owner, and for this the merchant beat him hard. As a teenager, Vanka began to wander around the taverns. There he made acquaintance with a real professional thief, a retired sailor Pyotr Romanovich Smirny, nicknamed Kamchatka. Vanka opened Filatiev's chest with money and fled with the booty. Thanks to the patronage of Kamchatka, he became a member of a gang of thieves who spent the night under the Stone Bridge. From the very first days, Vanka showed that he had a great future as a thief. Vanka Cain was not just a thief, but also a merry gambler.

The girl Avdotya, who was his mistress, after she did not betray him under torture, he presented a velvet box with gold and diamonds, and when she married the Life Guards of the cavalry regiment of Reiter Nelidov, he stole three hundred rubles from the tailor and, giving them to that Avdotya, said to her husband: “Be quiet, Mr. Reiter! I am not a thief, not a thief, but to become the same. And handing Avdotya the money, he said: “Here’s a priest’s onion for you, ready to peel off, knowing you read it, but remember when you die.”

As a rule, the robbers waited for the late traveler in a secluded place and, under the threat of a knife or club, took away everything that the victim had with him. There were also daring raids on the houses of wealthy citizens, when a gang, having landed the gate and frightened the servants and owners, took away all valuable things with them. Great intelligence and resourcefulness for such cases was not required. Vanka just possessed these qualities and soon found a use for them. Broken, cheerful, sociable Vanka could easily persuade servants, and more often - maids in rich houses to help him rid their owner of "extra" property. He also knew how to silently squeeze the glass out of the windows. And it happened that during the day, together with the buyers, Vanka would come to the trading yard and hide there, waiting until the owner and the clerks went home. And then, already at night, he was transferring goods to accomplices who were waiting for him behind the fence.

This went on until one day Vanka accidentally ran into his former master, the merchant Filatyev, and his servants. They tied him up and dragged him into the yard, from where he had escaped shortly before, leaving a mocking inscription on the door of the house: “Drink water like a goose, eat like a pig, but let the devil work for you, not me.” Vanka was put on a chain tied to a post in the yard, and Filatiev strictly forbade him to drink and feed. In those days, the owners preferred to administer the court arbitrarily, because the police during the official proceedings often took away the goods stolen by the thief. Vanka, who was threatened with a severe flogging, waited for the witnesses to be strangers to the merchant, and suddenly shouted loudly: “The sovereign’s word and deed!” This meant that he had important information for the Secret Office, which was investigating state crimes.

Immediately taken to the Moscow office of the Secret Chancellery, Vanka announced that the merchant Filatiev, together with his servants, had killed a soldier and hid the corpse in an abandoned well. He was ready to show the place. This saved Ivan Osipov and killed his master, since the murder of a soldier - a "statesman" - was punished with all severity since Peter the Great. For the help of the police in solving such a serious crime, Vanka received his freedom. Friends in the gang joyfully greeted his return. After conferring, they elected a clever young man as their chieftain. Under the leadership of Vanka, the gang went to Nizhny Novgorod to the famous Makariev fair, hoping to get rich there.

There Vanka, who during his service with Filatyev had learned the intricacies of the trade, made numerous acquaintances with the clerks, looked out for and found out how to direct his accomplices to profitable prey. One day Vanka decided to commit theft on his own from a well-guarded house where merchants kept silver. But the impudent raider was captured, the merchants began to guard him with iron bars. Vanka had to shout again “Word and deed!” Vanka was placed in prison in order to be sent with an opportunity to the capital for the investigation of his denunciation in the Secret Chancellery. But his friends bribed the guards, who gave Osipov the master keys for the locks on the shackles and indicated a convenient time and place to escape. Vanka fled from the dungeon to ... a bathhouse, from where he ran completely naked into the street, shouting that his clothes, documents, and passport had been stolen from him. The scene was acted out so convincingly that the local police gave him clothes and even straightened out a new passport. With "clean documents" he got to Moscow without any hassle.

Here the gang hid for a while, slowly selling the stolen goods. In Moscow, Vanka did not find many of his former acquaintances: some were in prison, some were sent to hard labor, some were executed. At this time, an unexpected plan ripened in Osipov's head. The quirky and adventurous nature pushed him to become ... an informer. At the end of 1741, he submitted a petition to the head of the Moscow detective order, Prince Kropotkin, in which he expressed remorse for past sins and offered services to the authorities in the search and capture of thieves. The prince assigned a team of soldiers to Ivan Osipov, and in one night more than thirty criminals were arrested in Moscow . It was on this night that the contemptuous nickname Cain stuck to Vanka forever. Soon, a list of Moscow robbers compiled by him with a brief description of their deeds was found with one of the criminals arrested with his help. One of the first on that list was Ivan Osipov, who retrained as a detective in time ...

Having earned the trust of the authorities, Vanka Cain, with the help of the police, began to catch thieves with such ease with which he had previously carried out raids and robberies. In the two years that have passed since the first large-scale arrest of thieves, the number of criminals caught with it has increased more than tenfold. Osipov used his new position as a “detective order informer” primarily for personal enrichment, however, many policemen did not disdain the same at that time. Vanka, without a twinge of conscience, extorted money from passportless, fugitives and schismatics, took a “duty” from foreign merchants who came to trade in Moscow and did not want to quarrel with the police. Having caught the thief red-handed, he took most of the booty for himself, instead of returning it to the rightful owner. Finding out during interrogation from the caught criminals where and with whom they were hiding, to whom the stolen goods were sold, Vanka blackmailed their accomplices by lot, extorting a bribe from them. Some of the former members of the gang who were left at large helped him in these matters. Among them is Kamchatka, his first mentor, not forgotten by the grateful student.

