The highest measure for women in the USSR. The death penalty in the USSR: chilling stories about the fate of three condemned women

Officially, in all the post-war years, three women were executed in the USSR. The death sentences for the representatives of the weaker sex were handed down, but not carried out. And then the case came to a head. Who were these women, and for what crimes they were still shot. The history of the crimes of Antonina Makarova.

Case with a surname.

Antonina Makarova was born in 1921 in the Smolensk region, in the village of Malaya Volkovka, into a large peasant family of Makar Parfenov. She studied at a rural school, and it was there that an episode occurred that influenced her future life. When Tonya came to the first grade, because of her shyness, she could not give her last name - Parfenova. Classmates began to shout “Yes, she is Makarova!”, Meaning that Tony's father's name is Makar. So, with the light hand of a teacher, at that time almost the only literate person in the village, Tonya Makarova appeared in the Parfyonov family. The girl studied diligently, with diligence. She also had her own revolutionary heroine - Anka the machine gunner. This film image had a real prototype - the nurse of the Chapaev division, Maria Popova, who once in battle really had to replace a killed machine gunner. After graduating from school, Antonina went to study in Moscow, where she was caught by the beginning of World War II. The girl went to the front as a volunteer.

Camping wife surrounded.

and the share of the 19-year-old Komsomol member Makarova fell all the horrors of the infamous "Vyazemsky cauldron". After the most difficult battles, in complete encirclement from the whole unit, only soldier Nikolai Fedchuk was next to the young nurse Tonya. With him, she wandered through the local forests, just trying to survive. They did not look for partisans, they did not try to get through to their own - they fed on whatever they had to, sometimes they stole. The soldier did not stand on ceremony with Tonya, making her his "camping wife". Antonina did not resist - she just wanted to live. In January 1942, they went to the village of Red Well, and then Fedchuk admitted that he was married and his family lived nearby. He left Tony alone. Tonya was not driven out of the Red Well, but the locals were already full of worries. And the strange girl did not seek to go to the partisans, did not strive to break through to ours, but strove to make love with one of the men who remained in the village. Having set the locals against herself, Tonya was forced to leave.

Paid killer.

Tonya Makarova's wanderings ended near the village of Lokot in the Bryansk region. The infamous "Lokot Republic" - the administrative-territorial formation of Russian collaborators - operated here. In essence, they were the same German lackeys as in other places, only more clearly formalized. A police patrol detained Tonya, but they did not suspect a partisan or underground worker of her. She liked the policemen, who took her to their place, gave her a drink, fed and raped her. However, the latter is very relative - the girl, who only wanted to survive, agreed to everything. The role of a prostitute under the policemen did not last long for Tonya - one day, drunk, they took her out into the yard and put her behind a Maxim easel machine gun. People stood in front of the machine gun - men, women, old people, children. She was ordered to shoot. For Tony, who had completed not only nursing courses, but also machine gunners, this was not a big deal. True, the dead drunk woman did not really understand what she was doing. But, nevertheless, she coped with the task. The next day, Makarova learned that she was now an official - an executioner with a salary of 30 German marks and with her bunk. The Lokot Republic ruthlessly fought the enemies of the new order - partisans, underground workers, communists, other unreliable elements, as well as members of their families. The arrested were herded into a barn that served as a prison, and in the morning they were taken out to be shot. The cell held 27 people, and all of them had to be eliminated in order to make room for new ones. Neither the Germans, nor even the local policemen, wanted to take on this job. And here, Tonya, who appeared out of nowhere with her shooting abilities, came in very handy. The girl did not go crazy, but on the contrary, she considered that her dream had come true. And let Anka shoot enemies, and she shoots women and children - the war will write everything off! But her life is finally getting better.

1500 lost lives.

The daily routine of Antonina Makarova was as follows: in the morning, the execution of 27 people with a machine gun, finishing off the survivors with a pistol, cleaning weapons, in the evening schnapps and dancing in a German club, and at night, love with some pretty German or, at worst, with a policeman. As a reward, she was allowed to take the belongings of the dead. So Tonya got a bunch of outfits, which, however, had to be repaired - traces of blood and bullet holes immediately interfered with wearing. However, sometimes Tonya allowed a “marriage” - several children managed to survive, because because of their small stature, the bullets passed over their heads. The children were taken out together with the corpses by the locals, who buried the dead, and handed over to the partisans. Rumors about a female executioner, "Tonka the machine gunner", "Tonka the Muscovite" crawled around the district. Local partisans even announced a hunt for the executioner, but they could not get to her. In total, about 1,500 people became victims of Antonina Makarova. By the summer of 1943, Tony's life again took a sharp turn - the Red Army moved to the West, starting to liberate the Bryansk region. This did not bode well for the girl, but then she very conveniently fell ill with syphilis, and the Germans sent her to the rear so that she would not re-infect the valiant sons of Great Germany.

Honored veteran instead of a war criminal.

In the German hospital, however, it also soon became uncomfortable - the Soviet troops were approaching so quickly that only the Germans managed to evacuate, and there was no longer any case for accomplices. Realizing this, Tonya fled the hospital, again finding herself surrounded, but now Soviet. But survival skills were honed - she managed to get documents proving that all this time Makarova was a nurse in a Soviet hospital. Antonina successfully managed to enter the service in a Soviet hospital, where at the beginning of 1945 a young soldier, a real war hero, fell in love with her. The guy made an offer to Tonya, she agreed, and, having married, the young people after the end of the war left for the Belarusian city of Lepel, to her husband's homeland. So the female executioner Antonina Makarova disappeared, and the honored veteran Antonina Ginzburg took her place.

