Whether Sonya is a golden pen. Life story - Sofia Bluvshtein "Sonya Golden Hand"

The famous adventuress and thief Sonya Zolotaya Ruchka, real name Sheindlya-Sura Leibova Solomoniak-Blyuvshtein, the daughter of a small moneylender from the Warsaw district, was born in 1846 and lived in freedom for a little over 40 years (the date of her death is unknown). But during this time, thanks to her resourcefulness and ingenuity, she managed to become a living legend.

Possessing an incredible imagination, she mastered the skill of transformation so much that turning from a nun into a society lady (from a woman to a man, from a maid to a mistress) was a piece of cake for her. And if you add to this her extraordinary attractiveness (she was not particularly beautiful, but she had regular facial features, a good figure and sexually hypnotic eyes) and the ability to outshine the eyes of any mortal, then it becomes clear how this woman managed to pull off the most incredible machinations.

Sophia started stealing when she was still a girl. At first it was petty theft, then she retrained and began to play for money, eventually turning into one of the most brilliant swindlers. The main places of her trade were hotels, jewelry stores, entrances... Moreover, she “worked” not only in Russia, but also in some European capitals.

Who could suspect an attractive, dressed to the nines woman living on someone else’s passport in the most respectable hotels in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Odessa, Warsaw, etc.?

Sonya even developed special method hotel thefts, which she called “guten morgen”.

Its essence was that early in the morning she entered the rooms, having previously put felt shoes on her shoes, and while the unsuspecting owners were sleeping in the sleep of the righteous, she “raked out” all the cash and other valuables. If it happened that the owner of the number suddenly woke up, then she, without hesitating for a minute and without even looking in his direction, began to undress, allegedly having the wrong number. (Of course, few people would think of suspecting a gorgeously dressed lady, hung from head to toe with jewelry, of stealing.) Then, feigning extreme embarrassment and making a bunch of apologies, she disappeared outside the door.

One day, following the developed method, Sonya found herself in the room young man in one of the provincial hotels. Looking around, she saw a young man sleeping on the bed. His pale and exhausted face struck her so much by its resemblance to Wolf (her lover, whose sharp face was never prone to moral suffering) that she decided to figure out what, exactly, was the matter. On the table there was a revolver and a small stack of letters, among them the thief found a letter to her mother. Sonya read it and learned that the young man had committed theft of government money, he was exposed, and now, in order to avoid shame, he is forced to shoot himself. Taking pity on her “comrade in the trade,” she put 500 rubles on the table and quietly left.

This and some other actions of Sonya indicate that kindness and compassion were not alien to her. Once, having committed a theft, and then read in the newspaper that this time her victim was the widow of a minor culprit and the mother of two daughters (Sonka stole 5 thousand rubles from her - all that was left after the death of her husband), Zolotaya Ruchka, who herself had two daughters , was imbued with repentance and sent the poor woman the amount stolen from her, providing her with an accompanying note: “Dear Madam! I read in the newspapers about the grief that befell you, which I was the cause of due to my unbridled passion for money, I am sending you your 5 thousand rubles and I advise you to hide your money deeper in the future. Once again I ask for your forgiveness, I send my regards to your poor orphans.”

As for theft, Sonya had practically no equal in this activity. So, one day the police managed to uncover one of the thief’s hideouts - her apartment in Odessa. Sonya's dress, specially adapted for shoplifting, was found in it. In fact, it was not even a dress, but only its semblance - a fairly spacious bag, the bins of which could easily accommodate a small roll of expensive fabric.

The thief operated with particular skill in jewelry stores: in plain sight, with the help of special agents acting as a red rag, she skillfully hid precious stones under long nails or quietly replaced real jewelry with fake ones, putting the first ones in flower pots. The next day she calmly removed them from the hiding place.

Train passengers often became victims of Sonya. As a rule, she “worked” in first-class carriages, where one could meet bankers, landowners, rich foreigners and even generals (for example, the famous case of General Frolov, from whom Sonya stole no less than 213 thousand rubles).