This activity of his in the depths of the criminal world could not go unnoticed. Denunciations went to Vanka himself - both from respectable citizens, and from the robbers “surrendered” to him, who believed that Cain’s place was in prison. But the cunning Cain immediately turned directly to the Senate with a request that these denunciations not be considered, since he, by virtue of his duties as a police informer, is simply forced to communicate with the criminal world. The Senate directed the Investigative Order to ignore the denunciations that referred to Ivan Osipov's involvement in "unimportant cases", without specifying exactly what was meant. Thus, the servants of the Moscow Investigative Order, that is, people, most of whom were his friends and received generous remuneration from the prudent Vanka, had to decide on the “unimportance” of the thieves' cases in which Vanka Cain was involved.

Moreover, the Senate then also ordered that the city authorities and officers of the military garrison provide Ivan Osipov with all possible assistance ... Vanka Kain strengthened his social position. He now dressed in the latest fashion, curled and powdered his hair. I bought a big house in Zaryadye - the most prestigious part of Moscow, furnished it with expensive furniture, decorated it with paintings and trinkets. He arranged a billiard room in the house, which was a rarity even among the rich nobility. All that was missing was a charming hostess. However, the neighbor's daughter, who liked Osipov, did not reciprocate. This only inflamed the gentleman more. He forced one of the captured robbers to call the obstinate beauty his accomplice. The girl was arrested and tortured. Vanka Cain conveyed to his beloved through an accomplice that he could not only save her from torture, but generally achieve her release, in return she should marry him. The girl preferred life with an unloved husband.

In the autumn of 1749, Chief of Police A.D. Tatishchev arrived in Moscow. He was supposed to prepare the city for the visit of Empress Elizabeth, in particular, to rid it of thieves and robbers. Tatishchev in his youth served as a batman for Peter I, who, as you know, kept bold and enterprising people in this position. As a police chief general, he reported directly to the empress and was considered a smart and tough man to punish. One of the methods of dealing with criminals Tatishchev considered their branding - burning the word "thief" on their foreheads. For this, he himself invented a device. What if the offender reforms or an innocent person is convicted? “If something is corrected or something else, then it will never be too late to add “not” on his forehead in front of the old stigma, answered the resourceful Tatishchev.

Complaints about Vanka Cain began to come to the chief of police. Tatishchev suspected him of double-dealing and, disregarding the merits of the "informer of the Detective Order", ordered him to be reared up and tortured. Vanka decided to resort to the old trick and shouted: “Word and deed!” But the chief of police, who was subordinate only to the empress, continued the inquiry, intensifying the torture. As a result, Osipov confessed to all his sins. A special commission was created to conduct an investigation into the case of Vanka Cain. It took the commission several years to figure out his machinations. Vanka himself, having found himself behind bars, established a connection with the will through friends from the Detective Order and prison guards, securing a quite tolerable life for himself in prison. He feasted, played cards, had fun with women. I waited and hoped that his case would be closed.

However, the composition of the employees of the Moscow Detective Order changed, and Vanka did not have influential patrons and friends in this and other state institutions in Moscow. He was put on trial and in May 1775 was sentenced to be quartered. Then this death sentence was replaced by eternal hard labor. Vanka's nostrils were torn out, the word "thief" was burned out not only on his forehead, but also on his cheeks and sent to the Baltic Sea, and then to Siberia. There traces of him were lost ...

In folk legends, Vanka Cain looks like a real Robin Hood, who robbed the rich and helped the poor, giving them gold. Many popular songs are associated with his name, for example, "Don't make noise, mother green oak tree."

Tatiana Bessonova

Vanka Cain

PART ONE

Am Ivan believed that his life began on the day when, having regained consciousness, he robbed the owner and left his yard, attaching a note to the gate: “Work for the devil, not me.” Before that, there was no real life. There were only almost sixteen years of solid patience. First, in the village, in his parents' low, as if crushed house, he endured the constantly gloomy, annoyed looks of the restless, bony father and his endless evil prodding and swearing: he did something wrong, that's not right, "bastard!" Mother almost did not remember, she died when she was three or four years old; I remembered only her hot hands, tiredly lying on her knees, her head obediently bowed in a faded handkerchief, and that she sat down for a moment by the stove. Lask didn't remember any of them. But everyone already then, in childhood, told him that he must endure everything, that for this he was born a serf, to endure everything from all adults and even from the priest and deacon in the church, no matter what they told him. He didn't understand why he should. And when their owner, the trading guest Filatiev, ordered his father to bring him to Moscow and put him in his yard, he also only endured, and endured from everyone in this yard, for he was only thirteen years old, the youngest in the yard, and more and more in his heart he was embittered, furious. Because no one has ever asked if he wants to do what he is told, and what he wants in general, what he thinks about - no one ever! They only urged, ordered, yelled and punished. And he endured and endured, realizing that he needed to gain strength, grow up, come to mind, and then do something.

So he did: he robbed and left, writing such a note. Thank God, at least he learned to read and write a little from the groom Nikodim.