She's been looking for thirty years

Soviet investigators learned about the monstrous deeds of "Tonka the machine gunner" immediately after the liberation of the Bryansk region. The remains of about one and a half thousand people were found in mass graves, but only two hundred were identified. Witnesses were interrogated, checked, clarified - but they could not attack the trace of the female punisher. Meanwhile, Antonina Ginzburg led the usual life of a Soviet person - she lived, worked, raised two daughters, even met with schoolchildren, talking about her heroic military past. Of course, without mentioning the deeds of "Tonka the machine gunner". The KGB spent more than three decades searching for it, but found it almost by accident. A certain citizen Parfenov, going abroad, submitted questionnaires with information about relatives. There, among the solid Parfyonovs, for some reason, Antonina Makarova, by her husband Ginzburg, was listed as a sister. Yes, how that mistake of the teacher helped Tonya, how many years thanks to it she remained out of reach of justice! The KGB operatives worked like jewelry - it was impossible to accuse an innocent person of such atrocities. Antonina Ginzburg was checked from all sides, witnesses were secretly brought to Lepel, even a former policeman-lover. And only after they all confirmed that Antonina Ginzburg was “Tonka the machine gunner”, she was arrested. She did not deny, she talked about everything calmly, said that she had no nightmares. She did not want to communicate with her daughters or her husband. And the husband, a front-line soldier, ran around the authorities, threatened Brezhnev with a complaint, even at the UN - he demanded the release of his wife. Exactly until the investigators decided to tell him what his beloved Tonya was accused of. After that, the dashing, brave veteran turned gray and aged overnight. The family disowned Antonina Ginzburg and left Lepel. What these people had to endure, you would not wish on the enemy.

Retribution.

Antonina Makarova-Ginzburg was tried in Bryansk in the autumn of 1978. This was the last major trial of traitors in the USSR and the only trial of a female punisher. Antonina herself was convinced that, due to the prescription of years, the punishment could not be too severe, she even believed that she would receive a suspended sentence. She only regretted that, because of the shame, she again had to move and change jobs. Even the investigators, knowing about the post-war exemplary biography of Antonina Ginzburg, believed that the court would show leniency. Moreover, 1979 was declared the Year of the Woman in the USSR. However, on November 20, 1978, the court sentenced Antonina Makarova-Ginzburg to capital punishment - execution. At the trial, her guilt was documented in the murder of 168 people from those whose identities could be established. More than 1,300 remained unknown victims of Tonka the Machine Gunner. There are crimes that cannot be forgiven. At six in the morning on August 11, 1979, after all requests for clemency were rejected, the sentence against Antonina Makarova-Ginzburg was carried out.

Bert Borodkin.

Berta Borodkina, known in certain circles as "Iron Bella", was one of 3 women executed in the late USSR. By a fatal coincidence, Berta Naumovna Borodkina, a well-deserved worker of trade, who did not kill anyone, was included in this mournful list along with the murderers. She was sentenced to death for embezzlement of socialist property on an especially large scale.
Among those who patronized the catering director of the resort town were members of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, as well as the secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Fyodor Kulakov. Relations at the very top for a long time made Berta Borodkin invulnerable to any auditors, but in the end they played a tragic role in her fate. In April 1984, the Krasnodar Regional Court considered criminal case No. 2-4/84 against the director of the trust of restaurants and canteens in the city of Gelendzhik, Berta Borodkina, Honored Worker of Trade and Public Catering of the RSFSR. The main point of accusation of the defendant is part 2 of Art. 173 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR (taking a bribe) - provided for punishment in the form of imprisonment for a term of five to fifteen years with confiscation of property. However, reality surpassed the worst fears of 57-year-old Borodkina - she was sentenced to death. The decision of the court came as a surprise to lawyers who followed the high-profile trial with interest: an exceptional measure of punishment "up to its complete abolition", according to the then current Criminal Code of the RSFSR, was allowed for treason (Article 64), espionage (Article 65), terrorist act (art. 66 and 67), sabotage (art. 68), banditry (art. 77), premeditated murder under aggravating circumstances specified in art. 102 and paragraph "c" Art. 240, and in wartime or in a combat situation - also for other especially grave crimes in cases specially provided for by the legislation of the USSR.

Pay or lose...

The successful career of Borodkina (her maiden name is Korol), who did not even have a complete secondary education, began in the Gelendzhik catering in 1951 as a waitress, then she successively occupied the positions of a barmaid and head of the dining room, and in 1974 her dizzying rise to the nomenclature took place. post of the head of the trust of restaurants and canteens. Such an appointment could not have taken place without the participation of Nikolai Pogodin, the first secretary of the city committee of the CPSU, his preference for a candidate without special education was not openly questioned by anyone in the city committee, and the hidden motives for choosing the party leader became known eight years later. “During the indicated period [from 1974 to 1982], being an official in a responsible position,” says the indictment in the Borodkina case, “repeatedly personally and through intermediaries in her apartment and at her place of work received bribes from a large group of subordinates to her From the bribes she received, Borodkina herself transferred bribes to senior officials in the city of Gelendzhik for their assistance and support in their work ... So, over the past two years, 15,000 rubles worth of valuables, money and products were transferred to the secretary of the city party committee Pogodin. The last amount in the 1980s was approximately the cost of three Zhiguli cars. In the materials of the investigation, a graphic diagram of the corruption relationships of the director of the trust, compiled by employees of the USSR Chief Prosecutor's Office, was filed. It resembles a dense web with Borodkina in the center, to which numerous threads stretch from the restaurants Gelendzhik, Kavkaz, Yuzhny, Platan, Yacht, canteens and cafes, pancake, barbecue and food tents, and from it disperse to the city committee of the CPSU and the city executive committee, the BHSS department of the city police department (combating theft of socialist property), to the regional trust and further to the Glavkurortorg of the Ministry of Trade of the RSFSR. Employees of the Gelendzhik catering - directors and managers, bartenders and bartenders, cashiers and waiters, cooks and forwarders, cloakroom attendants and doormen - were completely taxed, everyone knew how much money he had to transfer along the chain, as well as what awaited him in case of refusal - the loss of the "bread" position.

Stolen degrees.

Borodkina, during her work in various areas of public catering, perfectly mastered the methods of deceiving consumers in order to obtain “left” incomes practiced in Soviet trade, and put them on stream in her department. It was common to dilute sour cream with water, and tint liquid tea or coffee with burnt sugar. But one of the most profitable frauds was the abundant addition of bread or cereals to minced meat, reducing the established norms of meat for cooking first and second courses. The head of the trust, "saved" in this way, transferred the product to barbecue houses for sale. In two years, according to Kalinichenko, Borodkina earned 80,000 rubles from this alone. Another source of illegal income was the manipulation of alcohol. Here, too, she did not discover anything new: in restaurants, cafes, bars and buffets, the traditional "underfilling" was widely used, as well as "stealing a degree". For example, visitors to a drinking establishment simply did not notice a decrease in the strength of vodka due to dilution by two degrees, but this brought big profits to trade workers. But it was considered especially profitable to mix cheaper “starka” (rye vodka infused with apple or pear leaves) into expensive Armenian cognac. According to the investigator, even the examination could not establish that the cognac was diluted. A primitive calculation was also common - both for individual visitors to restaurants, bars, buffets and cafes, and for large companies. Musician Georgy Mimikonov, who played in the restaurants of Gelendzhik in those years, told Moscow TV journalists that during the holiday season whole groups of shift workers from Siberia and the Arctic came here for the weekend to have a go in the “beautiful life zone,” as the musician put it. The calculation of such clients went to tens and hundreds of rubles.

