The real gang of “Black Wolves” even robbed Berlin. Colonel Pavlenko's fake army - the most famous scammers - the most famous scammers - catalog of articles - all about fraud and scams Colonel Pavlenko fake army

The Soviet period of history is considered a time with virtually no organized crime. However, it was precisely during this period, and during its most rigid and closed segment - the late Stalin period - that the activities of a criminal organization occurred that had no analogues either before or after.
Under the constant supervision of omnipresent authorities, a group of comrades earned huge money for 11 years, pretending to be a military unit.

False seals from case materials

Born fugitive

Nikolai Maksimovich Pavlenko was born in the village of Novye Sokoly, Kyiv province of the Russian Empire in 1912 into the family of a wealthy peasant who already had six children, as well as two mills. Apparently, Kolya was not too attached to his family, since at the age of 14 he ran away from home and went to Minsk. True, some researchers see in this act the first manifestation of the phenomenal instincts of a criminal prodigy, since soon after his departure his father was dispossessed and arrested.
In the capital of the Belarusian SSR, Pavlenko began working as a road builder, choosing a profession for the rest of his life. It was then that he falsified documents for the first time, attributing four years to himself (which is why many biographers subsequently began to date his birth to 1908). This helped him to enter the Polytechnic Institute ahead of time, where he studied the same road business. However, the educational process lasted only two courses: Pavlenko ran away again, again avoiding problems with the authorities who began to investigate his social origin.
He showed up only five years later, in 1935, when he was arrested in the city of Efremov, Tula Region, for theft of socialist property. Three years earlier, Stalin’s infamous “three ears of corn” law had been passed, and Pavlenko was in for big trouble, but he managed to get out of it by becoming an NKVD informant and writing denunciations against two of his colleagues. Those were repressed as “Trotskyists,” and he was recommended for work at Glavvoenstroy - a very privileged place where only a select few ended up.

The Fraud and the War

It was in Glavvoenstroi, successfully moving up the career ladder, that the swindler met the war.
As a specialist in military construction, he was appointed assistant engineer of the 2nd Rifle Corps, which fought on the Western Front. However, Pavlenko did not like defending his homeland, and four months later, when his unit retreated to the Vyazma area, he forged documents and went on a fake business trip, taking with him a sergeant-driver in a service truck. So the fellow travelers reached Kalinin (present-day Tver), where the protagonist’s relatives lived, and lay low.
Thinking over his further actions (and, taking into account desertion in wartime, there was something to think about), Pavlenko eventually came to the main idea of his life. It is reported that this happened at a drinking party in Klin, near Moscow, where the former colleagues of the swindler in construction organizations gathered - people who were also not deprived of dubious talents. One of them, woodcarver Ludwig Rudnichenko, right during the feast, as a joke, cut out an official seal and stamps from the sole of a rubber boot, on which was written “Military construction site of the Kalinin Front No. 5.” At this moment, the puzzle in Pavlenko’s head was completely formed.
With only a stolen army truck at his disposal, as well as several horses and carts and several personnel, the fraudster organized no less than his own military unit. For a bribe of food, a circulation of fake documents was printed at the Kalinin printing house, military uniforms were purchased at the market and in a local garment factory, and the personnel were divided into fake “soldiers” and “officers.”
All that was left was to find enough labor. Pavlenko brilliantly solved this problem by agreeing with the city’s military commissar to send to his unit military personnel who had lagged behind their units or had just been discharged from the hospital. Apparently, there was a bribe involved - a way of doing business, which the main character subsequently used to the maximum.
Soon the first construction contract was concluded - with the head of the local evacuation point, military doctor Bidenko. In exchange for free services, he agreed to provide UVSR with everything necessary. Other city orders followed, for which the organization opened an account in the State Bank. And after the Kalinin Front was disbanded, Pavlenko managed to attach it to the rear of the 4th Air Army for the purpose of building airfields. To do this, the talented leader agreed with a certain Lieutenant Colonel Tsyplakov. Thus, the stage of formation was completed, the structure was legalized and, moreover, invested with important functions in the defeat of the invaders. It was autumn 1942.

While others were fighting

In the three years that passed before the Victory, Pavlenko’s part achieved real prosperity. On the territory of the Soviet Union alone, under the agreements, it received about a million rubles, and its number reached two hundred. Together with the rapidly advancing army, “UVSR” (or “USR”, or “UVR” - there were several names) reached Germany itself, where it was engaged in outright robberies. At the same time, in order to avoid suspicion, Pavlenko sometimes punished the “looters” in his unit. Once, as follows from the case materials, he shot three people, and did it personally.
The valiant “construction department” ended the war in Stuttgart, Germany. In order to remove all the property “accumulated” during this time, Pavlenko managed to negotiate with the military commandant of the city about the allocation of a train of 30 (!) cars. They carried a wide variety of goods: from cars and cattle to accordions and sewing machines. It was sold out along the way, in Poland and Belarus, and was finally sold in the native markets of the Kalinin and Tula regions
The unit itself returned home along with the loot. At the same time, the enterprising boss obtained as many as 230 (!) units of awards for his subordinates. Pavlenko did not offend himself by pinning four orders (of the Patriotic War of the 1st and 2nd degrees, the Red Star and the Red Banner of Battle) and medals on his chest

Pavlenko's award list

Looking for new adventures

Upon returning to their homeland, the unit settled on the territory of the Shchekinsky district of the Tula region. For this, Pavlenko gave the regional military commissar a car. In 1946, when all the property was sold, the commander decided to disband his valiant unit. With the help of the same military commissar, all participants were “demobilized” and also generously rewarded. Privates and sergeants received 7-12 thousand rubles each, officers - 15-25. Pavlenko paid himself 90 thousand. The legendary swindler could not be accused of being tight-fisted.
With the proceeds, Pavlenko bought himself two houses - in the Kalinin and Kharkov regions - as well as 4 (!) Pobeda cars, after which he lived a peaceful life with his wife and daughter. He again took up the construction business, organizing an artel called “Plandorstroy”. This, it would seem, is the end of the fairy tale.
But soon the restless gut called to go on the road again. In 1948, together with his new mistress Nadezhda Tyutyunnik - a former saleswoman who served two years for embezzlement - Pavlenko left Kalinin, taking with him 400 thousand rubles from the artel funds. For this he was put on the all-Union wanted list, which, however, did not prevent the implementation of his further plans.
The lovers moved to Western Ukraine, to the glorious city of Lviv, where the great schemer summoned his accomplices. There the reincarnation of the “construction department” took place. The same craftsman Rudnichenko made seals and stamps, document forms were printed again, and everything started according to the old pattern. But on a much larger scale.
In just four years of its activity in its new incarnation, the organization concluded 64 agreements for a total amount of 38 million 717 thousand 600 rubles. Accounts were opened in 21 branches of the State Bank, from which 25 million rubles were withdrawn. The activities of the “administration” were carried out on the territory of six union republics: Ukrainian, Moldavian, Belarusian and three Baltic. Pavlenko moved in high circles, appearing at ceremonial events and parades next to government officials. Its part was no different from the real one: it was armed, lived according to the rules and had an exemplary appearance. In 1951, the swindler awarded himself the title of “Colonel”.

The work of the “company” was carried out according to strictly capitalist principles: Pavlenko paid hired specialists salaries three to four times higher than the state ones. He was incredibly generous with bribes, as well as with treats, always paying for luxurious dinners with the right people in restaurants, and surprising them with the amounts that he left on the table.
In order to discourage excessive curiosity, Pavlenko used another effective technique. He always hinted that civil engineering was just the tip of the iceberg, but in fact he and his comrades were carrying out orders from mysterious and powerful “authorities.” And he didn’t say which ones exactly, which created an even stronger impression.

The collapse of “Colonel” Pavlenko

And yet, one terrible day for Pavlenko, his well-functioning scheme failed. In part - either for greater credibility, or for fraudulent reasons - government loan bonds were distributed, and one of the workers did not receive them, after which he sent a letter of complaint to Marshal K. E. Voroshilov. The case unexpectedly got under way, and investigators from the military prosecutor's office, where it was sent, found out with great surprise that the military unit indicated in the letter was not on the lists of either the Ministry of Defense or the special services.
Work was carried out to establish the location of the unit's headquarters. It turned out to be difficult, but in the end it turned out that he was in Chisinau. After this, Pavlenko was put under surveillance, and soon the entire criminal network was shut down at once. This happened on November 14, 1952. 400 people were detained, including Pavlenko’s closest assistant Konstantinov (aka Konstantiner), who headed the structure’s own counterintelligence (!). He revealed to the operatives the possible location of the boss. Pavlenko was arrested at a safe house in Chisinau on November 23 along with his mistress. A general's shoulder straps were found next to him - apparently, another “promotion” was being prepared.