But the next day, the owner grabbed him from the rows on Red Square - they collided face to face - and dragged him back, fiercely cut him and put him on a chain in a log house without a roof, in which he kept a three-year-old bear for fun - powerful, but, thank God, not fierce. The bear is in one corner on a long chain, Ivan is in the other, on a short one. If converge - could and get each other.

And September was coming to an end - John the Theologian, it was very cold at night, and Ivan was in the rags that were thrown to him after the beating; he lay down covered in blood, the bear sniffed uneasily, growled angrily, roared, dangled dazedly, rattling his chain, from wall to wall. Filatiev ordered not to give Ivan any food or water, and the bear, on the contrary, - more than before. And Dunya, also a serf yard, brought food to the bear, two years older than Ivan. Sweet, agile, with a pretty face. There was no friendship between them, Ivan was one of the invisible ones: short, slightly red-haired, only his teeth were remarkably bright. For the first time or two, Filatiev himself watched how Dunya pushed the bear with a stick to feed, but no matter how he looked, she just gave Ivan a piece of boiled meat and a piece of bread, stored in advance in his bosom. And she whispered that at night she would contrive and bring more. There were door and window holes in the log house, he stood in the yard in plain sight, and the watchmen and clerks were ordered to also strictly watch Ivan. So, neither on the first, nor on the second, nor on the third night, Dunya was able to sneak in there, only when she carried the bear, she threw everything she could to Ivan and first pushed him a bucket of water. And Ivan, although he bared his bright teeth, as always, half smiling, half grinning, but sleeping from his face, turned pale, and only now Dunya saw what sharp and deeply hidden serious brown eyes he had.

But on the fourth gloomy windy night, there was finally no one in the yard, and Dunya rushed to the log house. But before diving into it, she looked around, listened, and suddenly heard that Ivan was singing there, inside. At the first moment, I was even scared - I went crazy! And his voice was so hysterical that the frost went down the track. It wasn’t a hysterical sound, the sound was even a little muffled, with a hoarseness, but something in it - whether it was passion, or pain, that beat in this voice. In an ugly voice, yes, ugly, but so piercingly sincere, so scorchingly sincere, which Dunya had never heard of, and she, with a frost on her skin, fascinated, silently stepped into the darkness of the log house, peering into the corner where he sat.

The red maiden passed away.

Oh you winds, you are warm,

Stop blowing, you are not needed ...

I saw her and immediately subsided, said joyfully:

Blue soul!

And the unheard song still sounded in her, everything sounded, and she asked dumbfounded:

You sing?

I warm my soul.

You sing so much!! Chilly?

I won't get cold. Soul chills.

The bear purred contentedly, rattling its chain, hobbled towards them - apparently, he decided that Dunya had brought an extraordinary feeding. In the light of the flashing moon, it even seemed that the bear was smiling.

Throw him a bit, otherwise he will get angry, roar - a good man. Did you like how I sing?

Strange ... Yes, I liked it, yes!

Do you want to sing to you alone?

And suddenly Ivan tightly pressed Dunya to himself - as if he grabbed it with iron! - and repeated with the same piercing hoarseness with which he sang:

Do you want me to sing to you alone?

The next day, Dunya went up to the log house at an odd hour, before noon, in front of many, and it seemed that she began to correct it in her shoe, and she herself whispered into the window hole closest to Ivan that in the backyard of Filatiev, in a dry old well, lies the corpse of a soldier landmilitia. The second day lies. This is more accurate - I checked everything. And in the evening of the same day, when for some reason a lieutenant of the Guards who came to Filatyev turned up in the yard - they walked and talked - Ivan's desperate cry was heard from the log house:

Word and deed! Word and deed!

He shouted throughout the estate. Screamed fiercely. The lieutenant with Filatiev, of course, to the log house. The owner is purple from anger and rage, his eyes are filled with blood.

What other "Word and deed", dog scum?!

Which? Which? - echoes the officer.

Sovereign! I'll only tell the chief police officer.

And again in a blessed cry:

Word and deed! Word and deed! Word and deed!

The whole household hears, dozens of people. The owner almost burst with anger, and the officer ordered Ivan to be unlocked from the chain and taken away with him. And after midnight, Ivan swooped in with soldiers with guns and another officer, led them to the backyard, lit torches there, lowered two ropes with crampons into a dry well, and really pulled out the corpse of a Land Militia soldier. The servants stood around in complete silence, only the torches crackled and the reflections of the whitish fire danced on the gloomy and frightened faces. In an instant, the aged Filatyev was taken away, and two more servants and a clerk, and Ivan at the exit at the gate said to the owner:

You got even with me during the day, and I got even with you at night - think about what's next ...

True, three days later Filatiev returned - he got out, apparently, and whether he was personally involved in this corpse, or not, is unknown. And one of the servants returned, and the other and the clerk disappeared forever.

Ivan, of course, did not return either.

He received from the Privy Chancellery for a denunciation a certificate of free residence, that is, he received a free one. Although the former owner was furious that he had lost the serf and that he did not get even with him as it should be for his theft and unheard of meanness, in the depths of his soul he was still more glad that he had got rid of him. And everyone saw it. And Dunya saw and, meeting with Ivan, she recounted everything to him. Laughing, she said that Filatiev even called him Cain for having robbed and so vilely sold his own owner, who, in his opinion, was even better for him than his blood father. He believed that Ivan himself, with accomplices, arranged everything with the corpse for his destruction and for the sake of getting free. "True de Cain".