Berta, aka Iron Bella.

In those days, the Black Sea health resorts received more than 10 million vacationers per year, which served as a gold mine for the resort mafia. Borodkina had her own classification of people who came to rest in Gelendzhik. Those who rented corners in the private sector, stood in line in cafes and canteens, and then left complaints about the quality of food in public catering establishments in the book of complaints and suggestions, wrote about cheating and "underfilling", she, according to her former colleagues, called rats . The Gorkom "roof" in the person of the first secretary, as well as OBKhSS inspectors, made her invulnerable to the dissatisfaction of the mass consumer, whom Borodkina considered exclusively as a source of "left" income. Borodkina demonstrated a completely different attitude towards high-ranking party and government officials who came to Gelendzhik during the holiday season from Moscow and the Union republics, but here, too, she pursued her own interests first of all - the acquisition of future influential patrons. Borodkina did everything to make their stay on the Black Sea coast pleasant and memorable. Borodkina, as it turned out, not only provided the nomenclature guests with scarce products for picnics in the mountains and boat trips, set tables bursting with delicacies, but could, if they wished, invite young women to the male company. Her "hospitality" for the guests themselves and the party fund of the region was worth nothing - Borodkina knew how to write off expenses. These qualities in her were appreciated by the first secretary of the Krasnodar Regional Committee of the CPSU Sergey Medunov. Among those who gave Borodkina their patronage were even members of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, as well as the secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU Fyodor Kulakov. When Kulakov died, the family invited only two people from the Krasnodar Territory to his funeral - Medunov and Borodkina. Connections at the very top for a long time provided Borodkina with immunity against any revisions, so behind her back she was called "Iron Bella" in Gelendzhik (Borodkina did not like her own name, she preferred to be called Bella).

The case of the sale of pornographic products.

When Borodkina was arrested, at first she considered it an unfortunate misunderstanding and warned the operatives: no matter how they had to apologize today. There was an element of chance that she was placed in the bullpen, however, those who are well acquainted with the details of this long history note. The prosecutor's office received a statement from a local resident that in one of the cafes, pornographic films were secretly shown to selected guests. The organizers of underground viewings - the director of the cafe, the production manager and the bartender - were caught red-handed, they were charged under Art. 228 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR (manufacture or sale of pornographic products, punishable by imprisonment for up to three years with confiscation of pornographic objects and means of their production). During interrogations, catering workers testified that the director of the trust had tacitly allowed the demonstrations, and part of the proceeds was transferred to her. Thus, Borodkina herself was charged with complicity in this offense and taking a bribe. A search was made in Iron Bella's house, the results of which unexpectedly went far beyond the scope of the "underground cinema" case. Borodkina's housing was reminiscent of museum storerooms, which contained numerous precious jewelry, furs, crystal products, sets of bed linen, which were then in short supply. In addition, Borodkina kept large sums of money at home, which the investigators found in the most unexpected places - in water heaters and under carpets in rooms, rolled up jars in the basement, in bricks stored in the yard. The total amount seized during the search amounted to more than 500,000 rubles.

The mysterious disappearance of the first secretary of the city committee of the CPSU.

Borodkina at the very first interrogation refused to testify and, as before, threatened the investigation with punishment for sweeping accusations against her and the arrest of "a leader respected in the region." "She was sure that she was about to be released, but there was still no help." "Iron Bella" did not wait for her, and here's why. In the early 1980s, investigations began in the Krasnodar Territory of numerous criminal cases related to large-scale manifestations of bribery and theft, which received the generalized name of the Sochi-Krasnodar case. The owner of the Kuban Medunov, a close friend of the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU Leonid Brezhnev and Secretary of the Central Committee Konstantin Chernenko, interfered in every possible way with the work of the Investigative Department of the Prosecutor General's Office. However, in Moscow he had a powerful opponent - the chairman of the KGB, Yuri Andropov. And with his election in November 1982 as General Secretary, the prosecutor's office had a free hand. As a result of one of the most high-profile anti-corruption campaigns in the USSR, more than 5,000 party and Soviet leaders were dismissed from their posts and expelled from the ranks of the CPSU, about 1,500 people were sentenced to various terms of imprisonment, and Deputy Minister of Fisheries of the USSR Vladimir Rytov was convicted and shot . Medunov was dismissed from the post of first secretary of the regional committee of the CPSU and removed from the Central Committee of the CPSU with the wording: "For the mistakes made in the work." When the defendant was made to understand that she no longer had anyone to rely on, she could alleviate her fate only by a sincere confession of guilt, "Iron Bella" broke down and began to testify. Her criminal case took up 20 volumes, former investigator Alexander Chernov said, based on the testimony of the former director of the trust, another three dozen criminal cases were initiated, in which 70 people were convicted. And the head of the party organization of Gelendzhik Pogodin disappeared without a trace after the arrest of Borodkina. Once he left the house in the evening, telling his wife that he needed to go to the city committee for a while, and did not return. The police of the Krasnodar Territory were thrown in search of him, divers examined the waters of the Gelendzhik Bay, but all in vain - he was never seen dead or alive again. There is a version that Pogodin left the country on one of the foreign ships that were in the Gelendzhik Bay, but no actual confirmation of this has yet been found.

She knew too much.