“We just built as best we could”

The investigation lasted for two years. During this time, Stalin managed to die and Khrushchev came to power. Finally, in November 1954, the trial began. He walked for another five months. Pavlenko and his associates were accused of anti-Soviet agitation, but no evidence of this was found. The main accused himself said the following: “We did not carry out anti-Soviet activities, we simply built as best we could, and we knew how to build well.” And it was hard to argue with that. All work undertaken by Pavlenko’s unit was carried out conscientiously. Yes, at the same time, attributions and appropriation of state property were practiced, but the swindler had nothing against the Soviet government itself.
However, the court still sentenced 40-year-old Pavlenko to death, accusing him of undermining state industry for counter-revolutionary purposes. Considering that all the other defendants in the case received only prison sentences ranging from 5 to 20 years, we can safely assume that they decided to shoot the legendary criminal not at all for encroaching on the gains of the revolution, which was not the case. And for the fact that he proved that even in the system of total control established under Stalin and considered almost the standard of iron order, there was so much chaos and loopholes for corruption that one person could avoid punishment for 11 years. At the same time, not hiding from the authorities, but developing vigorous activity in full view and becoming a respectable member of society.

The image of Colonel Klimenko from the series “Black Wolves”, played by Vladimir Yumatov, is based on the biography of Pavlenko
It is interesting that party and Soviet officials accused of having connections with Pavlenko got off very lightly. For example, the Minister of Food Industry of Moldova, Kirill Ivanovich Tsurcan, received only a reprimand. The same “punishment” befell the secretaries of the Tiraspol and Belsky city committees of the CPSU. None of the more senior officials were involved in the case. There were rumors that the then leader of Moldova, Leonid Brezhnev, was connected with Pavlenko, but they did not receive any development.
The sentence passed by the military tribunal was not subject to appeal. The day he was carried out, as well as the burial place of Soviet swindler No. 1, remain unknown.

False seals from case materials

Under the constant supervision of omnipresent authorities, a group of comrades earned huge money for 11 years, pretending to be a military unit.

Born fugitive

Without waiting for his father to be dispossessed, in 1928 the sixteen-year-old teenager left home for the city. He added four years to his age to get a job. Subsequently, Pavlenko more than once used this method in forged documents: he changed the year and place of birth. He entered the Institute of Civil Engineering, but after studying for two years, he dropped out.

NKVD employees, a certain Curzon and Sakhno, involved him “in the development of materials against the Trotskyists Volkov and Afanasyev” and, as “conscious” and “devoted,” recommended him to a serious organization - Glavvoenstroy. With two courses at the institute, young Pavlenko successfully coped with the work of a foreman, senior foreman, and construction site manager. Even then, Nikolai Maksimovich had mastered the method of postscripts well, learned to “work” with documents and, most importantly, realized that under the roof of the military department one could warm one’s hands well

In the capital of the Belarusian SSR, Pavlenko began working as a road builder, choosing a profession for the rest of his life. It was then that he falsified documents for the first time, attributing four years to himself (which is why many biographers subsequently began to date his birth to 1908). This helped him to enter the Polytechnic Institute ahead of time, where he studied the same road business. However, the educational process lasted only two courses: Pavlenko ran away again, again avoiding problems with the authorities who began to investigate his social origin.

He showed up only five years later, in 1935, when he was arrested in the city of Efremov, Tula Region, for theft of socialist property. Three years earlier, Stalin’s infamous “three ears of corn” law had been passed, and Pavlenko was in for big trouble, but he managed to get out of it by becoming an NKVD informant and writing denunciations against two of his colleagues. Those were repressed as “Trotskyists,” and he was recommended for work at Glavvoenstroy - a very privileged place where only a select few ended up.

The Fraud and the War

It was in Glavvoenstroi, successfully moving up the career ladder, that the swindler met the war.

June 1941 Nikolai Pavlenko was greeted in the uniform of a military technician of the 1st rank with a “sleeper” in his buttonhole. The Rifle Corps in which he served was retreating to the east with heavy fighting.

As a specialist in military construction, he was appointed assistant engineer of the 2nd Rifle Corps, which fought on the Western Front. However, Pavlenko did not like defending his homeland, and four months later, when his unit retreated to the Vyazma area, he forged documents and went on a fake business trip, taking with him a sergeant-driver in a service truck.

Having safely passed the posts of the detachments, Pavlenko and his accomplice reached Kalinin (now Tver). Here he had relatives who knew him from his previous work in a construction team. It would seem that it would be better for a deserter to lie low, “lay low,” acquire forged documents that would exempt him from conscription, and hide in a quiet office. But Pavlenko planned the incredible, especially considering the climate of general suspicion during the war—to create his own military unit.

Thinking over his further actions (and, taking into account desertion in wartime, there was something to think about), Pavlenko eventually came to the main idea of his life. It is reported that this happened at a drinking party in Klin, near Moscow, where the former colleagues of the swindler in construction organizations gathered - people who were also not deprived of dubious talents. One of them, woodcarver Ludwig Rudnichenko, right during the feast, as a joke, cut out an official seal and stamps from the sole of a rubber boot, on which was written “Military construction site of the Kalinin Front No. 5.” At this moment, the plan in Pavlenko’s head finally took shape.

With only a stolen army truck at his disposal, as well as several horses and carts and several personnel, the fraudster organized no less than his own military unit.

For a bribe of food, the Kalinin printing house printed forms, product certificates, travel certificates and other documents.

Uniforms were purchased at bazaars

Contacts were established with some employees of the Volodarsky garment factory and the Kalinin regional industrial cooperation. Pavlenko made “officers” out of trusted people, and to begin with, he awarded himself the title of military engineer of the 3rd rank. Using fabricated official letters - on stamped forms - the commander of "UVSR-5" ensured that from the city's military commandant's office, ordinary soldiers who had lagged behind their unit or were discharged from the hospital after being wounded were sent to him for further service.

All that was left was to find enough labor. Pavlenko brilliantly solved this problem by agreeing with the city’s military commissar to send to his unit military personnel who had lagged behind their units or had just been discharged from the hospital. Apparently, there was a bribe involved - a way of doing business, which the main character subsequently used to the maximum.

However, the case required more reliable cover. A young, energetic, intelligent-looking military engineer of the 3rd rank inspired confidence in those around him. Having promised the head of one of the evacuation points, doctor 1st rank Bidenko, to repair the buildings for free, Pavlenko obtained his consent to take UVSR-5 under his protection and even enroll the soldiers in all types of allowances at the evacuation point.

Soon the first construction contract was concluded - with the head of the local evacuation point, military doctor Bidenko. In exchange for free services, he agreed to provide UVSR with everything necessary. Other city orders followed, for which the organization opened an account in the State Bank. And after the Kalinin Front was disbanded, Pavlenko managed to attach it to the rear of the 4th Air Army for the purpose of building airfields. To do this, the talented leader agreed with a certain Lieutenant Colonel Tsyplakov. Thus, the formation stage was completed, the structure was legalized and, moreover, invested with important functions in defeating the invaders. It was autumn 1942.

After the liquidation of the Kalinin Front, part of Pavlenko moved under the wing of the 12th RAB (aircraft base area), where his people were also enrolled in all types of allowances. He carried out this operation for a large bribe in the fall of 1942, bribing a certain Lieutenant Colonel Tsyplakov.

Pavlenko’s unit, which changed the sign to “UVR-5,” moved after the advancing Soviet troops, maintaining a safe distance from the front line. On the way to the USSR border, Pavlenko’s people earned about a million rubles under contracts. To increase the volume of work performed, replenishment was required. Then Pavlenko began to recruit soldiers who had lagged behind their units. “You are a deserter! You must be judged! You will be shot!” Pavlenko shouted at the soldier who had committed a crime. But then, replacing his anger with mercy, he added: “Okay, so be it, I forgive you. Stay in my unit...” Chief of Staff “UVR” M Zavada said: “People were recruited, as a rule, from those who had lagged behind military units... Drivers were taken along with the car... When they approached the Soviet state border, there were more than two hundred people in “UVR”. Half of them - deserters and persons hiding from conscription into the active army."

