His son, Yakov, unhesitatingly followed in his footsteps.īy the age of 27, Kuznetsov was already arrested and convicted ten times. Koshelkov, whose real name was Kuznetsov, came from a family of a thief: His father was a convict sentenced to indefinite exile in Siberia for numerous armed robberies. The criminal who robbed the leader of the Russian Revolution Vladimir Lenin - this is how this mobster and thief from Moscow went down in history. Once, he allegedly sold his shackles at an ad hoc auction at the Odessa opera house on the day of his yet another release from prison in May 1917.Īs the Bolshevik Revolution spread across the Russian Empire, Kotovsky gained so much influence with the new authorities that when he was murdered in 1925 by a former associate of Mishka Yaponchik, the authorities threw a solemn state funeral and buried the ex-mobster in a mausoleum erected anew specifically for this purpose in 1925 in a settlement of Birzula (now the city of Podolsk, Ukraine). Kotovsky was arrested multiple times, but always found a way to escape prison. Likes to eat well and exquisitely,” described a secret police dispatch of the mobster. Dresses decently and can play the real gentleman. Tries to make acquaintances and relationships in the appropriate circle… In conversation, noticeably stutters. He can pass himself off as a manager of estates, or even a landowner, a machinist, a gardener, an employee of a company or enterprise, a representative for the preparation of food for the army and so on. In his treatment, he tries to be elegant with everyone, which easily attracts the sympathy of all those who have communication with him. “ leaves the impression of quite an intelligent person, smart and energetic. Kotovsky had strong charisma that helped him control and lead other criminals and later paved the way for him into the Soviet political and military leadership. This image of a respectable political figure, decorated with numerous medals for heroism in combat, may have seemed incompatible with the notorious reputation of a violent mobster, yet Kotovsky excelled in both these roles.Īt first, he justified his raids on merchants and their apartments, landowners and officials, and even banks, citing the revolutionary struggle as his cover.

However, the thugs’ plan did not work out as intended and Yaponchik was killed by a Red Army detachment that had stopped the train on August 4, 1919. The defectors hijacked a passenger train intending to return to their native Odessa. Their short-lived “marriage” ended in a split when Yaponchik and his mobsters had had enough of their share in the Russian Civil War and disbanded their ill-disciplined regiment that consisted of criminals, gangsters and anarchists.

His inner appetite for anarchy, looting and heist did not correspond well to the Bolshevik’s plans of subjecting this Odessa gangster to their new hierarchy. Mishka was screaming like he was stabbed,” said Utesov of his acquaintance.Īlthough Yaponchik did not sympathize with the White movement - anti-communist forces who fought the Bolsheviks after the 1917 revolution - he was a misfit for the Red Army, too. There was a case when one of his subjects bit his finger. Surprisingly, Utesov also noted that Yaponchik did not stand the sight of blood - a rather odd weakness for a person of his occupation. In American conditions, he would undoubtedly have made a great career and could have firmly stepped on the toes of even Al Capone,” said renowned Soviet singer Leonid Utesov of the gangster, who he knew as both were born in Odesa and shared Jewish origin. Bold, enterprising, he managed to get his hands on all the Odessa thugs. This made him the king of the criminal world on the Odessa scale. “Yaponchik has good organizational skills.

During his prime years - 1917-1919 - Yaponchik and his gang raided stores, factories and even a brothel that the mobsters adopted for their needs, converting the lewd establishment into their headquarters. A picture of Mikhail Vinnitsky, the legendary criminal killer of Odesa, widely known as Mishka Yaponchik and Babel's BenyaĪudaciously bold and incorrigible, this daredevil rushed into the 20th century’s underworld with a splash loud enough to reverberate in popular culture a whole century later.

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