Ivan, who was recorded by the name of his father Osipov, wanted to become only a thief, only a robber. As I entered the age and began to think about life and about myself, this is just what I wanted. Because the life of all the other people on earth was insanely boring, hopelessly boring: this is impossible, that is impossible, this is impossible, that way is impossible, then endure, the other - go crazy! And with thieves and robbers, everything is possible, everything that comes into your head, whatever you do - go ahead! weirdo! have fun! play tricks so that people's hair stands on end and their tongues are taken away. And no one rules over you, no one: neither God, nor the devil, nor the king-sovereign with all his relatives. You reign over yourself. Will! No one has such a will on earth as a thief-robber, he is not a slave, not a servant, not a worker, not a servant, like at least the same princes and boyars and all sorts of other ranks. And how everyone is afraid of them, what locks and guards they invented for their houses and palaces and everything else. How much iron is wasted and money for protection from them - from thieves and robbers.

Even the very words he liked with their hidden ringing and power.

And he, of course, while still living with Filatiev, had already made friends with this people, and with the loose, shaggy, reckless tall Kamchatka, he also had real friendship, although the difference in years between them was as much as twelve years. Kamchatka is a nickname; in this world, every single one had a nickname, and it happened that some even forgot their real names. Soon it also appeared in Ivan with a light, and maybe not with a light hand of Dunya, who repeated Filatiev’s “Cain” with laughter more than once, which was heard not only by Ivan. And so it went. Kamchatka was once called in the world Peter Romanov's son Smin-Zakutin, in his youth he was a sailor-weaver of the Moscow Admiralty sailing factory, and for Ivan his first, only and very short-lived teacher-mentor in the thieves' craft, for a year later the student surpassed his teacher so much so that Kamchatka itself considered itself only Ivan's henchman and ...

The Russian Kartush, as Vanka was called by numerous biographers, retained the title of "the first Russian thief" even after his death. In a word, a famous person who played by no means the last role in Russian history.

According to the concepts of our time, Vanka-Cain is pure water of the limit. The future "master of Moscow" was born in 1718 in the village of Ivanovo, Rostov district, Yaroslavl province. In 1731, at the age of thirteen, he was transferred to Moscow, to the master's court of the merchant Filatiev.

In the capital, young Vanka did not like it - they beat him a lot, fed him little. And so, at the first opportunity, he fled. And not empty-handed. After waiting for the master to fall asleep, Vanka made his way into his bedroom and took from the master's chest as much money and jewelry as he could carry.

The world in those days was not without "good people." The very next day, the former room boy met the soldier's son Peter Kamchatka. An experienced thief immediately recognized in Vanka "his own" and without hesitation took on the case.

The robbery career of the future tsar of Moscow thieves began "royally": it was decided to rob the imperial Annenhof Palace. Through the window on the first floor, Vanka made his way into the family bedroom of the court doctor Yevlukh, where he profited from gold and silver utensils.

The robbers appreciated the valiant prowess of their new comrade. The gang's second expedition took place the very next night. And again, the servant of His Imperial Majesty, the palace cutter Rex, became the victim of Vanka and his associates. The unfortunate tailor was robbed of a fantastic amount for those times - three thousand rubles.

Having tasted light thieves' bread in this way twice, Vanka got a taste of it and personally planned the third robbery. This time, his former owner, the merchant Filatiev, was not lucky.

They robbed Filatiev cheerfully and noisily. Chests were opened with a butt, joking loudly among themselves. The alarm went up in the house. Picking up the loot, the night guests rushed over the fence. The servant is behind them. It was hard to run with sacks full of crockery and jewelry. And the chase did not want to lag behind. But even here Vanka did not lose his head. Running past the "great mud" known to all of Moscow near the Chernyshev Bridge, the robbers threw the stolen goods into the mud. Of course, it was possible to get the sunken bags later, when everything calmed down.

Best of the day

But this is not in the nature of Cain. A true virtuoso of his craft, a smart and prudent thief, Vanka liked to work beautifully, so that his partners would take their breath away. So this time, without waiting for the morning, the gang went to the house of General Shubin. It was not difficult to lure the watchman out. After making sure that the path was clear, Vanka went to the general's stables and chose several horses to his liking. They were harnessed to a "Berlin" that was standing right there and went to the Milyutin factory, to the familiar woman of one of the robbers. Taking an amateur actress (the role was prepared for her as a responsible one), the whole gang returned to Chistye Prudy. There, in the attic of the old merchant's house, Vanka had his own dressing room.

The factory prima dressed up as a lady and went to the Chernyshev Bridge, where the comedy conceived by Vanka was played. Having driven into the mud, the robbers removed two wheels from the "Berlin", the woman dressed up as a mistress stood up to her full height and began to yell in a bad voice:

Bad dogs! Already I to you! Couldn't you have looked at home to see if everything was intact! I order you to tear out the cats! I'll shave my foreheads!

The "frightened lackeys", whose role was brilliantly played by Vanka's comrades, quickly left the loot for "Berlin", put on wheels and, having dispersed the oncoming onlookers, set off home.

That same evening, having taken all the money and jewelry they had obtained in recent days, the gang disappeared from Moscow. And Vanka has already gone to the Volga. People to see and show themselves.