The thefts in the compartment were carried out as follows: under the guise of some marquise, countess (rich heiress), Sonya won over her fellow travelers, pretending that they made a strong impression on her (fortunately, the thief was better in appearance than any countess), and then Having waited for the victim to fall asleep in the sleep of the righteous, the imaginary aristocrat calmly did her dirty deed. However, often fellow travelers did not fall asleep for a long time, overexcited by the coquetry of the frivolous “aristocrat,” and then all the sleeping pills available at that time were used: from intoxicating perfumes, opium in wine or tobacco to chloroform.

As mentioned above, the adventuress perfectly mastered the skill of transformation: she skillfully used makeup, false eyebrows, wigs, wore expensive French hats and original fur capes, and loved jewelry (she had a special weakness for them).

Sonya was used to living on a grand scale, and therefore did not skimp not only on expensive outfits, but also on vacation (especially since she got all the money quite easily). Posing as a noble person, Sonya preferred to relax in Crimea, Pyatigorsk or abroad - in Marienbad. For this occasion she always had several business cards and romantic stories.

For a long time, the Golden Hand worked alone, but over time she got tired of it and organized her own gang, which included her ex-husbands(the first husband was the merchant Rosenbad, from whom the thief had a daughter), relatives, thief in law Berezin and Martin Jacobson (Swedish-Norwegian subject). It is interesting that all members of this small criminal organization unconditionally obeyed their leader, trusting her experience and skill.

It should be noted that such cooperation turned out to be beneficial for everyone: it was easier for Sonya to work, and her “colleagues” received good money for their help (having run away from her first husband with 500 rubles, the thief subsequently gave him tips many times, and as a result he received much more , what she stole from him - so both were not at a loss). As mentioned above, the backbone of the gang consisted of the former legal husbands of the Golden Hand. But there was one among them - Wolf Bromberg (nicknamed Vladimir Kochubchik), a twenty-year-old sharper and raider who had inexplicable power over her, and therefore could manipulate her. Sonya not only succumbed to his persuasion and parted with large sums of money, but also took unjustified risks. But it became increasingly difficult for her to disappear into the crowd, since the police of many cities were looking for the famous thief Western Europe and Russia.

In addition, Sonya’s character deteriorated greatly, she became greedy and nervous. It was even rumored that the Golden Hand had stopped neglecting pickpockets.

It is not clear what Sonya found in Wolf: he was not handsome, although he could well be classified as handsome. Moreover, he was the only one who dared to set her up, and in the most shameless way. On Sonya’s name day (September 30), Wolf decorated her neck with a velvet cloth with a blue diamond, which was taken as collateral from a jeweler (as collateral, the fraudster provided a false mortgage on part of a non-existent house; the difference of four thousand rubles was paid by the jeweler in cash). The next day he returned the diamond, citing that his beloved did not like the jewelry, and half an hour later the jeweler discovered a fake.

Later it became known that the house that acted as collateral was no longer there. When the deceived jeweler broke into Wolf’s house, he blamed everything on Sonya, accusing her of forging the mortgage and of providing him with a counterfeit. For this, Sonya was brought to trial, which took place from December 10 to 19, 1880.

During the trial, the Golden Hand behaved as if it was not about her at all, but about a completely different person, and she, an honest woman living on the means of her husband and familiar fans, was accused of something that she actually did not commit. However, there were enough people who testified not in Sonya’s favor to deprive her of her property and send her to remote areas of Siberia - to the remote village of Luzhki, Irkutsk province, from where the thief and swindler managed to escape in 1885. But, apparently, happiness turned away from her; Five months later she was recaptured and sentenced to 40 lashes and three years of hard labor.

But even then Sonya did not lose her composure, but using her charm, she made the prison guard fall in love with her. Succumbing to Sonya's charms, he released her into the wild. A new arrest occurred four months later. This time, the Golden Hand had to spend time on Sakhalin.