While others were fighting...

The valiant “construction department” ended the war in Stuttgart, Germany.

After the victory, the UVR commander, who had gained strength and became insolent, with the help of deception and large bribes, established connections with the military representatives of the Department of Clothing and Cargo Supply of the Ministry of Defense of the USSR, as well as with representatives of the temporary military commandant's office of Stuttgart and received at his disposal a railway train of thirty cars, in addition to dozens tons of flour, sugar, cereals and hundreds of heads of livestock; ten trucks, five tractors, several cars and other equipment were transported on it. The gang returned to their homeland with rich booty, orders and medals. Based on fictitious documents about the imaginary exploits of UVR fighters, Pavlenko received over 230 awards, which he distributed to his most distinguished comrades. He awarded himself two Orders of the Patriotic War, I and II degrees, the Order of the Red Banner of Battle, the Order of the Red Star, and medals.

In order to remove all the property “accumulated” during this time, Pavlenko managed to negotiate with the military commandant of the city about the allocation of a train of 30 (!) cars. They carried a wide variety of goods: from cars and cattle to accordions and sewing machines. It was sold out along the way, in Poland and Belarus, and was finally sold in the native markets of the Kalinin and Tula regions

The unit itself returned home along with the loot. At the same time, the enterprising boss obtained as many as 230 (!) units of awards for his subordinates. Pavlenko did not offend himself by pinning four orders (of the Patriotic War of the 1st and 2nd degrees, the Red Star and the Red Banner of Battle) and medals on his chest

Pavlenko's award list

Upon returning to Kalinin, Pavlenko immediately demobilized everyone who knew nothing about the criminal nature of the unit.

Looking for new adventures

With the proceeds, Pavlenko bought himself two houses - in the Kalinin and Kharkov regions - as well as 4 (!) Pobeda cars, after which he lived a peaceful life with his wife and daughter.

Leaving some of the removed equipment in Kalinin, Pavlenko created and headed the civil construction artel "Plandorstroy". But under his leadership there were no longer any accomplices - they had dispersed to different cities, and without them it was difficult to carry out the business on a grand scale.

But soon the restless gut called to go on the road again. In 1948, together with his new mistress Nadezhda Tyutyunnik - a former saleswoman who served two years for embezzlement - Pavlenko left Kalinin, taking with him 400 thousand rubles from the artel funds. For this he was put on the all-Union wanted list, which, however, did not prevent the implementation of his further plans.

Soon other “officers” came to Lvov at his call, and the craftsman Rudnichenko also arrived, who quickly made seals and stamps. This is how UVS-1 (Military Construction Directorate) appeared with many construction branches in the western regions of the country.

The lovers moved to Western Ukraine, to the glorious city of Lviv, where the great schemer summoned his accomplices. There the reincarnation of the “construction department” took place. The same craftsman Rudnichenko made seals and stamps, document forms were printed again, and everything started according to the old pattern. But on a much larger scale.

Having a lot of money, Pavlenko considered himself invulnerable. He had an unerring instinct for corrupt officials. The plump and impressive colonel (he assigned this title to himself in 1951) gave a bribe even for solving a trivial issue. He belonged to local authorities. He was respected and taken into account. Pavlenko selected his security through local MGB agencies, which carefully checked candidates for lack of connection with Bandera.

In just four years of its activity in its new incarnation, the organization concluded 64 agreements for a total amount of 38 million 717 thousand 600 rubles. Accounts were opened in 21 branches of the State Bank, from which 25 million rubles were withdrawn. The activities of the “administration” were carried out on the territory of six union republics: Ukrainian, Moldavian, Belarusian and three Baltic. Pavlenko moved in high circles, appearing at ceremonial events and parades next to government officials. Its part was no different from the real one: it was armed, lived according to the rules and had an exemplary appearance. In 1951, the swindler awarded himself the title of “Colonel”.

In order to discourage excessive curiosity, Pavlenko used another effective technique. He always hinted that civil engineering was just the tip of the iceberg, but in fact he and his comrades were carrying out orders from mysterious and powerful “authorities.” And he didn’t say which ones exactly, which created an even stronger impression.

The collapse of “Colonel” Pavlenko

And yet, one terrible day for Pavlenko, his well-functioning scheme failed.

After the war, campaigns were held to subscribe to government loans. To create the appearance of a real military unit, Pavlenko and his “officers” bought bonds on the “black market”.

In part - either for greater credibility, or for fraudulent reasons - government loan bonds were distributed, and one of the workers did not receive them, after which he sent a letter of complaint to Marshal K. E. Voroshilov. The case unexpectedly got under way, and investigators from the military prosecutor's office, where it was sent, found out with great surprise that the military unit indicated in the letter was not on the lists of either the Ministry of Defense or the special services.

The check was continued, and in a short time it was possible to find out that UVS-1 existed completely legally. Moreover, it had an extensive branched structure: construction sites and sites subordinate to UVS-1 were located in Moldova, Belarus, and the Baltic republics.

The unit's headquarters, located in Chisinau, was no different from the present:

there was a unit banner with shift guards next to it, and an operational duty officer, heads of various services, and armed guards in the uniform of privates and sergeants of the Soviet Army, who did not allow any outsiders into the territory under the pretext of the secrecy of the facility.

The unit commander, “Colonel” Pavlenko, also turned out to be a real person. A strong, fit, intelligent-looking man with glasses, he not only did not hide from strangers, but also showed off on holidays in the stands and on the podium next to the “fathers” of the city.

After this, Pavlenko was put under surveillance, and soon the entire criminal network was shut down at once. This happened on November 14, 1952.

Taken by surprise, Pavlenko’s “fighters” did not offer armed resistance. As a result of the operation, more than 300 people were detained, including about 50 so-called officers, sergeants and privates. The “Colonel” himself and his right-hand man, “Chief of Counterintelligence Major” Yu. Konstantiner, were arrested.

He revealed to the operatives the possible location of the boss. Pavlenko was arrested at a safe house in Chisinau on November 23 along with his mistress. A general's shoulder straps were found next to him - apparently, another “promotion” was being prepared.

During the liquidation of the fictitious military construction unit, 3 light machine guns, 8 machine guns, 25 rifles and carbines, 18 pistols, 5 grenades, over 3 thousand live cartridges, 62 trucks and 6 cars, 4 tractors, 3 excavators and a bulldozer were discovered and seized , round seals and stamps, tens of thousands of different forms, many false identification cards and registration certificates...

To investigate the case, a team was created of responsible employees of the Main Military Prosecutor’s Office, led by V. Markalyants, L. Lavrentyev and experienced military investigators from the periphery. But even highly qualified professionals took two and a half years (including the trial) to completely restore the criminal portrait of Pavlenko and the active accomplices of the enterprise he conceived.

Alexander Tikhonovich Lyadov, one of the investigators involved in the Pavlenko case, said: “It was a top-secret case. In 1952, I worked as a senior investigator at the prosecutor’s office of the Central District of Railways. After interrogating those arrested and witnesses, we handed over the protocols to the senior group, and the briefcases with the case were sealed. During the investigation, I had to go to the Rivne region.

In the city of Zdolbunov, Pavlenko’s “military unit” was building access roads to the cement and brick factories that were being restored.

I must say, he built it well. I invited outside specialists under contracts. I paid three to four times more in cash than at a state-owned enterprise. I came to check the work myself. If he finds shortcomings, he will not leave until they are corrected.

After rolling out the completed track, he offered the workers a few barrels of beer and a snack for free, and personally presented the locomotive driver and his assistant with a bonus, right here, in public.

At that time, many workers received 300-500 rubles a month. And Pavlenko could give a hundred for a newspaper. But I didn’t tell anyone about this, they wouldn’t believe it anyway.

Or this episode. During the interrogation of one head of the headquarters, I ask the question:

did you know that Pavlenko gives expensive gifts to officials and their wives? Didn't that make you suspicious? He answers angrily: “Well, how could it have occurred to me that Pavlenko is a swindler, if during the festive parade he stands on the podium next to the regional leadership, who praises him for his work and sets him up as an example to business executives...”