The ingenuity of the young ataman knew no bounds. A vivid example of this is the sensational robbery of the world-famous Makaryevskaya fair. A wealthy Armenian merchant became a victim of the Moscow gang. The day after arrival was spent in reconnoitering the situation. On the morning of the next day, the gang went to work - on a campaign against the Armenian cash desk. The sun had already risen and was beating mercilessly when the merchant left his barn and went to the market for meat. At the same moment, the guy sent by Vanka moved after him. Further events unfolded in full accordance with the plan. Passing by the guardhouse, the robber shouted: "Sentry!" The soldiers on duty, having heard a cry, seized both: the Armenian merchant and Cain's comrade. Meanwhile, the other members of the gang ran to the barn and told the "most unpleasant news" to the merchant's companion. He locked the warehouses and hurried to the rescue of a comrade. Cashier was left unattended. Breaking through the wall, Vanka took all the proceeds and buried the money in the sand a few meters from the barn. After that, one of the members of the gang went to the pier and bought there everything necessary for the construction of a hut. It was placed on the very spot where "Armenian millions" were buried. While the merchant, who had been released from custody, rushed about in search of the missing cash register, Vanka sat in a hut and sold all the honest people the braid and other haberdashery trifles bought in the next row.

Rumors about a daring raider spread throughout the Lower Volga. Cain's gang is growing - from six people to several hundred. Feeling the strength, the young ataman starts large-scale operations. Takes by storm the winery, burns several villages. As soon as his bandits appear in one village, all the churches of the district on both sides of the Volga begin to sound the alarm. Concerned about the lawlessness of thieves, the government begins to take measures to catch the robber, and Vanka disappears for a while.

What happens next is hard to explain. On December 27, 1741, a handsome young man with a thick beard and long, shoulder-length blond hair appeared on the threshold of the Moscow detective order, who declared that he, Vanka, was a thief himself, knew many thieves in Moscow and other cities, and therefore .. . offers his services to their capture. On the same day, the famous thief and robber becomes an official. Now Vanka-Cain is the informer of the detective order, he has at his disposal a military team of 15 people.

Hard times are coming in the life of the Moscow criminals. The chronicle of the first night of Vanka the detective looks impressive. In the house of one deacon, 45 people were captured, in the house of the archpriest (that's where the dens were!) - 20 thieves with the leader Yakov Zuev. In the Tatar baths beyond the Moscow River, a gun store was discovered, and 16 runaway soldiers were arrested there. And so on almost ad infinitum. A total of 150 people were taken that night. Cain betrayed his old acquaintance, a poor soldier Alexei Solovyov. Following the example of the Roman emperor, he daily kept a thieves' journal, where he wrote down all his "exploits". Looking through the notes of the new Moscow Caesar, the detectives came across a very detailed list of thieves and swindlers living in the city. Among them was Cain himself.

The Senate, where Vanka turned with the humblest request for pardon, forgave him all past sins and appointed him a detective. For almost two years, Vanka has been the storm of his former comrades. Dozens of thieves, murderers and all sorts of swindlers are arrested daily and nightly in Moscow.

Cain had his first problems with the authorities in November 1743. Thinking of getting married, he turned to the detective order with a request to give him money to pay his debts and continue to live. But got rejected. Offended to the depths of his soul, the "first Russian thief" decides to play a double game.

Since the state does not want to pay him for his work, he is able to support himself. The rejection forces Cain to start a new life, even more dangerous than before. And the magnificent wedding of an employee of the detective order turns into a thieves' gangway.

The story of Vanka's marriage is interesting in itself. With Arina, that was the name of the bride, Vanka had known for a long time. Once they lived in the same house, and Vanka often went to her father, a retired sergeant, "for a cup of tea." The pretty girl clung to the young and handsome neighbor, but flatly refused to marry him. The soldier's daughter was frightened by the thieves' tricks of the chosen one. Having become a detective, Vanka again wooed Arina, and again unsuccessfully. Cain, who did not like to retreat, found a way out, which the creators of modern thrillers never dreamed of. Enraged by the refusal, he went straight to the detective department and persuaded the counterfeiter sitting there to slander the picky bride. As if Arina knew about his illegal fishing and did not report it to the police. Already after some half an hour, the girl, who did not understand anything, was dragged to the order and interrogated "under cruel lashings." Only after the woman sent by Vanka explained to Arina that the torture would stop when the girl answered "yes" to her boyfriend, the unfortunate bride agreed to the marriage...

There were a great many people who wanted to see Vanka's wedding. But the priest, looking at the "crown memory" given by the groom, refused to marry the young. "Memory" turned out to be a fake. A way out of the uncomfortable situation was quickly found: several people loyal to Cain rushed into the street. And seizing the first priest that came across, they dragged him to the temple. The frightened shepherd performed the ceremony without further questions and, happy that he got off lightly, rushed out. But Vanka could no longer calm down. Now his fellows are snooping around the Moscow streets and catching all the passing merchants. When there were about forty such involuntary guests, Cain ordered the young wife to pour peas into a bag and go out with this treat to the people standing in the yard. Merchants were brought plates with dry peas, and they were forced to pay off the inedible treats. Having collected a sufficient amount of money, Vanka let the merchants go home.

After saving up some more money, Cain buys himself a luxurious house in the prestigious Kitai-gorod district of Moscow. In the rooms of his new dwelling - an image in silver and gilded salaries, on the walls - mirrors and printed pictures with a portrait of Peter the Great, for whom the illiterate thief had special respect. During the day, Vanka is in the service - he catches criminals, and at night he gathers criminal authorities at his place. Vodka flows like water, counterfeit money and marked cards are used. Right there, in one of the rooms of the new house, there is a torture chamber. Now all the thieves and swindlers caught by his team get into the investigation through Cain's house. If the criminal pays off, he is released. Those who have nothing to appease the owner go to the order.