Since the swindler could not remain without a man for a long time, she even at the stage became acquainted with the seasoned criminal Blokha, and upon arrival at the place she often saw him, paying the warden for each meeting. Despite the short duration of the secret meetings, Sonya and Blokha managed to develop an escape plan. And, although the plan proposed by Blokha was much easier and safer, Sonya insisted on her own, more risky: she always had a special passion for theatrical actions.

As expected, the escape was unsuccessful. Blokha was caught first, and then Sonya. Luckily for her, she turned out to be pregnant, and the doctors decided not to take any additional punitive measures against her. As for her accomplice, he was “awarded” with 40 lashes and shackles (leg and hand).

The child from Flea was never born. Apparently, the difficult conditions of detention took their toll, but Sonya did not calm down and continued her machinations. As a result, she was repeatedly accused of fraud and was even involved as a leader in the murder of a settler shopkeeper. When in 1891 she tried to escape a second time, she was handed over to the cruel executioner Komlev, who inflicted 15 lashes on the naked prisoner to the approving cries of other criminals present.

However, no matter how much pain she felt, Sonya did not utter a sound. Silently she crawled to the cell and fell onto the bunk. After that, she wore shackles for two years and eight months and was kept separately from everyone else, in a tiny solitary cell with a tiny barred window. At that time, a lot of people came to admire the famous criminal, among whom were famous writers, journalists, foreigners. But since the “local landmark” did not like to talk about herself (and if she did, she was confused or lied), visitors tried to at least take pictures with her.

At the end of her term, Sonya was supposed to remain on Sakhalin as a free settler. At one time she even ran a café-chantan, where she sold alcoholic drinks under the counter and organized dances. At that time, her partner was the cruel recidivist Nikolai Bogdanov, life with whom seemed to her much worse than hard labor. When Sonya no longer had the strength to endure his atrocities, she (being sick and exhausted) made one more, last attempt to escape.

The Golden Hand could not go far; the guards soon found her. A few days later, one of the most famous swindlers and thieves died.

“Sonka - the Golden Hand” is a woman who went down in history, becoming famous for her very dubious talent. It’s hard not to be amazed at how easily this small and very charming person could serious men, guardians of the law and prison officers.

To this day, films are being made and written about her and her talents. interesting books. The nickname “Sonka - the Golden Hand”, which Sofya Ivanovna Bluvshtein had, spoke for itself.

The Great Fraud of Russia - “Sonka - The Golden Hand”

In the second half of the nineteenth century, Russia stood in the forefront among the most prosperous and richest powers in the whole world. Every eighth inhabitant of the planet knew Russian. There were external enemies from whom a reliable guard on the border of a vast state protected. Internal enemies were revolutionaries - terrorists and various types of criminal elements who harm civilians.

Just such a prominent representative of this community was a woman named Sofya Bluvshtein. She was the most famous among the representatives of the underworld Tsarist Russia. All printed publications told about the thieving adventures of the legendary criminal. Interesting stories passed from generation to generation. It was impossible to buy a postcard with her image. When silent films appeared on screens, the main character of many films was Sonya.

Sofya Ivanovna Bluvshtein: biography

“Sonka the Golden Hand” was far from a beauty. Here are the descriptions preserved in the documents (quote): “Thin in appearance, 1 meter 53 cm tall, pockmarked face, moderate nose with wide nostrils, wart on the right cheek, curly hair, light brown, brown eyes, mobile, too impudent, talkative.” . This is how Sophia Bluvshtein was at that time, whose biography has been preserved unreliably.

Sophia Solomoniak - Bluvshtein - Shtendel did not describe her life accurately, which is why information about her birth cannot be found anywhere. Official court documents have records that the adventurer was born in 1846 in the Warsaw province, in the town of Powązki. In 1899 she was baptized. She received an education and could speak several foreign languages ​​fluently.