During the investigation, Borodkina tried to feign schizophrenia. It was "very talented", but the forensic medical examination recognized the game and the case was transferred to the regional court, which found Borodkina guilty of repeatedly taking bribes totaling 561,834 rubles. 89 kop. (part 2 of article 173 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR). According to Art. 93-1 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR (theft of state property on an especially large scale) and Art. 156 part 2 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR (fraud of consumers), she was acquitted "due to insufficient evidence of the participation of the defendant in the commission of the crime." She was sentenced to an exceptional measure of punishment - execution. The Supreme Court of the USSR upheld the verdict. The defendant did not apply for pardon. Borodkin was let down by just what she was very proud of - acquaintances with high-ranking people, whose names she constantly trumped up. Former patrons in the current situation were interested in the fact that "Iron Bella" was silent forever - she knew too much. She was not only disproportionately punished for her crimes, she was dealt with.

Antonina Makarova (Tonka the machine gunner) (1921–1979)

In fact, her name was Antonina Makarovna Parfenova, but at school the teacher mixed up her name when writing in the journal, so she was recorded in school documents as Antonina Makarova.

She went to the front as a volunteer, worked as a nurse. During the defense of Moscow, she was captured, from which she was able to escape. For several months she wandered through the forest until she reached the village of Red Well in the company of a soldier Fedchuk, with whom she managed to escape from captivity. Fedchuk's family lived in this village, so he left Makarova, who during their wanderings became his "camping wife".

Now the girl came alone to the village of Lokot, occupied by the German invaders. Here she decided to get a job in the service of the invaders. In all likelihood, the girl wanted a well-fed life after many months of wandering through the forests.

Antonina Makarova was given a machine gun. Now her job was to shoot Soviet partisans.

At the first execution, Makarova was a little confused, but she was poured vodka and things went well. In a local club, after a "hard day's work," Makarova drank vodka and worked as a prostitute, appeasing German soldiers.

According to official figures, she shot more than 1,500 people, and only the names of 168 of the fallen could be restored. This woman didn't mind anything. She gladly took off the clothes she liked from the executed and sometimes complained that there were very large blood stains on the things of the partisans, which were then difficult to remove.

In 1945, Makarova posed as a nurse using forged documents. She got a job in a mobile hospital, where she met the wounded Viktor Ginzbur. Young people registered their relationship, and Makarova took her husband's surname.

They were an exemplary family of the honored, they had two daughters. They lived in the city of Lepel and worked together in a garment factory.

The KGB began looking for Tonka the machine-gunner immediately after the liberation of the village of Lokot from the Germans. For more than 30 years, the investigation has been unsuccessfully checking all women with the name of Antonin Makarov.

The case helped. One of Antonina's brothers was filling out paperwork to travel abroad and gave his sister's real name.

Evidence collection has begun. Makarova was identified by several witnesses, and Tonka the machine-gunner was arrested on her way home from work.

It should be noted that during the investigation, Makarova behaved very calmly. She believed that a lot of time had passed and the sentence she would be given was not very severe.

Her husband and children did not know about the true reason for the arrest and actively began to seek her release, however, when Viktor Ginzburg found out the truth, he left Lepel together.

On November 20, 1978, the court sentenced Antonina Makarova to death. She reacted to the verdict very calmly and immediately began to apply for clemency, but they were all rejected.

Tamara Ivanyutina (? -1987)

In 1986, Ivanyutina got a job as a dishwasher at school. On March 17 and 18, 1987, several school employees and students immediately sought medical help. Four people died immediately, and 9 more were in intensive care in a serious condition.

The investigation came to Tamara Ivanyutina, who, during a search in her apartment, was found to have a toxic solution based on waist.

Further investigation showed that since 1976 the Ivanyutin family had been actively using the waist to eliminate nasty acquaintances and, of course, for selfish purposes.

It turned out that Tamara Ivanyutina poisoned her first husband in order to take possession of his living space, and then remarried. In her second marriage, she already managed to send her father-in-law to the other world and slowly poisoned her husband so that he would not have the desire to cheat on her.

I would like to note that the sister and parents of Tamara Ivanyutina also poisoned many people. The investigation proved 40 poisonings, 13 of which ended in the death of the victims.

Tamara Ivanyutina was sentenced to death, her sister Nina to 15 years in prison, her mother to 13, and her father to 10.

Berta Borodkina (1927–1983)

By a fatal coincidence, the honored worker of trade, Berta Naumovna Borodkina, who did not kill anyone, fell on an equal footing with this mournful one. She was sentenced to death for embezzlement of socialist property on an especially large scale.

In the 1980s, a confrontation unfolded in the Kremlin between the chairman of the KGB, Andropov, and the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Shchelokov. Andropov tried to spin cases of large-scale theft in order to discredit the Ministry of Internal Affairs, in whose jurisdiction was the OBKhSS. At the same time, Andropov tried to neutralize the head of the Kuban - Medunov, who at that time was considered the main contender for the post of General Secretary of the CPSU.

Berta Borodkina since 1974 headed the trust of restaurants and canteens in Gelendzhik. During her "reign" she earned the nickname "Iron Bertha". There is even a legend among the people, they say that Berta Naumovna developed her own special “Gelendzhik-style” meat, which was cooked in seven minutes and had almost the same weight at the exit as raw.

The scale of her theft was simply colossal. Every waiter, bartender and canteen manager in the city was obliged to give her a certain amount of money in order to continue working in the “bread place”. Sometimes the tribute turned out to be simply unbearable, but Iron Bertha was adamant: either work as it should, or give way to another applicant.

Borodkin was arrested in 1982. The investigation revealed that over the years of her leadership of the trust of restaurants and canteens, she stole more than 1,000,000 rubles from the state (at that time it was just a fantastic amount).

In 1982, she was sentenced to death. Berta's sister says that in prison she was tortured and psychotropic drugs were used, as a result of which Borodkina eventually lost her mind. From the former Iron Bertha is not left and. From a blooming woman, she turned into a deep old woman in a short time.

In August 1983, the sentence was carried out.

Women in the USSR sentenced to death

Officially, in all the post-war years, three women were executed in the USSR. The death sentences for the representatives of the weaker sex were handed down, but not carried out. And then the case came to a head.

Who were these women, and for what crimes were they still shot?

The history of the crimes of Antonina Makarova

Incident with a surname

Antonina Makarova was born in 1921 in the Smolensk region, in the village of Malaya Volkovka, into a large peasant family of Makar Parfenov. She studied at a rural school, and it was there that an episode occurred that influenced her future life. When Tonya came to the first grade, because of her shyness, she could not give her last name - Parfyonova. Classmates began to shout “Yes, she is Makarova!”, Meaning that Tony's father's name is Makar.