For the time being, Vanka is calm: the entire detective order, from the authorities to the petty scribe, is at his mercy. But Cain is smart and understands that this cannot go on for long. In September 1744, he comes to the Senate and asks to sign a decree that will protect him from the denunciations of the criminals he caught. A month later, he reappears before the senators and reports that he has caught more than 500 thieves and swindlers, while casually noticing that there are still many of them in Moscow. But Moscow officials do not provide him with assistance in capturing the villains, but, on the contrary, interfere. In this regard, Cain asks to give him instructions and announce according to Moscow commands, "so that no obstacles are put in the way of detecting and catching thieves."

As a result, the Senate endows Vanka with enormous powers, in fact handing him dictatorship over all of Moscow. A twenty-six-year-old thief, born a peasant in the Yaroslavl province, becomes the full owner of the second most important Russian city. Now all of Moscow is not a decree for him. And Petersburg is far away.

The thieves' empire created by Vanka lasted a little more than three years. Catching and betraying petty thieves, he sheltered large thieves; pursuing street swindlers, he gave vent to authorities. The number of runaway soldiers, murderers and robbers in Moscow increased every day. This accumulation of scumbags, according to the fair remark of the historian, "should have expressed itself as a public disaster." And so it happened.

In the spring of 1748, terrible fires begin in Moscow. Thousands of houses are burning, hundreds of citizens are dying, suffocating in the smoke. Panicked people leave their homes and spend the night in an open field outside the city. Frightened by the Moscow events, the empress orders troops to be brought into the city and a special commission is established under the command of Major General Ushakov. Vanka's position changed dramatically. Ushakov's team, preventing arson, caught all suspicious people and dragged them not to the detective order, where Cain had everyone his and ours, but to the commission.

The rapid decline of Vanka's vast empire began. Everything suddenly came out: arson, robbery, extortion and kidnapping of girls - Cain was always "passionate for women." At the end of everything, a new general-police chief Tatishchev was sent to Moscow, who ordered Vanka-Cain to be arrested in the case of the theft of the 15-year-old daughter of Taras Zevakin. At first, Cain tries to deny everything, goes into unconsciousness, but after torture he makes a confession, from which the hands of the new chief of police tremble and his eyes widen.

Vanka-Cain has the whole Moscow administration on the hook. And the thief, pinned to the wall, reveals to Tatishchev the whole mechanism of bureaucratic lawlessness reigning in Moscow. From Count Sheremetev, who takes bribes in rubles, caftans and sheep, to an unnamed recorder who demanded an arshin of black velvet for his services. Shocked to the depths of his soul, Tatishchev petitions for the establishment of a special commission in the Vanka-Cain case.

The investigation lasted six years. In 1755, the court sentenced Ivan-Cain (born Osipov) to death by breaking the wheel. The Senate commuted the sentence. Cain was punished with a whip, his nostrils were torn out, and V.O.R. was burned on his cheeks and forehead. In the same year, the former "master of Moscow" was exiled to hard labor in Siberia.

But even at the beginning of our century, the tract, where Vanka-Kain arranged a folk festival on the occasion of his own wedding, was called Kainova Gora among Muscovites.

Vanka Kain (Ivan Osipov, born 1718 - death after 1756) is a legendary thief, robber and Moscow detective.

The name of the thief and robber Vanka Cain became a household name in the 18th century. It is interesting that Cain became famous not only for his unparalleled atrocities, murders, deceptions, but also ... for writing, literary activity. No, do not try to imagine an idyllic picture depicting an old honored thief writing his memoirs at rest, in a quiet comfortable villa somewhere in Switzerland. Cain rarely got out of hard labor and disappeared somewhere in Siberia.

However, at some point, while serving hard labor in Rogervik (now the port of Paltiyski, in Estonia), he dictated rhymed notes about his dizzying adventures to one of his literate comrades. These memoirs were as dashing, talented and impudent as the old thief himself. They were rewritten many times, and, passing from hand to hand, these notes were distributed throughout Russia, and in 1770 they were even printed, which immortalized Vanka's desperate adventures.

This story begins trivially - with a denunciation. 1741, December - the thief and robber Vanka Cain voluntarily appeared in the Moscow police (the so-called Detective order) and filed a petition in which he admitted that he was a terrible sinner, a thief and a robber and that, bitterly repenting of his countless atrocities, he asked for power to give him a chance “for correction” and “for redemption” of the crimes he committed, he is ready to hand over all his comrades to the police. Then, accompanied by a detachment of soldiers, he began to roam the “raspberries” known to him and grab criminals, who had previously been searched for all over the country to no avail. Looking ahead, let's say that for his "service in the police" he handed over several hundred of his comrades, so to speak, "romantics from the high road."

What happened? Why would a well-known robber enter the path of virtue? He did not come to the idea of ​​a righteous life immediately, but under the pressure of many harsh circumstances. An old prisoner's song is known, which Vanka allegedly composed while in prison:

I don’t want to drink, yes, or eat, good fellow, I don’t feel like it,

I have sugar, sweet food, brothers, yes, it doesn’t come to mind, yes,

The Moscow strong kingdom, brothers, yes, it doesn’t go crazy ...