Sophia got married more than once. Her last husband, Mikhail Yakovlevich Blyuvshtein, was an avid card player. Among all the surnames she used were: Rubinstein, Rosenbad, Shkolnik and Brener.

In the sixties and seventies, this woman was engaged in theft in the cities of Russia and Europe. In 1880, Sonya was again arrested for fraud. She was brought to Moscow. The Moscow court decided to exile her to the Irkutsk region, to the remote village of Luzhki. In 1881 she escaped from there.

In 1885, there was another arrest in Smolensk for theft of property on an especially large scale and a sentence to three years of hard labor in prisons in the European part of Russia. And on June 30, the criminal escaped from Smolensk prison. In 1888, she served another sentence in the Aleksandrovsky fast.

Chekhov met with Sofia Bluvshtein in 1890. He described her this way in his book: “...Thin, small, with gray hair and a very rumpled face. There are shackles on his hands. On the bunk lay a gray sheepskin coat, which served as clothing and at the same time was a bed. She walked and seemed to be sniffing the air all the time, like a mouse in a mousetrap. Looking at her, it was hard to believe that just so recently she was famous for her beauty...”

In 1898, “Sonka the Golden Hand,” having freed herself, went to Khabarovsk. In July 1899, after being baptized according to the Orthodox rite, she acquired the name Maria.

Sofya Ivanovna Bluvshtein: children

All that is known about this lady’s children is that she has three of them. The first Sura-Rivka Isaakovna, born in 1865. Her mother left her and her father Isaac Rosenbad, who lived in the Warsaw province of Powązki, took her into her care. What happened to the child in the future is unknown.

Tabba Mikhailovna, the second daughter, (last name Bluvshtein) was born in 1875. She became an operetta actress in Moscow.

Bluvshtein Mikhelina Mikhailovna is Sophia’s third daughter. Year of birth - 1879, also an operetta actress in Moscow.

Criminal talent

Sonya did not waste herself on trifles. She prepared diligently for every new project she planned, trying to predict all the surprises, weighing everything down to the smallest detail. For the clever swindler, there were no state borders or high fences. The young woman knew how to start a conversation with dexterity, and she was accepted into society everywhere.

After every successful case, the brave thief liked to relax in Marienbad, imagining herself as a baroness. Sonya always preferred to remain an aristocrat in the criminal world. Her lovers were prominent swindlers from St. Petersburg.

She loved to “work” alone, sometimes she took on assistants, even created her own gang and became a member of a club of criminals called “Jacks of Hearts.”

Quotes from Sofia Bluvshtein

The famous director wrote a wonderful book, which very interestingly describes the life story of “Sonka the Golden Hand”.

Below are quotes from Sofia Bluvshtein.

“My dear mother... I’m so lonely, it’s so hard without you. Dad lives with the rude and uncouth Evdokia, who came into our heads from nowhere. For this redneck, the main thing is that dad steals more.”

“I think He rewarded me... I take risks. But this is the life that drags me forward with such force that my head is spinning all the time.”

And the most important saying is known to many.

What did you steal?

Gold, or what?

Not only, more diamonds.

This is not theft. Pampering.

What is theft?

Theft is when souls are stolen.

The last years of the life of “Sonka - the Golden Hand”

As they say, in last years During her life, Sofia Bluvshtein was in Moscow with her daughters, even though they were ashamed of their unlucky mother. She could not practice her long-time profession of thieves, since her health was undermined by hard labor.

But there was a case when the Moscow police discovered rather strange robberies. In jewelry stores, the monkey snatched rings or diamonds from the hands of visitors and ran away. They guessed that the famous Sonya brought the monkey from Odessa.

It is unknown when exactly Sophia died. There are only legends. According to one version, she lived in Odessa until old age and died there in 1947, according to another, she died in 1920 in Moscow and was buried there.

There are other inaccurate data: she lived in Primorye until her death, and they also say that representatives of the criminal world took her body to Moscow and buried it at the Vagankovskoye cemetery.