“We’re sitting in a restaurant,” the head of the main department continues, “I’m mentally calculating how much I’ll have to pay. And Pavlenko, as if reading my thoughts, declares:

“I’m crying! How much do you get? Two thousand, no more?” I spontaneously blurted out: “How much are you?” He laughed and so casually: “Ten thousand... We do this civilian work, by the way, but our main work is secret” - here I bit my tongue and did not dare to ask further.

“We just built as best we could”

However, the court still sentenced 40-year-old Pavlenko to death, accusing him of undermining state industry for counter-revolutionary purposes. Considering that all the other defendants in the case received only prison sentences ranging from 5 to 20 years, we can safely assume that they decided to shoot the legendary criminal not at all for encroaching on the gains of the revolution, which was not the case. And for the fact that he proved that even in the system of total control established under Stalin and considered almost the standard of iron order, there was so much chaos and loopholes for corruption that one person could avoid punishment for 11 years. At the same time, not hiding from the authorities, but developing vigorous activity in full view and becoming a respectable member of society.

The image of Colonel Klimenko from the series “Black Wolves”, played by Vladimir Yumatov, is based on the biography of Pavlenko

It is interesting that party and Soviet officials accused of having connections with Pavlenko got off very lightly. For example, the Minister of Food Industry of Moldova, Kirill Ivanovich Tsurcan, received only a reprimand. The same “punishment” befell the secretaries of the Tiraspol and Belsky city committees of the CPSU. None of the more senior officials were involved in the case.

There were rumors that the then leader of Moldova, Leonid Brezhnev, was connected with Pavlenko, but they did not receive any development.

At the trial, the failed general said:

"I never set out to create an anti-Soviet organization." And he further stated. “I assure the court that Pavlenko can still be useful and he will make his contribution to the organization of work...” However, the verdict of the tribunal of the Moscow Military District on April 4, 1955 was harsh: “Colonel” Pavlenko was sentenced to capital punishment, and sixteen of his "officers" - to imprisonment for a term of 5 to 25 years.

The sentence passed by the military tribunal was not subject to appeal.

The day he was carried out, as well as the burial place of Soviet swindler No. 1, remain unknown.

Until now, there were only rumors, legends and tales about this case - for half a century it was hidden in the archives of the Moscow District Military Court. The MK correspondent became the first journalist to bring unique materials out of hiding.

10 years in the Soviet Union - and even during Stalin’s times! - a fake military construction unit of the Ministry of Defense was working. “Ghost” changed its name, but in court it was most often called UVS - the military construction department. The organizer of this “syndicate,” false colonel Nikolai Pavlenko, was handling millions. And all these years he built roads. You probably also had a chance to visit some of them.

The investigation lasted two years. There were 17 defendants - the backbone of a criminal organization in whose orbit more than three hundred citizens were involved. Many did not even suspect that they were working in a thieves' structure...

Armed and undercover

What is criminal - man created: he built military facilities, residential buildings, access roads and highways, restored the national economy destroyed by the war. And he did it, judging by the materials of the criminal case, quite well. Moreover, he used market methods: he set high salaries for good specialists, paid civilian employees by the piece, and after a working day rewarded those who had worked hard with a keg of beer. Pavlenko himself stated during the investigation: “We did not carry out anti-Soviet activities, we simply built as best we could, and we knew how to build well.”

But in order to get this or that contract, he used fictitious documents and seals, bribed officials and the military. He was also engaged in postscripts, stealing everything that came his way: from cows to tractors... Criminals concluded 64 contracts worth 38 million rubles in the period from 1948 to 1952 alone. UVS accounts were opened in the 21st branch of the State Bank of the USSR, and through them it was possible to receive more than 25 million rubles. How much of this money ended up in the pockets of Pavlenko and his accomplices was established only approximately.

The organization was well armed and secretive, and had its own counterintelligence. From the very beginning until the liquidation of the UVS, its participants obtained large quantities of pistols, rifles, machine guns, light machine guns and grenades. Considering the scope of its activities, the good armament of the UVS and the dispersion of its units in the territory of several regions - the Baltic states, the Moldavian SSR, Kiev, Odessa, Zaporozhye, Dnepropetrovsk, Kharkov and Mogilev regions - considerable forces of the Ministry of State Security were involved in the liquidation of this organization.

“Shaved head, big belly”

We calculated the UVS by chance. A party member named Efremenko decided to be vigilant and wrote a letter to Marshal Voroshilov. It followed from it that some officers distributed government loan bonds among civilians working in the UVS. The workers handed over the money for them, but never received the bonds themselves. The letter also stated that Colonel Pavlenko was recruiting runaway prisoners and former police officers.

The signal did not go unheeded, and on October 23, 1952, a criminal case was opened in Lvov. During the first interrogations, the circumstances stated in the letter were confirmed. It was established that the bonds were purchased on the black market in Lviv. One of the “officers” decided to earn extra money in this way, and as a result failed the entire organization. Other facts immediately surfaced that could not but alert the investigators.

From the testimony of witness Kudrenko:

“I know the head of the Internal Affairs Directorate, Colonel Pavlenko, personally. He is of average height, has a plump, almost fat figure, wears glasses with black trim, gray hair, a shaved head, brown eyes, and a large belly. I don’t know who the UVS was subordinate to. However, I know that Colonel Pavlenko himself awarded military ranks to his officers. For example, Kuritsyn was demobilized from the army as a sergeant major, and here he immediately became a senior lieutenant, and then Nevinsky was awarded the rank of captain, although before that he had no rank..."

By all appearances, the organization was criminal. But, making excuses at the prosecutor's office, the leaders of various organizations collaborating with the UVS insisted: they could not even imagine that Pavlenko was a criminal. After all, he was a very respected person, he was constantly invited to the presidiums of ceremonial meetings, and during festive parades he always stood on the podium next to the party bosses. Moreover, in a ceremonial uniform and the radiance of military orders...

The criminal case, given its scale, was transferred to the Main Military Prosecutor's Office on November 5, 1952. There they soon established that Pavlenko... had been wanted by the All-Union for a long time. The prosecutor's office of the Kalinin region opened a criminal case against him back in February 1948, when Pavlenko headed the Plandorstroy artel and stole 339,326 rubles. The two cases were combined. GVP investigators asked the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of State Security of the USSR for information about the deployment and subordination of the unit and received the same type of answers from everywhere: “The UVS is not subordinate to Glavvoenstroi, Pavlenko is not listed as having served in the Soviet Army.” Now it was time for the important investigators to be surprised: a powerful criminal corporation was working right next to the authorities, receiving millions in orders.

Kulak son

Pavlenko was detained on November 23, 1952 in Chisinau. A group of soldiers blocked the house. In the half that was locked, Pavlenko was discovered with citizen Tyutyunnik. This woman at one time managed a stall, squandered 12 thousand government rubles and hid from responsibility for several years, cohabiting with the “colonel”.

The detainee was interrogated for several days. He injected well...

Nikolai Pavlenko was born in 1908 in the village of Novye Sokoly, Kyiv region. The father was a miller-fist, the son became a road builder, worked as a simple worker in the Glavdortrans system, and entered the road transport department of the Minsk Polytechnic University, where he studied for only two years. He had to leave the institute when his alma mater learned about his kulak origin.

In 1935, in the city of Efremov, Pavlenko stole something from a construction site and was arrested. He managed to get out of it and realized that he had to be friends with the authorities. I even figured out how: during the period of the struggle against the Trotskyists, I wrote a denunciation against two employees of the construction department. For his help in exposing the “Trotskyist conspiracy,” NKVD officers recommended Pavlenko to work at Glavvoenstroy. There he managed to rise to the position of construction site manager...

The war found military technician 1st rank Pavlenko in Minsk.

From the interrogation protocol of Nikolai Pavlenko:

“On June 27, 1941, I was appointed to the position of assistant engineer of the 2nd Rifle Corps and retreated with the corps all the way to Vyazma. And then he was seconded to the airfield construction department of the Western Front Air Force. But there was no such department in the Kalinin area, and I decided to personally create a military construction site.”

Later, Pavlenko admitted that, together with his driver Shchegolev, he simply deserted from the active army, having forged travel documents.