Isn't it the familiar song of Butyrki, Matrosskaya Silence and Crosses? This song conveys the spiritual mood of the legendary thief, who was already tired of running from the “Moscow strong kingdom” and wanted to conclude a mutually beneficial agreement with him ...

And before that, the biography of Vanka Cain (in the world of Ivan Osipov) was rather banal. The serf peasant merchant Filatiev was brought from the Rostov district to Moscow to the court of his landowner and assigned to the yard. Osipov lived with the landowner for several years, and then decided to run away. Let's give the floor to Vanka himself:

“I served in Moscow with the guest of Pyotr Dmitrievich, Mr. Filatiev, and what belonged to my services, I diligently sent my post, only instead of awards and favors received unbearable battles from him. Why did he think of it: get up early and step out of his courtyard at a distance. At one time, seeing him sleeping, I ventured to touch Evo’s casket, which stood in that bedroom, from which I took enough money to carry it in full according to my strength, and although before that I had hunted for only salt, and where I see honey, then with my finger licked ... (in the thieves' language it means - stealing little things. - E.A.). He put on the dress hanging on the wall and left the house the same hour, without delay, went, and more then hurried, so that he would not wake up from sleep and would not harm me for that ... Having left the yard, he signed on the gate: “Drink water like a goose, eat bread like a pig, and the devil does the work, not me.”

The reader will not be surprised if he learns that an accomplice was waiting for Vanka, loaded with the master's goods - such thefts are not the result of an unexpected impulse. The accomplice was experienced, he had long taught Vanka how to act. His name was Peter Romanov, but everyone knew his thieves' nickname - Kamchatka (he probably visited this farthest exile in Russia at that time). Friends hid in the Moscow ruins ...

Moscow in the middle of the 18th century was a sad sight. 1737 - she survived a terrible catastrophe. On May 29, in the house of the retired ensign Miloslavsky, the soldier's widow Marya Mikhailova placed a candle in front of the icon, was distracted for some reason, the candle fell, a fire started, the hot weather favored it, and ... the huge city burned down in a few hours. The fire, which gave rise to the famous bitter proverb “Moscow burned down from a penny candle”, claimed several thousand lives, turning the city into ruins that had not been inhabited for many years, overgrown with bushes, forming a kind of wild islands and archipelagos, in which various punks took refuge.

This happened repeatedly in Europe: for example, London stood empty for several decades after an extra pile of firewood in a bakery on Pudding Lane destroyed many London quarters in 1666. Moscow ravines were especially dangerous for people. From their names goosebumps went on the skin: Sinful, Terrible, Troubled.

In the ravines, ruins, among the slums there were dens and thieves' "raspberries", which were especially crowded in winter, when the "brothers" returned from high roads and rivers, where they "worked" in the summer. "Heroes" were met by buyers of stolen goods, "fighting girlfriends" - keepers of brothels, prostitutes, thieves, dressmakers - turners of stolen goods. It was on this Moscow bottom that Vanka Cain sank, following Kamchatka.

This is how he described in his memoirs his introduction to the thieves' world: “And we went under the Stone Bridge, where the thieves had a churchyard, who demanded money from me (the so-called vlaznye. - E.A.), but although I tried to dissuade, I gave they got 20 kopecks, for which they brought wine, then they made me drink. Having drunk, they said: “We ate half and half ourselves, we rent the oven and half, and we give quiet alms to the one walking on this bridge (that is, we rob. - E.A.), and you will be, brother, our cloth epancha (that is, the same thief. - E.A.), live in our house, in which everything is enough: poles are hung naked and barefoot, and barns stand for hunger and cold. Dust and soot, moreover, there is nothing to burst.” After a little while, they went to menial work.

After sitting alone until dawn, Cain decided to look around, left the shelter - and that's bad luck! - immediately ran into the yard Filatiev, who grabbed the young man and dragged him home, to the enraged master. Filatiev beat Vanka, demanded that he return the money and things, but Cain was silent as a rock. Then they put him in a cold room in the backyard.

One yard girl secretly fed Vanka - you should give the rogue his due: women always sympathized with him. It was she who told Vanka that Filatiev's servants had killed a guard soldier in a fight and, out of harm's way, thrown him into an old well. Vanka perked up, yelled: "Word and deed!" - the cry of informers. He was taken to Stukalov Prikaz, the secret police, where he accused Filatiev of the crime of concealing the murder of a sovereign. The denunciation was confirmed, and Vanka, as a reward for the "finished" (that is, proven) izvest, was released, holding in his hand "a free letter for living."

Almost immediately, Vanka Cain met his friend Kamchatka, and that same night they went “on business” - they robbed the palace tailor Rex, and at the same time, cleverly and rather creepily: in the afternoon, their young accomplice quietly made his way into the house, climbed under the bed, and when everyone fell asleep in a securely locked house, the guy crawled out of hiding, quietly opened the doors and let his comrades into the house.

The idea of ​​the ambush was Vankina's. He immediately began to stand out among the Moscow thieves with rare ingenuity, a subtle knowledge of psychology, and he knew how to improvise. Here's an example. Vanka's gang decided to rob a rich merchant's house, but they couldn't get close to it: a high fence, janitors, night watchmen, and most importantly, it was not clear where the owners kept the good. The task is unsolvable, but not for Cain!