So, with the light hand of a teacher, at that time almost the only literate person in the village, Tonya Makarova appeared in the Parfyonov family.

The girl studied diligently, with diligence. She also had her own revolutionary heroine -Anka the gunner. This film image had a real prototype - the nurse of the Chapaev division, Maria Popova, who once in battle really had to replace a killed machine gunner.

After graduating from school, Antonina went to study in Moscow, where she was caught by the beginning of World War II. The girl went to the front as a volunteer.

Camping wife of the encircled

The 19-year-old Komsomol member Makarova suffered all the horrors of the infamous "Vyazemsky cauldron". After the most difficult battles, in complete encirclement from the whole unit, only soldier Nikolai Fedchuk was next to the young nurse Tonya. With him, she wandered through the local forests, just trying to survive. They did not look for partisans, they did not try to get through to their own - they fed on whatever they had to, sometimes they stole. The soldier did not stand on ceremony with Tonya, making her his "camping wife". Antonina did not resist - she just wanted to live.

In January 1942, they went to the village of Red Well, and then Fedchuk admitted that he was married and his family lived nearby. He left Tony alone. Tonya was not driven out of the Red Well, but the locals were already full of worries. And the strange girl did not seek to go to the partisans, did not strive to break through to ours, but strove to make love with one of the men who remained in the village. Having set the locals against herself, Tonya was forced to leave.

Killer with pay

Tonya Makarova's wanderings ended near the village of Lokot in the Bryansk region. The notorious Lokot Republic, an administrative-territorial formation of Russian collaborators, operated here. In essence, they were the same German lackeys as in other places, only more clearly formalized.

A police patrol detained Tonya, but they did not suspect a partisan or underground worker of her. She liked the policemen, who took her to their place, gave her a drink, fed and raped her. However, the latter is very relative - the girl, who only wanted to survive, agreed to everything.

Tonya did not play the role of a prostitute for the policemen for long - one day, drunk, they took her out into the yard and put her behind the Maxim machine gun. People stood in front of the machine gun - men, women, old people, children. She was ordered to shoot. For Tony, who had completed not only nursing courses, but also machine gunners, this was not a big deal. True, the dead drunk woman did not really understand what she was doing. But, nevertheless, she coped with the task.

The next day, Makarova learned that she was now an official - an executioner with a salary of 30 German marks and with her bunk. The Lokot Republic ruthlessly fought the enemies of the new order - partisans, underground workers, communists, other unreliable elements, as well as members of their families. The arrested were herded into a barn that served as a prison, and in the morning they were taken out to be shot.

The cell held 27 people, and all of them had to be eliminated in order to make room for new ones. Neither the Germans, nor even the local policemen, wanted to take on this job. And here, Tonya, who appeared out of nowhere with her shooting abilities, came in very handy.

The girl did not go crazy, but on the contrary, she considered that her dream had come true. And let Anka shoot enemies, and she shoots women and children - the war will write everything off! But her life is finally getting better.

1500 lost lives

The daily routine of Antonina Makarova was as follows: in the morning, the execution of 27 people with a machine gun, finishing off the survivors with a pistol, cleaning weapons, in the evening schnapps and dancing in a German club, and at night, love with some pretty German or, at worst, with a policeman.

As a reward, she was allowed to take the belongings of the dead. So Tonya got a bunch of outfits, which, however, had to be repaired - traces of blood and bullet holes immediately interfered with wearing.

However, sometimes Tonya allowed a “marriage” - several children managed to survive, because because of their small stature, the bullets passed over their heads. The children were taken out together with the corpses by the locals, who buried the dead, and handed over to the partisans. Rumors about a female executioner, "Tonka the machine gunner", "Tonka the Muscovite" crawled around the district. Local partisans even announced a hunt for the executioner, but they could not get to her.

In total, about 1,500 people became victims of Antonina Makarova.

By the summer of 1943, Tony's life again took a sharp turn - the Red Army moved to the West, starting to liberate the Bryansk region. This did not bode well for the girl, but then she very conveniently fell ill with syphilis, and the Germans sent her to the rear so that she would not re-infect the valiant sons of Great Germany.

Honored veteran instead of a war criminal

In the German hospital, however, it also soon became uncomfortable - the Soviet troops were approaching so quickly that only the Germans had time to evacuate, and there was no longer any case for accomplices.

Realizing this, Tonya fled the hospital, again finding herself surrounded, but now Soviet. But survival skills were honed - she managed to get documents proving that all this time Makarova was a nurse in a Soviet hospital.

Antonina successfully managed to enter the service in a Soviet hospital, where at the beginning of 1945 a young soldier, a real war hero, fell in love with her. The guy made an offer to Tonya, she agreed, and, having married, the young people after the end of the war left for the Belarusian city of Lepel, to her husband's homeland.

So the female executioner Antonina Makarova disappeared, and the honored veteran Antonina Ginzburg took her place.

She's been looking for thirty years

Soviet investigators learned about the monstrous deeds of "Tonka the machine gunner" immediately after the liberation of the Bryansk region. The remains of about one and a half thousand people were found in mass graves, but only two hundred were identified. They interrogated witnesses, checked, clarified - but they could not attack the trail of the female punisher.

Meanwhile, Antonina Ginzburg led the usual life of a Soviet person - she lived, worked, raised two daughters, even met with schoolchildren, talking about her heroic military past. Of course, without mentioning the deeds of "Tonka the machine gunner".

The KGB spent more than three decades searching for it, but found it almost by accident. A certain citizen Parfenov, going abroad, submitted questionnaires with information about relatives. There, among the solid Parfyonovs, for some reason, Antonina Makarova, by her husband Ginzburg, was listed as a sister.

Yes, how that mistake of the teacher helped Tonya, how many years thanks to it she remained out of reach of justice!

The KGB operatives worked as a jeweler - it was impossible to accuse an innocent person of such atrocities. Antonina Ginzburg was checked from all sides, witnesses were secretly brought to Lepel, even a former policeman-lover. And only after they all confirmed that Antonina Ginzburg was “Tonka the machine gunner”, she was arrested.

She did not deny, she talked about everything calmly, said that she had no nightmares. She did not want to communicate with her daughters or her husband. And the husband, a front-line soldier, ran around the authorities, threatened Brezhnev with a complaint, even at the UN - he demanded the release of his wife. Exactly until the investigators decided to tell him what his beloved Tonya was accused of.