Rubber outsole print

From the verdict of the military tribunal of the Moscow Military District:

“Having deserted from the Soviet Army, the defendant Pavlenko in March 1942 lured the driver Shchegolev to his place, taking with him the truck of the military unit assigned to him. Later, in the same fraudulent way, he began to involve his former colleagues and acquaintances - Klimenko, Filimonov, Nikolaev, Lelyuk and others - in the criminal organization he was creating...”

In the Moscow region, Pavlenko accidentally met his colleagues from the pre-war artel. We sat down to have a drink or two “for the meeting.” Sixteen-year-old boy Ludwig Rudnichenko, Nikolai’s fellow countryman, after another portion of alcoholic drinks, in front of his friends, cut out an official seal from a rubber sole with the inscription “Military construction site No. 5 of the Kalinin Front.”

That's where it all started. Soon an organization with the same name appeared in front-line Kalinin. This did not surprise anyone - the confusion at that time was terrible. The illegitimate organization printed several thousand forms in a printing house and received food and uniforms from warehouses using forged documents. In those days, Pavlenko’s “syndicate” included only a few people, Shchegolev’s car and a couple of horses. But soon there were already several dozen workers there, because Pavlenko skillfully organized a drinking party with the right people, generously “thanked” them, and then sent official requests for labor to the military commandant’s office and the commissariat of Kalinin. And immediately the ranks of the fictitious organization began to swell with non-combatant fighters discharged from the hospital after being wounded. Here, at the front-line evacuation point, Nikolai Pavlenko concluded his first contract, and his workers were put on allowances. The “Great Combinator” easily opened a current account using fabricated documents in the Kalinin regional office of the State Bank and began receiving money there.

Thus, the gang was legalized, contracts appeared for road and construction work with various Kalinin organizations, which regularly transferred “fees” to him. The “commander” spent part of the funds on food for the rank and file and salaries for the officers of the unit, and appropriated the rest together with his accomplices.

At the end of the war, there were already more than 200 people in the UVS. The organization took criminals, deserters, and men hiding from mobilization under its wing. They were armed with up to 100 guns and huge reserves of captured property.

Train for the Marauder

Pavlenko, who awarded the title to himself, asserted, not without pride, that as part of the 4th Air Army, his air force reached the Oder, building many airfields and receiving nothing but gratitude from the command. This was true, but with one caveat: the UVS did not direct its main efforts to the construction of military facilities. Pavlenko, Klimenko, Kuritsyn and other activists of the group stole everything they could get their hands on: building materials, cars, fodder. In 1944-1945 in Poland and Germany, under the guise of collecting trophy property, they seized cars, tractors, motorcycles, radios, guns, accordions, bicycles, carpets, sewing machines, and stole livestock... In Germany alone (according to incomplete data), about 80 horses were stolen, 50 heads of cattle, a large number of pigs, 20 trucks and cars, 20 tractors, electric motors, tractor trailers, dozens of bags of flour, cereals and sugar. Pavlenko and his comrades sold almost all their goods on the way to their homeland, receiving gold, Polish and Soviet money.

But there was so much good that Pavlenko had to organize an entire operation to transport the loot to his homeland. He somehow managed to come to an agreement with the army services, and the Air Force allocated... a train of 30 railway cars!

Pavlenko also managed to concoct fake papers for the demobilization of employees of his “construction trust.” He provided his accomplices with a large number of fictitious documents, and in a solemn ceremony presented them with over 230 orders and medals of the USSR, as well as large sums of money and part of the property. That is, he divided the common fund fairly.

It is noteworthy that, stealing from both the state and private individuals, Pavlenko strictly punished “his” robbers. At least that’s what he said in court: “In order to strengthen discipline, in 1945, on my instructions, Koptev and Mikhailov and another prisoner of war, whose last name I don’t remember, were shot.” At the same time, Pavlenko denied that he did it personally, but there were witnesses to the lynching.

How to charm “organs”

Pavlenko was truly a great schemer. Understanding very well the nature of people, he easily made very expensive gifts, knowing full well that they would not refuse him later. For example, Pavlenko handed over a passenger car to the Tula regional military commander Rizhnev, and he ordered the deployment of the airborne forces on the territory of the Shchekinsky district. Later, using connections with Rizhnev, Pavlenko and his accomplices, under the guise of receiving demobilization benefits, embezzled public funds. Rizhnev received an “appendage”: a cow, a carpet, a radio and scarce products. More than once, using fake documents, the “office” received money through the Klin, Solnechnogorsk and Galich military registration and enlistment offices.

The schemer did not forget about himself, his beloved: he bought two decent houses - in Kalinin and in Ukraine - and several Pobeda cars...

Some time after the war, the gang launched tentacles into Lviv. With the help of feasts and bribes, it was easy to establish close ties with local officials and state security agencies. Candidates for work in the UVS were selected ... through bodies that checked those wishing to get a job with Pavlenko for loyalty to the Soviet regime and the absence of any connections with Bandera.

The newly created military unit (now the seal read “UVS-1”) was practically no different from other active units. On its territory, the daily routine was strictly observed, combat and political training classes were held, an operational duty officer was appointed every day, a guard was on guard duty, a sentry at post No. 1 guarded the unit’s banner...

There was no end to those wishing to enter into contract agreements with such a respected organization! The file contains several top secret lists, which list dozens of enterprises and organizations that have entered into “economic relations with UVS-1 construction sites.”

* * *

Pavlenko and his closest henchmen were accused of counter-revolutionary crimes. But they, while admitting “criminalism,” completely denied “anti-Sovietism.” At the trial, Pavlenko said: “I committed many crimes, but I never had anything against the Soviet state and did not set out to undermine its economic power. We did not withdraw public funds from the bank, but received legal money for the work performed. I plead guilty to participating in the theft of public funds.”

In April 1955, the military tribunal of the Moscow Military District issued its verdict. Pavlenko was sentenced to death with confiscation of his personal property. The remaining defendants received from 5 to 25 years in prison with confiscation of property and deprivation of awards...

The celebration of the 65th anniversary of the Victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War of 1941 - 1945, which ended with a grandiose military parade on Red Square in Moscow on May 9, quite naturally became the occasion for a huge number of publications in the media on this topic, dedicated to heroic deeds of the Soviet people at the front and in the rear.

From these publications we learned many, hitherto unknown or simply forgotten over the years, the names of those to whose military and labor exploits we owe our freedom and the right to life under a peaceful sky.

There was, however, another side to this Great War. And there were Antiheroes

Our story will be about one of these “anti-heroes”.

This unique criminal case, which until very recently was kept classified as “Secret”, has no analogues at all in the history of the Soviet state: for ten years in the country (and this was during the Stalinist period!) a fictitious military unit operated under the command of a fake engineer-colonel Nikolai Maksimovich Pavlenko!

The history of the large-scale fictitious military construction organization created by Nikolai Pavlenko is contained in 164 volumes of the criminal case, which are stored in the Moscow District Military Court. Of all the criminal cases ever considered by the USSR Military Tribunal, this, perhaps, can be considered the most unusual.

The trial in this case began in November 1954. The judges of the tribunal read the indictment in turn for several days. It took no less time to announce the verdict. All seventeen defendants were charged with three most serious articles of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR, punishing anti-Soviet agitation, the creation of a counter-revolutionary organization and the undermining of state industry.

The 18 defendants who appeared before the Military Tribunal constituted only the core of the criminal organization. In total, more than 500 people were involved in it, many of whom did not even suspect that they were working in a gangster formation disguised as a military construction unit of the USSR Ministry of Defense.

The organizer of this criminal structure, false colonel Nikolai Maksimovich Pavlenko, entered into contract agreements, as a rule, for road construction work, received vehicles, other equipment, building materials at his disposal and... built highways, access roads, residential buildings, and other facilities, restored national economy destroyed by war. He always built well and with high quality. Many of the routes and facilities he built are still in operation today...

Pavlenko invited outside specialists under contracts. He paid three to four times more in cash than at a state-owned enterprise, allegedly “for secrecy.” I came to check the work myself. If he finds shortcomings, he will not leave until they are corrected. After rolling out the completed track, he offered the workers a few barrels of beer and a snack for free, and personally presented the locomotive driver and his assistant with a bonus, right here, in public. At that time, many workers received 300-500 rubles a month, so a bonus of 1000 rubles was perceived as a great miracle and unheard of “generosity from management.”