He acted ingeniously simply: he bought (or stole) a chicken somewhere, threw it over the fence, went to the gate and demanded that the guards return his property. And then, together with the janitors, he caught a nimble chicken for a long time and unsuccessfully, and during this time he examined all the locks, doors and rooms. And at night, the treasury - a deaf room for storing goods - turned out to be robbed in an incomprehensible way!

Another night, Cain and his people, who were walking with trophies after a successful “case”, were followed by a chase, so annoying that the thieves had a chance to throw the stolen goods into a dirty puddle in the center of the capital and flee lightly in different directions.

Again, it would seem an unsolvable task: to pull out valuables during the day, in public - is unthinkable. But it was not there! Vanka stole a carriage, put his "fighting girlfriend" dressed as a mistress in it, and went with his companions to the center of Moscow. And now passers-by already see a picture that is common for dirty metropolitan streets: in the middle of a puddle there is a tilted carriage, in which - it must be so! - the wheel fell off, the lady from the window on which the light stands scolds the servants who are digging in the mud and still can’t put the wheel back, loafers! In the meantime, the stolen belongings were slowly put into the carriage, put on the wheel - and there they were! And such tricks are innumerable!

You can laugh heartily at many of Cain's tricks - they were so original, witty. However, there were also scams disgusting. One Sunday afternoon, he disguised himself as a wealthy clerk's son, put on a hat with a black lace, and went up to a carriage standing near the market, in which a girl was sitting, that she had already walked up in the shopping rows, her father-mother was sitting here, waiting, and told her that her parents allegedly came to visit his parents, drink tea and that, they say, he, a good fellow, was instructed to bring the girl to the feast. “The red-haired girl was deceived, they took her to the washing yard, to the apartment of Vanka Kain,” and there they raped her.

Cain achieved particular success in the subtle “pocket craftsmanship” that required training and talent, he could deftly and imperceptibly pull out money, scarves, snuffboxes and watches from the pockets of mouths - in those days a real fortune. He did not work alone, even then there was a thieves' specialization. Later, Kain’s accomplice Elakhov, who was caught later, swore during interrogation that he himself did not fumble in his pockets, but “only embarrassed the people so that his comrades could take them out” - a trick known to every smart reader: in a bus crush, look not for those who are boorishly climbing on the legs and scolds, and behind the one who, as if inadvertently, cuddles up to you.

Thieves' cooperation, solidarity played a big role in the criminal life of Vanka Cain and his accomplices. Once, betrayed by a buyer of stolen goods, Vanka thundered into prison, and the prospect opened before him, as they said then, “hunting sables” in Siberia. His faithful friend and teacher Kamchatka saved him.

“Sent to me,” Vanka recalled, “Kamchatka is an old woman who, having come to prison, said to me: “Ivan has two pennies of bast shoes in the shop” (in jargon - “Is it possible to escape?”). I told her: “Note tea where the seagulls fly” (“I choose the time to escape after my friend who fled earlier”)”. Before the next patronal feast, a “good Samaritan” (Kamchatka) came to the prison with alms for the “unfortunate”, gave everyone a roll, and Vanka, the most “unfortunate” one, already two, and at the same time quietly said: "(in jargon -" Here in the kalach is the key to your chain ").

And then everything developed like in an adventure film: “After a short time, I sent a dragoon (guard. - E.A.) to buy goods from a crazy row (wine from a tavern. - E.A.), as I bought it and I drank for courage, went to the closet (the prisoners were taken to the toilet on a chain, while the guard remained outside. - E.A.), in which he raised the board, unlocked the chain lock and left that entrance. Although there was a chase after me, except for the fisticuff that happened then (traditional entertainment for the people on a holiday. - E.A.) I escaped from that chase; ran to the Tatar herd, where he saw a Tatar murza, who was then fast asleep in his wagon, and had a headboard (a chest with money. - E.A.) on his head. I tied that Tatar’s leg to the horse standing at the evo’s wagon on the lasso, hit that horse with a stake, which dragged this Tatar at full speed, and I, grabbing that head that was full of coins, said: “Will they really take Tatar money in Russia ?”, came to his comrades and said: “Thursdays are four in one week, and the village month with week ten” (“There is a chase everywhere, it's time to reel in the fishing rods”)”.

All this happened during the traditional “tour” of the gang through cities and fairs. Vanka's company was troublesome: Cain, Kamchatka, Kuvay, Legast, Zhuzla, and others. Friends did not stay anywhere, they stole, robbed and quickly moved to a new place where they were not yet known. Best of all, I steal at the Nizhny Novgorod fair: there are a lot of people, a crowd, drunken merchants - and what else does a thief and a robber need?

However, there were also failures. Somehow, Cain almost got caught in a roundup. Vanka ran into a public bath in a hurry, quickly undressed, threw his clothes under the bench, doused himself with dirty water and ran naked with a cry out into the street: they say, I, a Moscow merchant, was robbed by bath thieves, they took all my things, money, and most importantly - documents, passport. Roll up, people!

Bath thefts are a common thing, and the soldiers who surrounded the bathhouse examined everything inside, they did not find the thief who had escaped from them, and they took the weeping, grief-stricken “merchant” to the state presence so that the clerks themselves dealt with him. Covering his shame with a washcloth, Vanka whispered in his ear to the questions of the clerk: “You, friend, will have a pound or two of flour with a campaign” (a caftan with a camisole). And now, with a new “xiva”, Vanka leaves the office ... Vanka Kain and his associates also had other “adventures” ...