After that, the dashing, brave veteran turned gray and aged overnight. The family disowned Antonina Ginzburg and left Lepel. What these people had to endure, you would not wish on the enemy.

Retribution

Antonina Makarova-Ginzburg was tried in Bryansk in the autumn of 1978. This was the last major trial of traitors in the USSR and the only trial of a female punisher.

Antonina herself was convinced that, due to the prescription of years, the punishment could not be too severe, she even believed that she would receive a suspended sentence. She only regretted that, because of the shame, she again had to move and change jobs. Even the investigators, knowing about the post-war exemplary biography of Antonina Ginzburg, believed that the court would show leniency. Moreover, 1979 was declared the Year of the Woman in the USSR.

However, on November 20, 1978, the court sentenced Antonina Makarova-Ginzburg to capital punishment - execution.

At the trial, her guilt was documented in the murder of 168 people from those whose identities could be established. More than 1,300 remained unknown victims of Tonka the Machine Gunner. There are crimes that cannot be forgiven.

At six in the morning on August 11, 1979, after all requests for clemency were rejected, the sentence against Antonina Makarova-Ginzburg was carried out.

The next two stories - read at the end

Original entry and comments on

War is a terrible time, and it is very difficult to remain human when the lifeless bodies of comrades are nearby. Only one thought pulses in the temples: to be able to survive! This is how monsters are born from good people with good goals. For terrible deeds, three women were officially executed in the post-war years in the USSR. And everyone assumed that they would be pardoned, but no one could forget the rigidity that the weaker sex showed ...

The history of the crimes of Antonina Makarova (1920 - 1979)
And perhaps Antonina's fate would have turned out differently, but only in the first grade there was an unexpected change of surname, which foreshadowed a new round in the girl's life. On the first day at school, due to shyness, she could not give her last name - Parfenova. Classmates began to shout "Yes, she is Makarova!", Meaning that Tony's father's name is Makar. And so she became Antonina Makarova, who already at that time had her own revolutionary heroine - Anka the machine gunner. Even this, years later, does not seem like a strange coincidence, but rather a sign of fate.
The Great Patriotic War found Antonina in Moscow, where she went to study after school. The girl could not remain indifferent to the trouble that happened to her country, so she immediately signed up for the front as a volunteer.
Hoping to help the victims, 19-year-old Komsomol member Makarova experienced all the horrors of the infamous "Vyazemsky cauldron". After the most difficult battles, in complete encirclement from the whole unit, only soldier Nikolai Fedchuk was next to the young nurse Tonya. With him, she wandered through the local forests, he made her his "camping wife", but this is not the worst thing that she had to endure while they tried to survive.

In January 1942, they went to the village of Red Well, and then Fedchuk admitted that he was married and his family lived nearby. He left Tony alone
Tonya decided to stay in the village, but her desire to start a family with a local man quickly turned everyone against her, so she had to leave. Tonya Makarova's wanderings ended near the village of Lokot in the Bryansk region. The infamous "Lokot Republic" - an administrative-territorial formation of Russian collaborators - operated here. In essence, they were the same German lackeys as in other places, only more clearly formalized. A police patrol noticed a new girl, detained her, gave her a drink, fed and raped her. Compared with the horrors of war, this did not seem to the girl something shameful, then she desperately wanted to live.
In fact, the police immediately spotted the girl, but not for the purpose referred to above, but for more dirty work. Once a drunken Tonya was put behind the Maxim heavy machine gun. People stood in front of the machine gun - men, women, old people, children. She was ordered to shoot. For Tony, who took not only nursing courses, but also machine gunners, this was not a big deal, even being very drunk, she coped with the task. Then she did not think about why and why - she was guided by only one thought that throbbed in her head throughout the war: "To live!"

The next day, Makarova found out that she was now an official - an executioner with a salary of 30 German marks and with her bunk
In the Lokot Republic, they ruthlessly fought against the enemies of the new order - partisans, underground workers, communists, other unreliable elements, as well as members of their families. The barn, which served as a prison, was not designed for a large number of prisoners, so every day those arrested were shot, and new ones were driven into their place. Nobody wanted to take on such work: neither the Germans nor the local police, so the appearance of a girl who successfully coped with a machine gun was in the hands of everyone. And Tonya herself was pleased: she did not know who she was killing, for her it was an ordinary job, a daily routine that helped her survive.
Antonina Makarova's work schedule looked something like this: execution in the morning, finishing off survivors with a pistol, cleaning weapons, schnapps and dancing in a German club in the evening, and love with some pretty German at night. The life of the girl seemed like a dream: there is money, everything is fine, even the wardrobe is regularly updated, even if you have to sew up holes every time after the dead.
Sometimes the truth Tonya left the children alive. She fired bullets above their heads, and later local residents took the children along with the corpses from the village to transfer the living to the partisan ranks. Such a scheme, perhaps, appeared because Tonya was tormented by conscience. Rumors about a female executioner, "Tonka the machine-gunner", "Tonka the Muscovite" crawled around. Local partisans even announced a hunt for the executioner, but they could not get to her. In 1943, the girl's life changed dramatically.

On the photo confrontation: the witness identifies Makarova
The Red Army began to liberate the Bryansk region. Antonina realized what awaited her if the Soviet soldiers found her and found out what she was doing. The Germans evacuated their own, but they did not care about such accomplices as Tonya. The girl ran away and ended up surrounded, but already in the Soviet. During the time that she was in the German rear, Tonya learned a lot, now she knew how to survive. The girl managed to get documents confirming that all this time Makarova was a nurse in a Soviet hospital. Then there were not enough people, and she managed to get a job in the hospital. There she met a real war hero who fell desperately in love with her. So the female executioner Antonina Makarova disappeared, and the honored veteran Antonina Ginzburg took her place. After the end of the war, the young people left for the Belarusian city of Lepel, to their husband's homeland.
While Antonina was living her new, correct life, the remains of about one and a half thousand people were found in mass graves in the Bryansk region, Soviet investigators took up the investigation seriously, but only 200 people were identified. The KGB was never able to track down the punisher, until one day a certain Parfyonov decided to cross the border ... In his documents, Tonya Makarova was listed as a sister, so the teacher's mistake helped the woman to hide from justice for more than 30 years.
The KGB could not accuse a man with an ideal reputation, the wife of a brave front-line soldier, an exemplary mother of two children, of horrific atrocities, so they began to act very carefully. They brought witnesses to Lepel, even policemen-lovers, they all recognized Antonina Ginzburg as Tonka the machine-gunner. She was arrested, and she did not deny.
The front-line husband ran around the authorities, threatened Brezhnev and the UN, but exactly until the investigators told him the truth. The family disowned Antonina and left Lepel.