It would seem that what's wrong with this? However, alas, there was another side to the activities of Nikolai Pavlenko and his group: the theft of state funds on a particularly large scale, the appropriation of state equipment, misrepresentations when performing contract work, and many other serious crimes.

In order to get this or that contract, Pavlenko used fictitious documents and seals, bribed officials and military personnel, was engaged in postscripts, and stole everything that came his way: from cows to tractors. In the period from 1948 to 1952 alone, Pavlenko concluded 64 contracts worth 38 million rubles. UVS accounts were opened in the 21st branch of the State Bank of the USSR, and through them it was possible to receive more than 25 million rubles in cash. Investigators determined only approximately how much of this money ended up in the pockets of Pavlenko and his accomplices, but this amount was truly enormous.

Pavlenko’s organization was well armed and secretive; it even had its own “counterintelligence” - the Special Department. Pavlenko himself told everyone that his unit was “especially secret”, and therefore its performance of various construction works was only a cover for what it was doing “of national importance” while “carrying out a secret task of the Soviet government.”

Since in those days it was extremely unsafe to ask “extra questions” on this matter, no one asked Pavlenko them, so as not to get into trouble from the “authorities.” From the very beginning until the liquidation of the fake military unit, its participants obtained large quantities of pistols, rifles, machine guns, light machine guns and grenades.

Considering the scope of activities, the good armament of the “Military Construction Directorate No. 1” of false colonel Pavlenko, as well as the dispersion of his units in the territory of several regions - the Baltic states, the Moldavian SSR, Kiev, Odessa, Zaporozhye, Dnepropetrovsk, Kharkov and Mogilev regions of the Ukrainian SSR - to eliminate this The organization involved considerable forces of the USSR Ministry of State Security, including the Ministry of State Security of the Ukrainian SSR and the MSSR.

It all started in the summer of 1952 with a complaint from a Moldovan collective farmer, communist Ilya Efremenko, who, as a civilian military unit of UVS-1, worked for over a year on road construction. However, upon his dismissal, for some reason he was not given a relatively small amount of bonds in the amount of 200 rubles.

Offended by this, Efremenko several times addressed written statements to the head of UVS-1, engineer-colonel Nikolai Maksimovich Pavlenko, but to no avail. Efremenko sent his complaints to several organizations known to him, both local, republican, and union. His last complaint was addressed to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, addressed to Marshal Kliment Voroshilov himself, from where it was sent to the Main Military Prosecutor's Office of the USSR for verification.

The GVP employee immediately sent a request to the USSR Ministry of Defense to find out where Colonel Pavlenko’s military construction unit was located. Soon the answer that amazed him came: “the requested unit is not listed on the lists of the USSR Ministry of Defense.” A request to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and state security agencies received a similar response.

The check was continued, and in a short time it was possible to find out that “UVS-1”, which is not listed on the lists of the USSR Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of State Security, exists completely realistically and legally. Moreover, it has an extensive branched structure: construction sites and sites subordinate to UVS-1 were located in Moldova, Belarus, and the Baltic republics.

The headquarters of the unit, located in Chisinau, was no different from other military headquarters: there was the unit’s Banner with shift guards near it, and the operational duty officer, and the heads of various services, and the Special Department, and armed guards in the form of privates and sergeants of the Soviet Army, not allowing any outsiders into the territory under the pretext of “special secrecy of the facility.” The commander of the unit, “Colonel” Nikolai Pavlenko, also turned out to be a completely real person.

The security officers carefully prepared the operation to liquidate the mysterious “military construction organization.” It was decided to take the UVS-1 headquarters and all its units scattered throughout the western regions of the country on the same day, at dawn on November 14, 1952. Separate units of the Soviet Army were also involved in the operation.

Conspiracy and surprise made it possible to take all UVS-1 participants by surprise, and therefore Pavlenko’s “fighters” did not offer armed resistance. As a result of the operation, more than 300 people were detained, of which about 50 were so-called “officers,” “sergeants,” and “privates.” Pavlenko’s “right hand” was also arrested - “chief of counterintelligence, Major” Yuri Konstantiner.

Pavlenko himself was arrested only on October 23, 1952. A group of soldiers blocked the house in Chisinau where he was supposedly hiding. In the half that was locked, Pavlenko was discovered with citizen Musya Tyutyunnik. This woman at one time managed a food stall, squandered 12 thousand rubles of government money, hid from responsibility for several years, cohabiting with “Colonel” Pavlenko.

In the process of liquidating the fictitious military construction unit, 3 light machine guns, 8 machine guns, 25 rifles and carbines, 18 pistols, 5 grenades, over 3 thousand live cartridges, 82 trucks and 10 passenger cars, 14 tractors, 9 excavators, 10 bulldozers, round seals and stamps, tens of thousands of different forms, many false identification cards and registration certificates.

Of particular interest were the so-called labor agreements and contracts between UVS-1 and government organizations and enterprises for the performance of road construction work, for which significant amounts of money were transferred to UVS-1 accounts opened in different banks using fictitious letters and powers of attorney. Only Pavlenko and Konstantiner had free access to them. During the investigation, it was found that the contracts, as a rule, significantly inflated the actual cost of work.

It was established that the fake “foremen”, “sergeants” and “privates” were paid monthly amounts that were two to three times higher than the earnings of employees of government institutions. The criminal cohesion of such “military personnel” was also facilitated by the fact that they were all recruited from among relatives or good friends of the so-called “officers,” whose salaries were even higher.

To investigate the case, a team was created from senior officials of the USSR Main Military Prosecutor’s Office, headed by V. Markalyants, L. Lavrentyev and experienced military investigators from the periphery. But even they, highly qualified professionals, took two and a half years (including the trial) to completely restore the “criminal portrait” of Nikolai Pavlenko and his active accomplices.

And it all started like this. Nikolai Pavlenko was born in 1912 in the village of New Sokoly near Kiev in the family of a miller, where besides him there were seven more children. His adventurism manifested itself in his youth. In 1928, he changed his age (adding four years) and social origin in his documents, after which he ran away from home and entered the Kalinin Institute of Civil Engineering.

True, he left him after two years. Having got a job at a construction site, Pavlenko began writing denunciations against employees, accusing them of “Trotskyism.” He was noticed by the local department of the NKVD and was recommended as a “reliable person” to the Main Directorate of Military Construction of the NPO of the USSR for the position of foreman.

In 1940, Nikolai Pavlenko rose to the rank of head of the construction site and was already eyeing a position in the headquarters apparatus, but then the Great Patriotic War began.

Nikolai Pavlenko was sent to the front with the rank of military technician (senior lieutenant) as part of a rifle corps. The corps found itself in a sector of the front where fierce fighting was taking place and suffered heavy losses near Vyazma. But death in battle was not part of Nikolai Pavlenko’s plans, and therefore in September 1941, he, having issued himself a false travel certificate, together with his driver Pyotr Shcheglov, deserted from the front, heading by car to the city of Kalinin, which was well known to him, under the pretext of obtaining new equipment. .

Having safely overcome the system of barrage detachments, Pavlenko took refuge with friends in Kaliningrad. Along the way, several more deserters like him joined him. In Kalinin, Nikolai Pavlenko and a company of deserters, for whom he also issued fictitious travel orders, led a comfortable life for several months, drinking at the expense of the military technician’s many acquaintances.

At the end of March 1942, he had the daring idea to create his own military construction unit, which was facilitated by the presence of ownerless construction equipment standing idle on the territory of the former Plandorstroy artel. The backbone of the so-called Department of Military Construction Works (UVSR) consisted of Pavlenko’s closest relatives and acquaintances, who were hiding under various pretexts from conscription. Officers' uniforms were purchased directly at the bazaar, where at that time there was a brisk trade in such goods. At the same time, Pavlenko awarded himself the title of military engineer of the 1st rank.

One of his friends, sixteen-year-old Ludwig Rudnichenko, turned out to be a skilled carver and could easily cut out any official seal from rubber, not to mention stamps. At Pavlenko’s request, he made an official seal with the inscription: “Military construction site of the Kalinin Front - 5” (UVSR-5).

The conclusion of all this was a letter on letterhead signed by Nikolai Pavlenko, addressed to the city military registration and enlistment office, with a request to send to him for further military service all those who, for some reason, lagged behind their unit, and those soldiers who were discharged from hospitals .