Nobody really knows how things really were. Of course, it is clear that Sofya Bluvshtein has definitely passed the end of her life, but “Sonka the Golden Hand” lives on the planet even in our century.

The power of the monument to Sofia Bluvshtein

Why, in Moscow, there is the grave of the legendary thief - swindler "Sonka - the Golden Hand". It is made of marble in the form of a sculpture - a woman without arms and head. Time has taken its toll: the marble is cracked, the fence is torn to pieces.

There is a belief that even after death Sonya helps those who ask for it. Near the grave there is always a crowd, thieves come, young girls visit with the hope of helping to find Good work, and others - just for an excursion.

The folds of the dress, made of stone, are covered with black marker: “Dear Sonya, help me get rich”, “I really want money”, “Help me get well, become happy” and many others. At the foot of the monument there are fresh flowers.

Sonya's life was strange, everything seemed to be going the other way around. I became an actress not on stage, as I dreamed, but in train cars; love did not elevate me, but pulled me down. You can end your recollection of “Sonya the Golden Hand” with these words: Sofya Bluvshtein was and remains an example of what Jews can give to the criminal scene.

In 1868, the famous queen of thieves came to Dinaburg, where she married a local rich man, an old Jewish man, Shelom Shkolnik.

How did the nickname “Sonka the Golden Hand” come about?

Queen of Crime Sonka the Goldhand She never offended those who were poorer, but she believed that it was a sin not to profit at the expense of big bankers, jewelers and rogue merchants.
Her thieving career unfolded simultaneously with the development railways. Starting with petty thefts in third-class carriages, the talented thief moved to class compartment carriages. Therefore, it is not surprising that Sonya the Golden Hand ended up in Dinaburg. Here in 1868 she married an old, wealthy Jew, Shelom Shkolnik, who was destined to briefly become her second husband. Having robbed the poor man, the charming swindler leaves her Dinaburg husband for card sharper, whom she soon exchanged for the famous railway thief Michel Bluvshtein. However, she did not wear these marriage shackles for long. The husband, who regularly found either military men or aristocrats in the marriage bed, could not stand it and filed for divorce.

Your nickname "Sonka the Goldhand" The thief received, for her wild luck, charming hands with sleek, feathered fingers. Under her long nails she hid precious stones stolen from jewelry stores. Under her bag-style dress, Sonya managed to carry whole rolls of fabric out of the shops. She invented an original method of hotel theft, called “guten morgen”, or simply “good morning”. Dressed in elegant outfits, Sonya checked into decent hotels and carefully studied the guests, noticing the rich and the careless. Having identified a victim, early in the morning she calmly entered the rooms in silent felt shoes and took out all the most valuable things. If the guest woke up, the thief pretended that she had the wrong number, blushed, flirted - for the sake of business, she could even sleep with the victim. Moreover, Sonya did it so sincerely and naturally that it was impossible to resist her.

We can say that her life path was paved with duped men.

Sonya the Golden Hand, creator of the thieves' common fund

According to eyewitnesses, Sonya the Golden Hand was far from beautiful. This is how she was described in police documents: “Thin, height 1 m 53 cm, pockmarked face, moderate nose with wide nostrils, wart on the right cheek, light brown hair on the forehead, curly, brown eyes, mobile, impudent, talkative.”

Nevertheless, Sonya enjoyed great success among men. Her charm was akin to witchcraft. Without receiving an education, Sonya easily spoke five languages. Traveling around Europe, she introduced herself as either a countess or a baroness, and no one had the slightest doubt.

The right to be considered the birthplace of the famous swindler is claimed by Odessa-mama, gangster Petersburg and the town of Powonzki, Warsaw district. Her real name at birth was Sheindlya-Sura Leibova Solomoniak. Sonechka’s family, let’s face it, was still the same: buying stolen goods, smuggling, and selling counterfeit money were commonplace. Her older sister Feiga, who had three husbands, was also a thief, but she was far from her younger sister.