Antonina Makarova-Ginzburg was tried in Bryansk in the fall of 1978
At the trial, Antonina's guilt was proven in 168 murders, and more than 1,300 remained unidentified victims. Antonina herself and the investigators were convinced that, over the years, the punishment could not be too severe, the woman only regretted that she had disgraced herself and would have to change jobs, but on November 20, 1978, the court sentenced Antonina Makarova-Ginzburg to capital punishment - execution.
At six in the morning on August 11, 1979, after all requests for clemency were rejected, the sentence against Antonina Makarova-Ginzburg was carried out.

Berta Borodkina (1927 - 1983)
Berta Borodkina began her career as a waitress in the Gelendzhik catering in 1951. She did not even have a secondary education, but she rose first to a barmaid, then to a manager, and later became the head of a restaurant and canteen trust. She was appointed not by chance, it was not without the participation of the first secretary of the city committee of the CPSU Nikolai Pogodin. Borodkina was not afraid of any revisions, from 1974 to 1982 she was assisted by high-ranking officials, she, in turn, took bribes from her subordinates and transferred them to her patrons. The total amount was about 15,000 rubles, at that time - a lot of money. Employees of the Gelendzhik catering were completely taxed, everyone knew how much money he had to transfer along the chain, as well as what awaited him in case of refusal - the loss of a "bread" position.
The source of illegal income was various frauds that Borodkina put on stream, receiving at least 100,000 rubles from this, for example: sour cream was diluted with water, bread and cereals were added to minced meat, and the strength of vodka and other alcohol was reduced. But it was considered especially profitable to mix cheaper “starka” (rye vodka infused with apple or pear leaves) into expensive Armenian cognac. According to the investigator, even the examination could not establish that the cognac was diluted. It could not do without the usual calculation, the holiday season became a real residential for scammers.

They were nicknamed the resort mafia, it was impossible to get into their ranks, everyone else suffered losses, knowing about all the machinations. The Olympus of left-wing incomes was strengthening, tourists were arriving, but not everyone was so hopelessly blind, so complaints about "underfilling" and shortfalls regularly entered the guest book, but no one cared. The Gorkom's "roof" in the person of the first secretary, as well as the inspectors of the OBKhSS, the head of the region, Medunov, made her invulnerable to the dissatisfaction of the mass consumer.
Borodkina demonstrated a completely different attitude towards high-ranking party and government officials who came to Gelendzhik during the holiday season from Moscow and the Union republics, but here, too, she pursued her own interests first of all - the acquisition of future influential patrons. Among her "friends" can be attributed to the Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU Fyodor Kulakov. She provided Borodkin with the highest ranks not only with rare delicacies, but also with young girls, in general, she did everything possible to make the stay of officials comfortable.
Borodkina did not like her name, she wanted to be called Bella, and she was nicknamed "Iron Bella". The lack of education did not prevent her from skillfully hiding the tails of her expenses, writing off shortcomings. All her work was as transparent as possible from the outside. But this could not go on forever, even those in power could not cover her for so long, although they made good money thanks to Bella's machinations.

Most likely, it was not by chance that Borodkina was on the trail, and everything was set up by those very first persons, however, Bella was arrested not for fraud, but for distributing pornography. The prosecutor's office received a statement from a local resident that in one of the cafes, pornographic films were secretly shown to selected guests. During interrogations, the organizers of underground viewings admitted that the director of the trust agreed, and part of the money from the proceeds went to her. Thus, Borodkina herself was charged with complicity in this offense and taking a bribe.
During a search in Bella's apartment, they found various precious jewelry, furs, crystal products, sets of bed linen, which were then in short supply, in addition, large amounts of dengue were unsuccessfully hidden in different places: batteries, bricks, etc. The total amount seized during the search amounted to more than 500,000 rubles.

"Iron Bella" threatened the investigation and waited for release, but high officials did not stand up ...
In the early 1980s, investigations began in the Krasnodar Territory of numerous criminal cases related to large-scale manifestations of bribery and theft, which received the generalized name of the Sochi-Krasnodar case. The owner of the Kuban Medunov, a close friend of the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU Leonid Brezhnev and Secretary of the Central Committee Konstantin Chernenko, interfered with the work of the investigation, but with the election of KGB Chairman Yuri Andropov, the fight against corruption took a completely different turn. Many were shot for embezzlement, and Medunov was simply fired. The head of the party organization of Gelendzhik Pogodin disappeared. No one else could help her, and she began to confess ...
Bella's testimony took up 20 volumes, another 30 criminal cases were initiated, and she named difficult names. During the investigation, Borodkina tried to feign schizophrenia. But the forensic medical examination recognized her game as talented, and Borodkina was found guilty of repeatedly receiving bribes totaling 561,834 rubles. 89 kop.
Thus ended the case of the director of the trust of restaurants and canteens in the city of Gelendzhik, the honored worker of trade and public catering of the RSFSR Berta Borodkina, who knew too much about high-ranking people and flaunted it. Then she was silent forever.

Tamara Ivanyutina (1941 - 1987)
In 1986, Tamara, using a fake work book, got a job in a school cafeteria in Kyiv. She wanted to live well, so she looked for ways to take food home to feed herself and the cattle she kept. Tamara worked as a dishwasher, and began to punish those who, in her opinion, behaved badly, and especially those who reprimanded her or suspected of stealing food. Both adults and children fell under her wrath. The victims were a school party organizer (died) and a chemistry teacher (survived). They prevented Ivanyutina from stealing food from the catering department. Pupils of the 1st and 5th grades were also poisoned, who asked her for the remains of cutlets for pets. This story became known rather quickly.
How did it all turn out? Once 4 people were in intensive care. All were diagnosed with intestinal infections and flu after lunch in the same school cafeteria. Everything would be fine, but only after a while the patients began to lose their hair, and later death occurred. Investigators interviewed the survivors and quickly established who was involved in the case. During the searches of the employees of the dining room at the house, Clerici's liquid was found in Tamara, which was the cause of the death of visitors. Such a crime, as Tamara Ivanyutina explained, she committed due to the fact that sixth-graders who were having lunch refused to arrange chairs and tables. She decided to punish them and poisoned them. However, she later stated that the confession was made under pressure from the investigators. She refused to testify.