Pavlenko managed to print forms at a local printing house (for a food bribe). Using these false documents, deserters received food and equipment from factories and warehouses in Kalinin.

Pavlenko, using fictitious documents, also opened a bank account into which money was received from customers. He shared them with his comrades. Energetic and enterprising, people liked Pavlenko. He gained the trust of the head of the Kalinin evacuation point, and he ordered to accept the military construction unit of UVSR-5 on full pay.

However, the threat of a German invasion of Kalinin disappeared. And then Pavlenko, fearing that they would be exposed in a calmer environment, became subordinate to another military unit and began building access roads to temporary airfields. At that time, the situation at the front was very tragic for our troops, so in the reigning confusion no one was surprised by the appearance of some new unit - UVSR-5.

And Pavlenko began to collect equipment abandoned on roads and construction sites: cars, bulldozers, excavators. From the deserters most loyal to him, the military engineer created an “officer corps”, and soon promoted himself to colonel. He even created his own counterintelligence, which was engaged in bribing those on whom the comfortable existence of UVSR-5 depended.

Soon the fake military unit began to be replenished with real privates and sergeants, who had no idea what kind of fraud they were involved in! By the way, these servicemen were supplied to the bandit group with the help of... the commandant's office and the military registration and enlistment office, whose leaders were bribed by Pavlenko.

Then, again for a bribe, the fake colonel agreed with the military doctor to enroll all UVSR-5 soldiers on all types of allowances. Thus, the criminal organization was legalized and... began to work!

Pavlenko, who had good experience in construction work, began to enter into business contracts for repairs and construction with real organizations. He spent the money he received on food for the rank and file, but divided most of it between himself and his “officers.”

In the fall of 1942, the Kalinin Front was liquidated. Pavlenko realized that his comfortable life was about to end and... handed over a large bribe to the commander of the 12th Air Base Area (RAB) to enroll his soldiers in pay.

Now the illegal military unit began to be called UVS-5 and operate under the reliable “roof” of the 12th RAB. It was even necessary to expand the staff - to recruit soldiers who had lagged behind their units into the structure.

Moving forward after the advancing front (but at a safe distance from it), Pavlenkovites, along with construction, were engaged in looting state and trophy property.

On the way to the USSR border, Pavlenko’s people earned about a million rubles under contracts. To increase the volume of work performed, replenishment was required. Then Pavlenko began to recruit soldiers who had lagged behind their units.

“You are a deserter! You must be judged! You'll be shot! - Pavlenko shouted at the faulty fighter. But then, changing his anger to mercy, he added: “Okay, so be it, I forgive you.” Stay in my unit.."

The chief of staff of UVR, Mikhail Zavada, testified during the investigation: “People were recruited, as a rule, from those who had lagged behind military units... Drivers were taken along with the car... When they approached the Soviet state border, there were more than two hundred people in UVR.” . Half of them are deserters and persons hiding from conscription into the active army.”

But war is war, and sometimes the fictitious military unit still had to engage in battle with the enemy. However, Pavlenko used this circumstance to his advantage: according to false representations, he received over 230 orders and medals for himself and his subordinates. In addition to medals, Pavlenko awarded himself the Order of the Red Banner of Battle, the Order of the Red Star, and the Order of the Patriotic War, I and II degrees.

Following the units of the Red Army, UVS-5 reached Germany through Ukraine, Belarus and Poland. Here Pavlenkovites turned around with all their might. German warehouses and rich houses were robbed; the looted property was transported to the USSR by wagons, where it was safely sold or stored in secluded places.

It even got to the point that residents of the German city of Stuttgart complained to the Soviet command about the atrocities of Nikolai Pavlenko’s subordinates. Then the latter, allegedly “outraged” by the looting of the personnel of his UVS-5, personally shot two “offenders” in front of the formation.

After the victory, Pavlenko, who had gained strength and became insolent, with the help of deception and large bribes, established connections with the military representatives of the Department of Clothing and Cargo Supply of the Ministry of Defense of the USSR, as well as with representatives of the temporary military commandant's office of Stuttgart and received at his disposal a railway train of thirty-five cars .

According to the investigation, only for the cars, tractors, motorcycles, pieces of cloth, wines and cognacs, tons of sugar, cereals, flour, radios, guns, accordions, bicycles exported in these thirty-five cars, as well as in a separate UVS-5 convoy from Berlin , carpets, sewing machines, hundreds of heads of livestock, Nikolai Pavlenko and his accomplices received over 30 million rubles in the USSR, as well as a large amount of gold and jewelry.

With his train, Pavlenko returned to Kalinin, profitably sold the looted livestock and food, and demobilized all the sergeants and privates in the prescribed manner, paying each of them up to 12 thousand rubles, which at that time amounted to a lot of money.

Leaving some of the removed equipment in Kalinin, Pavlenko created and headed the civil construction artel “Plandorstroy”. But under his leadership there were no longer any accomplices - they had dispersed to different cities, and without them it was difficult to carry out the business on a grand scale.

At the beginning of 1948, Pavlenko contacted his closest assistant Yuri Konstantiner, after which, having stolen 300 thousand artel funds, he disappeared, finding shelter in Lvov.

Soon other “officers” came to the city of Lviv at his call, and the craftsman Ludwig Rudnichenko also arrived here, who quickly made new seals and stamps. This is how the military construction unit “UVS-1” (Military Construction Directorate) appeared with many construction branches in the western regions of the country.

The newly created military unit was practically no different from other active units. On its territory, the daily routine was strictly observed, combat and political training classes were held, an operational duty officer was appointed every day, a guard was on guard duty, and the sentry of post No. 1 guarded the Banner of the unit.

There was no end to those wishing to enter into contract agreements with such a respected organization! The criminal case contains several top secret lists, which list dozens of enterprises and organizations that have entered into “economic relations with UVS-1 construction sites.”

Everything went in the same circle. Contracts, road construction, registrations, and thefts began again. Having a lot of money, Nikolai Pavlenko considered himself invulnerable. He had an unerring instinct for corrupt officials.

Pavlenko was truly a great schemer. Revealing the true nature of some people, he easily made very expensive gifts, knowing full well that they would not refuse him later. For example, he handed over a captured passenger car to the Tula regional military commander Rizhnev, and he ordered the deployment of the airborne forces on the territory of the Shchekinsky district. Later, using connections with Rizhnev, Pavlenko and his accomplices, under the guise of receiving demobilization benefits, embezzled public funds. Rizhnev received an “appendage”: a cow, a carpet, a radio and scarce products. More than once, using fake documents, UVS-5 received money through the Klin, Solnechnogorsk and Galich military registration and enlistment offices.

Pavlenko did not forget about himself - he bought two decent houses - in Kalinin and in Ukraine - and several Pobeda cars.
The plump and imposing Colonel Pavlenko gave a bribe even for solving the most trivial issue. He was part of the local authorities also in Chisinau and in other places where his “construction sites” were located. He was respected and taken into account. Pavlenko selected his security through local MGB agencies, which carefully checked candidates for lack of connection with Bandera.

Indeed, it was difficult to suspect Pavlenko of a criminal. A successful, respectable man, he drives a Pobeda, with security. Witness Vasily Kudrenko testified during the investigation: “I know the head of UVS-1, Colonel Pavlenko, personally. He is of average height, has a plump, almost fat figure, wears glasses with black trim, gray hair, a shaved head, brown eyes, and a large belly. I don’t know who the UVS was subordinate to. However, I know that Colonel Pavlenko himself awarded military ranks to his officers. For example, Kuritsyn was demobilized from the army as a sergeant major, and here he immediately became a senior lieutenant, and then Nevinsky was awarded the rank of captain, although before that he had no rank..."

By all appearances, the organization was criminal. But, making excuses at the prosecutor’s office, the leaders of various organizations collaborating with the UVS insisted that they could not even imagine that Pavlenko was a criminal. After all, he was a very respected person, he was constantly invited to the presidiums of ceremonial meetings, and during festive parades he always stood on the podium next to the party bosses. Moreover, in a ceremonial uniform and the radiance of military orders...