At the age of 18, in Warsaw, Sonya married a certain Rosenbad, gave birth to a daughter, Sura-Rivka, and immediately left her husband, robbing him goodbye. With a certain recruit Rubinstein, she fled to Russia, where her crazy career as a thief began. In January 1866, she was first detained by the police on charges of stealing a suitcase, but Sonya cleverly got out that she had grabbed the suitcase by mistake. It was at this time that Sonya the Golden Hand made her first attempt to create a gangster brigade in St. Petersburg, for which she brought the famous thief Levit Sandanovich to the city. It is believed that the idea of ​​the first thieves' common fund and helping comrades in trouble with money collected in a pool belongs to Sonya herself. Sonya the Golden Hand also ran schools for young thieves in Odessa and London.

Sonya always acted alone, disdained to deal with small matters and, despite the fact that she skillfully knew how to transform, could not stand impromptu speeches. She carefully prepared and thought about each case.

The lovely thief invented a method of stealing by distracting the victim for sex - this method later became known as “hipes”. The "hipes" usually worked in pairs - the woman would bring the client to her room and please him in bed, and her partner (a "cat" looking after the interests of his "cat") would clean out the pockets of the unlucky lover's clothes. The scammer worked inventively and artistically. It was simply impossible to suspect a lady dressed in luxurious furs and gold jewelry. It used to be that Sonya would go into jewelry stores with a trained monkey. Pretending that she was choosing diamonds, she secretly gave a pebble to the animal. The monkey obediently swallowed it or put it behind its cheek, and at home the jewel was removed from the pot. Somehow in jewelry shop a rich lady came in. While looking at the most expensive diamond, she accidentally dropped it on the floor. While the salesman, sweating from exertion, crawled on his hands and knees, looking for the stone, the customer left the store. There was a hole in the heel of her shoe filled with resin. So simply, stepping on the diamond, Sonya did her next job.

Volodya Kochubchik

But soon luck turned away from her - Sonya fell in love. The handsome young thief Volodya Kochubchik (in the world Wolf Bromberg, who began stealing at the age of eight) quickly adapted to living at the expense of his mistress. He lost everything Sonya “earned” at cards, but she had to be nervous, take risks, make mistakes, until in the end she got caught. Although there is a version that Volodya Kochubchik himself sold and handed over Sonya to the police.

After a high-profile trial in Moscow, the Golden Pen was convicted and sent to Siberia. The thief fled, and again all of Russia started talking about her. Sonya continued to fleece rich fools. After several high-profile robberies of jewelers, she was sentenced to hard labor, from where she tried to escape three times and failed three times. After the second time, she was caught, punished with fifteen lashes (women were never punished so cruelly in hard labor) and shackled, which she wore for three whole years.

And Volodya Kochubchik, who betrayed her, was released six months after the trial and went to Bessarabia, where he very profitably invested the jewels Sonya had stolen into houses and vineyards.

Monument from the lads made of white marble

There are many legends about Sonya's death. Her life in hard labor allegedly did not end, and she died in 1947 in Odessa as a very old woman. According to another version, she died in 1920 in Moscow and was buried at the famous Vagankovsky cemetery.

At her grave, with money from Rostov, Odessa, St. Petersburg and even London thieves, an unusual monument was erected by Italian craftsmen: a female figurine made of white marble stands near tall forged palm trees. True, over the past twenty years, out of three palm trees, only one has remained, and Sonya is standing without a head. They say that during a drunken brawl the statue was dropped and the broken head was carried away.

There are always fresh flowers and coins scattered on the grave, and the pedestal of the monument is covered with inscriptions: “Solntsevskaya lads will not forget you”, “Yerevan bandits are mourning”, “Rostov remembers everything”. There are also such: “Sonya, teach us to live”, “Mother, give happiness to Zhigan”, “Help, Sonya, we are going to work”...