Everyone knew about Tamara's case at that time. It horrified the visitors of all the canteens of the union. It turned out that not only Tamara, but also all members of her family had been using a highly toxic solution to deal with unwanted people for 11 years. Serial poisoners went unpunished for a long time.
Tamara began her murderous activity when she realized that it was possible to get rid of a person without attracting any attention at all. So she got an apartment from her first husband, who died suddenly. She did not want to kill her second husband, but only poured poison on him to reduce sexual activity. The victims were the spouse's parents: Tamara wanted to live on their land.
Tamara's sister - Nina Matsibora - used the same liquid to get an apartment from her husband. And the girls' parents killed relatives, neighbors in a communal apartment, animals that did not please them.

At the trial, the family was charged with numerous poisonings, including fatal ones.
The court found that for 11 years the criminal family, for mercenary motives, as well as out of personal hostility, committed murders and attempts to deliberately take the life of various people with the help of the so-called Clerici liquid - a highly toxic solution based on a potent poisonous substance - thallium. The total number of victims reached 40 people, 13 of which were fatal, and these are only recorded cases about which the investigation managed to learn something. The process dragged on for a year, during which time it was possible to attribute about 20 assassination attempts to Tamara.
In her last speech, Ivanyutina did not admit her guilt in episodes. While still in jail, she said: in order to achieve what you want, you do not need to write any complaints. It is necessary to be friends with everyone and treat them. And especially for malicious people to mix poison. Ivanyutin was declared sane and sentenced to death. Accomplices were assigned different prison terms. So, sister Nina was sentenced to 15 years. Her subsequent fate is unknown. The mother received 13 and the father 10 years in prison. Parents died in prison.

In 1987, the Soviet Union was shaken by a horrific crime: a school dishwasher in Kyiv poisoned 20 people. Her name was Tamara Ivanyutina, and she became the third and last woman in the USSR who received capital punishment for her atrocities.

Dreams of wealth

Tamara Maslenko was born in 1941. From childhood, her parents inspired her with the idea that the main thing in life is material well-being. And little Tamara dreamed that in the future she would bathe in luxury and drive a black Volga.

After graduating from school, Tamara married a truck driver. Drivers at that time did not receive the worst money, but Tamara was much less interested in the salary of her betrothed than his apartment. The mercenary wife did not want to share property with anyone.

On one of the flights, Tamara's husband felt unwell. He stopped the car and went for a swim in a nearby river. As he was drying off, he found a tuft of his hair on a towel. The trucker was able to get to the house, where he died of a heart attack. Then no one suspected Tamara.

After a short time, she married Oleg Ivanyutin. His parents owned a country house and a large plot of land, which Tamara had her eye on. First, she sent her husband's father to the other world, who died after tasting the soup from the daughter-in-law. The father-in-law complained of malaise in the legs and pain in the heart. The mother-in-law survived her husband by only a few days: at the funeral, Ivanyutina gave her a glass of water with poison.

She intended to convert the site of the deceased old people into a pig farm. There was only one problem - to get hold of food for the pigs. In the Soviet society of the times of “developed socialism”, petty theft in the workplace was a common occurrence, so Tamara decided to get a job in the school cafeteria, where she could steal food.

Deadly breakfasts

Dishwashers were not paid decent money, and there were very few people willing to do such work. Therefore, despite the boorish and rude behavior, Ivanyutina was not fired. Then look for a new person who knows how much. Everyone around irritated Ivanyutin: one said the wrong thing, the other did the wrong thing, the third looked askance. The vengeful woman did not forget any of this.

Shortly after Ivanyutina appeared in the dining room, four people thundered into the hospital with mysterious symptoms: two teachers and two students. One of the victims complained of hair loss. But the health workers did not take these complaints into account.

Six months later another tragedy struck. This time - with a dietitian Natalya Kukharenko. The poor woman's legs were numb and her heart ached. Unfortunately, it was not possible to save her.

The largest poisoning occurred in March 1987 - then 14 people were immediately taken away from the school in an ambulance. The preliminary diagnosis is influenza. The symptoms are familiar: leg pain and hair loss. The treatment did not give results, and then the doctors began to lean towards the version of poisoning.

By interviewing witnesses and the victims themselves, it turned out that they all dined later than others, ate soup. Law enforcement officers who became interested in this case decided to exhume the remains of Kukharenko. As a result, thallium, a highly toxic heavy metal, was found in the body of the deceased woman.

Investigators suggested that the substance was used to bait rodents and could have been ingested by someone's negligence. But this version was refuted in the sanitary and epidemiological station.

Then the police began to check the personal data of the school staff. It turned out that the dishwasher worked on a fake work book. Ivanyutina began to be carefully checked. Strange details of past poisonings with similar symptoms flared up.

During a search of the poisoner, they found the very solution of thallium. A friend from a geological exploration expedition supplied her with a deadly substance. Allegedly for persecution of rodents.

Without a shadow of remorse

During interrogations, Ivanyutina did not regret what she had done. Two sixth graders pissed her off because they didn't want to move the tables in the cafeteria, others "fell out of favor" because they asked for food for the kitten. But the poisoner needed the products to feed the pigs.

The psychiatrists who examined the criminal recognized her as sane, albeit with extremely high self-esteem and an exaggerated craving for wealth. These character traits came from their parents: Anton and Maria Maslenko purposefully raised their daughter in this way, and, as it turned out later, they used the same technique, cracking down on people they didn’t like - they simply added poison to their food.

The court found Ivanyutina guilty of 20 poisonings, nine of them were fatal. The offender did not admit her guilt in any of the episodes. She only regretted that she had not been able to buy a black Volga.

The attacker's mother and father were sentenced to 13 and 10 years respectively. They ended up in prison. Ivanyutina herself received the highest penalty - execution. The sentence was carried out at the end of 1987. She became the last woman executed in the USSR.