On the day of Nikolai Pavlenko’s arrest, during a search in his apartment, among other things, general’s shoulder straps were found. Pavlenko and his closest henchmen were accused of counter-revolutionary crimes. But they, while admitting “criminalism,” completely denied “anti-Sovietism.” At the trial, the failed general said: “I never set out to create an anti-Soviet organization... I assure the court that Pavlenko can still be useful and he will make his contribution to organizing the work.”

However, the verdict of the tribunal of the Moscow Military District on April 4, 1955 was harsh but fair: “Colonel” Pavlenko was sentenced to capital punishment, and Konstantiner and sixteen other “officers” were sentenced to imprisonment for a term of 5 to 25 years. The cases of minor participants were sent to other courts.

Top Secret: The Case of the Fake Military Unit October 28th, 2011

In 1942, the USSR waged fierce battles with the enemy in all military directions.

There was also unrest in the rear; the NKVD and SMERSH, other military intelligence services, and all military propaganda called on the people to be vigilant. Who would have thought that in this harsh time, permeated with general suspicion, in the rear of the Soviet state, a whole network of swindlers dressed in military uniform operated brazenly and with impunity.

The fake military unit was created by Red Army deserter Captain Pavlenko, a man of extraordinary talent and adventurous character. After spending several months at the front, Nikolai Pavlenko fled from the front and settled in the rear, getting a job as chairman of a construction artel in Tver using forged documents.

He knew the construction business well - he studied at the Institute of Civil Engineering, and did his internship at Glavvoenstroi, where he carefully studied the entire bureaucratic mechanism. Among the workers of the artel there was a previously convicted swindler who specialized in the production of seals, stamps and false documents. In 1942, Pavlenko came up with the idea - using false documents, to create a military unit - Military Construction Works Directorate No. 5.

So Nikolai Pavlenko became a fake military engineer of the 3rd rank, a major, in military terminology. Soon other “soldiers” appeared. The swindler awarded officer ranks to his accomplices. But to carry out the criminal plan, labor was required - soldiers and sergeants. To fill his own unit with human reserves, Pavlenko sent fake letters to surrounding hospitals, demanding that the wounded and those lagging behind their military echelons be sent directly to his unit. They did not hesitate to take deserters. Thus, the military unit became overgrown with people, many of whom did not even suspect that they were serving in the “fake” troops.

The scammers ordered all the forms, certificates, and military IDs from the printing house, paying large bribes. Military uniforms were obtained in a warehouse, officers' uniforms were sewn in a military studio. But it was not enough to have a uniform and people; it was necessary to provide them with work in order to hide behind it for their dark deeds. And Pavlenko, using his extraordinary talent as a diplomat, began to negotiate with military organizations, obtaining contracts for the construction of road facilities.

They believed him unconditionally. The swindler’s sociability worked wonders; he won over the secretaries of high offices, and bottles of expensive vintage cognac and boxes of American chocolates drowned the hearts of any commanding staff. But the fake directorate could not exist on its own - and Pavlenko achieved the incredible by bribing the leadership of the 12th RAB (air base area), his “Directorate” joined the army aviation unit as a construction support service. The combined arms emblems on soldiers' shoulder straps were replaced by aviation wings, and Pavlenko became a “lieutenant colonel” with unlimited influence.

By that time, his “unit” already numbered about two hundred people. Together with the aviators, Pavlenko's Directorate crossed the Soviet border and began operating in Poland and Germany. In addition to construction work, the soldiers of Pavlenko’s gang did not hesitate to rob civilians - for which the stern “commander” shot two marauders in front of the line. Pavlenko knew that any alarm signal could bring down the entire organization, but the office, the backbone of which consisted of criminals and deserters, was gradually disintegrating.

Meanwhile, the scams continued. For a bribe, Pavlenko received from military representatives of the USSR Ministry of Defense an entire train (30 wagons) of various products, which he then resold profitably, pocketing the money for himself. Using false documents about military exploits, the fake lieutenant colonel obtained more than 230 state awards for his unit for his accomplices, not forgetting to reward himself. So Pavlenko awarded himself two Orders of the Patriotic War, I and II degrees, the Order of the Red Banner of Battle, the Order of the Red Star, and military medals.

After the war, when counterintelligence began to take a closer look at the scoundrel builders, Pavlenko hastily reorganized the false military command, demobilizing unsuspecting soldiers and officers.

And he himself, from people close to himself, created the civil artel “Plandorstroy”, collecting contracts for the restoration of cities and villages that suffered from the Nazi occupiers. But it turned out that you couldn’t make much money on civil contracts, and Pavlenko, taking with him a cash register of 300 thousand rubles, fled.

A brilliant “military past” demanded new exploits. In 1948, Pavlenko found his “counterintelligence” chief, Yuri Konstantiner, lightly awarded him the rank of “major” and created a new military organization, which he called “Military Construction Directorate No. 10 (UVS-10).”

A young and charming colonel, a medal bearer, appeared in civilian organizations in a military uniform with shoulder straps and made a strong impression on the leadership of city organizations with his confident manners, ability to easily establish contacts and large bribes, which he gave at the conclusion of each transaction. Using fictitious accounts, UVS-10 opened current accounts and construction sites. Pavlenko paid ordinary “soldiers” mere pennies, huge amounts of money went into his pocket and the pockets of his accomplices. In addition, huge amounts of money were spent on bribes to high-ranking officials. Pavlenko’s organization created many construction sites; Pavlenko’s members operated in the center of Russia, Ukraine, Estonia and Moldova.

With the money he earned, the fraudster purchased more than 40 trucks and cars, graders, horses and other vehicles. Under the guise of protecting construction sites from Bandera, Colonel Pavlenko received 25 rifles, 8 machine guns, 18 pistols from the regional departments of the MGB, and armed the guards at his headquarters, which he did not register anywhere. The organization grew, but discipline in the wild army left much to be desired. The Pavlenkovites drank, became rowdy, and began shooting each other. The “officers” did not hesitate to deceive their subordinates.

Such behavior of the “Soviet officers” played into the hands of Estonian and Ukrainian nationalists, who said: People, look, here they are, the occupiers of our long-suffering land, hiding behind shoulder straps, sowing lawlessness and terror!

Civilian construction workers of the military administration also complained - the authorities collected money from them for a war loan, but the bonds were not issued. All this did not go unnoticed. Signals poured into the surrounding departments of the MGB and were transmitted higher up the chain of command.

Pavlenko’s army was destroyed by another drunken brawl of his “officers.” The police arrested two drunk construction officers who staged a pogrom in a restaurant in Chisinau, the prosecutor's office sent a request to Moscow, from where they returned a stunning answer: such a military unit does not exist. The USSR Ministry of State Security got involved in the case, the investigation was headed by a man with an ominous reputation, General Semyon Tsvigun, who instilled fear in bribe-takers and scammers.

The security officers decided that the “military unit” was a carefully disguised sabotage unit of foreign intelligence. But after an unsuccessful attempt to infiltrate the unit or convert its employees, a decision was made to cover the entire network at once. And on November 14, 1952, troops of the USSR Ministry of State Security blocked the military bases of the “fake” Directorate, headquarters and other units of Pavlenko and arrested about 400 people.

Those arrested also included patrons and high-ranking friends of Pavlenko - the Minister of Food Industry K. Tsurkan, his deputies Azariev and Kudyukin, the first secretary of the Tiraspol State Committee of the Communist Party (b) M V. Lykhvar, several managers of industrial banks, the secretary of the Balti State Committee of the Communist Party (b) M L. Rachinsky and many others. Two and a half years of investigation resulted in dozens of volumes of criminal case. The damage from Pavlenko’s activities was calculated - it amounted to 38 million 717 thousand 600 Soviet rubles. It was noted that Pavlenko’s employees actually built roads and road facilities of excellent quality.

At the trial, the failed general said: “I never set out to create an anti-Soviet organization.” And he further stated. “I assure the court that Pavlenko can still be useful and he will contribute to the organization of work...”

However, the verdict of the tribunal of the Moscow Military District on April 4, 1955 was harsh: “Colonel” Pavlenko was sentenced to capital punishment - execution, and sixteen of his “officers” were sentenced to imprisonment for a term of 5 to 25 years.

The case and the verdict were classified as “Top Secret”. The Soviet authorities could not admit that in the very heart of the European part of the Soviet socialist state nested an entire secret network of swindlers and thieves in army uniform.